Your photos of bracket semaphore signals stiĺl in use

[Sun Chariot]

Legend -many thanks. My 35mm shot of a class 33 (railtour years ago) passing South box, the loco obscures the signal. Drat!
Thanks for the tip re: longevity. I'll have to negotiate with my dear wife, as Hampshire coast to March is more than a "pop out at lunchtime"!

 

[ac6000cw]

I've just come across this image online (with major 1980 BR nostalgia - a train of Presflo cement wagons hauled by a pair of 31s) - I'm pretty sure that is the same bracket signal behind the train, when it still had two arms.

https://www.eastanglianrailwayarchive.co.uk/Railways/Ely-March-Peterborough/i-2mQmBJZ/A

 

[Sun Chariot]

Great sleuthing. and what a time capsule all those photos are.
Although I was into the rail scene from latter 1970s, I wasn't old enough to venture out on my own until 1984.
And, living near the south WCML at that time, it was a diet of 25s, AC electrics a-plenty, plus occasional other interest such as APT, near-new 58 light engine moves.

 

[ac6000cw]

And, living near the south WCML at that time, it was a diet of 25s, AC electrics a-plenty,

I first got interested in railways in the early 1970s in the Birmingham area, so much the same plus Peaks and 47s (and occasional Westerns), then moved to Cambridge in 1980 and added the delights of 31s and 37s. Most of 'rural' East Anglia was still semaphore signalled then (including Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich), whereas 45 years later it's the opposite.

Rather off-topic, but as you have an interest in the US scene, this is video of working, now very rare, signalling nostalgia that turned up on YouTube recently:

 

[Sun Chariot]

I saw Ely in its glorious semaphore years; but, apart from my brief visit to March, GE area manual signalling evaded me.

Thanks for the link and I'm astonished the semaphores still exist - I thought CTC signalling was on all Class 1 routes.
The only US semaphores I saw in use - I know, "cheating"! - were on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad: 42 miles of D&RGW narrow gauge splendour across 10,015ft Cumbres Pass. I used it en route from El Paso / Santa Fe / Alamosa / Denver.

 

[Ashley Hill]

I first got interested in railways in the early 1970s in the Birmingham area, so much the same plus Peaks and 47s (and occasional Westerns), then moved to Cambridge in 1980 and added the delights of 31s and 37s. Most of 'rural' East Anglia was still semaphore signalled then (including Cambridge, Norwich and Ipswich), whereas 45 years later it's the opposite.

Rather off-topic, but as you have an interest in the US scene, this is video of working, now very rare, signalling nostalgia that turned up on YouTube recently:

Judging by the clowns cap finial I’d say those US semaphores were a Westinghouse product.

 

[ac6000cw]

Judging by the clowns cap finial I’d say those US semaphores were a Westinghouse product.

I think they are from Union Switch & Signal (US&S), founded by George Westinghouse (of air-brake fame) in 1881 but independent of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) until 1917. But US&S retained its name until 2009 (it is 'Ansaldo STS USA' today). So you are partly correct, I think .

So any guesses as to how old they are (I don't know)?

 

[StanFromEccles]

@ac6000cw I've been unsuccessfully trying to find an online photo of that superb March bracket you put on post #22.
I also checked my own 35mm photos but the one I had been thinking of - just beyond the signal box and level crossing - is of a more recent construction.

Could you enlighten me as to how far south of March station it's sited? Many thanks.

It's veiwable from a strip of land to the southeast, and also if you have a long lense, from the level crossing next to the station

 

[Sun Chariot]

It's veiwable from a strip of land to the southeast, and also if you have a long lense, from the level crossing next to the station

Thanks @StanFromEccles yes location was confirmed in post #30.

 

[StanFromEccles]

The Interesting bracket semaphore at March

 

[Sun Chariot]

Superb @StanFromEccles and that's the opposite side, to the photo in post #22.

That is the first time I have seen a GER (?) doll with a "pigeon" finial...

 

[Pigeon]

Old photos but they're still there, albeit sadly disfigured by conspicuously ugly health-and-safety-gone-mad extra railings and things in pale grey bare galvanised steel to make them really obvious. Why can't they at least paint those things black?

 

[Sun Chariot]

Wonderful stuff @Pigeon thanks for sharing. I am wracking my grey cells as to whether I travelled through Shrub Hill; it was possibly on a late 1980s railtour.

 

[John Webb]

Old photos but they're still there, albeit sadly disfigured by conspicuously ugly health-and-safety-gone-mad extra railings and things in pale grey bare galvanised steel to make them really obvious. Why can't they at least paint those things black?

Because it's cheaper to start with galvanised metal and then not have to paint it?

EDIT: Photo from some 3 years ago showing the signals, both the large bracket with three posts and the single signal with the mechanical route indicator:
Old and new at Worcester Shrub Hill

© Copyright David Robinson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
(Click on photo to go to the larger image on the Geograph website.)
Curiously the older part of the signal - the lattice girder bit - seems to have been painted black!

 

[StanFromEccles]

Old photos but they're still there, albeit sadly disfigured by conspicuously ugly health-and-safety-gone-mad extra railings and things in pale grey bare galvanised steel to make them really obvious. Why can't they at least paint those things black?

The distants are fixed now i believe

 

[Sun Chariot]

The distants are fixed now i believe

Good spot, I hadn't noticed that at first in post #44's photo

 

[BerkshireRails]

Greenford still has Bracket Semaphore signals in use on the New North Mainline, which can be seen from the Central Line.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Great capture, @BerkshireRails it's surreal seeing an LU train by a Western Region tubular post lower quadrant bracket.
In my 12 years of London living, I never travelled Greenford's branch; shame on me!

 

[Sun Chariot]

A quick shout out to @lostwin(m) of this parish, who created a seminal photos thread.
R - some semaphores, still in use on the national rail network, for your enjoyment.

 

[BerkshireRails]

St Erth also still has a Bracket Semaphore signal.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Great capture @BerkshireRails thanks for sharing. When I did my 1991 South West Rail Rover, I failed to notice that one!

 

[lostwin(m)]

A quick shout out to @lostwin(m) of this parish, who created a seminal photos thread.
R - some semaphores, still in use on the national rail network, for your enjoyment.

Thanks SC. Yes, been enjoying this thread. No overlap with signals still in existence against any shots I took in the '80's as of yet, but new examples are still being posted, so I'll keep my eye out.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Thanks SC. Yes, been enjoying this thread. No overlap with signals still in existence against any shots I took in the '80's as of yet, but new examples are still being posted, so I'll keep my eye out.

One of my signal photos at Leicester, is a doppelganger of yours. I must've stood on your shoe prints on the platform.

 

[lostwin(m)]

One of my signal photos at Leicester, is a doppelganger of yours. I must've stood on your shoe prints on the platform.

I remember reading that for some of the classic viewpoints on the Settle - Carlisle, you could set up your tripod in the holes in the ground made by the camera gear of the hundreds of photographers who had been in the same spot previously!

 

[D6130]

Talking of the S & C, there's still a semaphore bracket at Settle Junction on the Down and at Appleby, also on the Down.

 

[Ken H]

Is the splitting stop a bracket? Its mostly symetrical. The one near the signal nox is a bracket IMHO as is isnt symetrical.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Great find @Ken H
Annoyingly, when I was stood at Appleby Noth, some thirty + years ago, I was too busy pointing my camera in the opposite direction, to notice this marvellous scene!

 

[John Webb]

Is the splitting stop a bracket? Its mostly symetrical. The one near the signal nox is a bracket IMHO as is isnt symetrical.

To my mind a bracket signal is one where a signal (or more than one) is mounted not on the main post, but on a subsidiary post on a horizontal platform attached to the main post, either at the top of the main post or to one side of the main post. So both signals in your photo are, by my definition, bracket signals.