Signal sighting on the Up Fylde near Preston

[S&CLER]

Travelling along Tom Benson Way, the road that occupies part of the former 4-track Fylde lines approaching Preston, I noticed a series of posts supporting steel baffles (is that the right word? if not, what is?) alongside the up Fylde line near the junction of Tom Benson Way and Fylde Road. Am I correct in assuming that these are designed to prevent drivers seeing the traffic lights at the adjacent road junction and mistaking them for rail signals in the dark? Are there any other places on the network where similar measures are needed?

 

[swt_passenger]

Travelling along Tom Benson Way, the road that occupies part of the former 4-track Fylde lines approaching Preston, I noticed a series of posts supporting steel baffles (is that the right word? if not, what is?) alongside the up Fylde line near the junction of Tom Benson Way and Fylde Road. Am I correct in assuming that these are designed to prevent drivers seeing the traffic lights at the adjacent road junction and mistaking them for rail signals in the dark? Are there any other places on the network where similar measures are needed?

I’ve seen them here and there, there’s a local example to me at Fratton down end, where there’s a lot of road signals around a junction (signalled roundabout in fact) above track level.
Sometimes they have similar plates to obscure other railway signals.

 

[driver9000]

Travelling along Tom Benson Way, the road that occupies part of the former 4-track Fylde lines approaching Preston, I noticed a series of posts supporting steel baffles (is that the right word? if not, what is?) alongside the up Fylde line near the junction of Tom Benson Way and Fylde Road. Am I correct in assuming that these are designed to prevent drivers seeing the traffic lights at the adjacent road junction and mistaking them for rail signals in the dark? Are there any other places on the network where similar measures are needed?

Correct. That's exactly what they're for. There is a similar shield leaving Bolton near the former Burnden Junction to prevent misreading a signal on the adjacent line.

 

[Mag_seven]

There are some on the approaches to Reading - I believe they are called "Blanking Plates".

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You can see some at the platform ends at Liverpool Lime St.
Quite an engineering job to install the base and supports for the "blanks", taking up valuable track space in the throat.

 

[EvoIV]

And yet there are plenty of places where traffic lights could benefit from them but they've not been provided. You soon get to learn where they are and disregard them. There are all manner of lights that can appear as signals at a distance. Older sodium lights in particular have a habit of lighting up the rails to simulate a yellow ahead when going round a curve. Again you soon learn where they are.

 

[Cherry_Picker]

They exist at Wembley too as the railway signals which protect a depot are next to some on the road.

 

[Llama]

The blanking plates on Tom Benson Way in Preston are there but not needed any more, they were to stop (train) drivers reading the road traffic signals instead of PN161 signal, however PN161 signal was moved about 1/4 mile on approach to its old site two years ago when the Fylde lines were resignalled.