Strong-arm interlocking machines

talltim wrote:I've not come across wire-pulled points/switches,

I remember riding around Europe-forty five years ago and seeing something worked by wires at grade crossings a couple of times. I don't know if it was the gates, or something else, (interlocking apparatus?)

You'll certainly see points and signals operated by wires in Kenya and South Africa.

I had read about the practice mentioned in Wikipedia (Overview) about the short handles on powered levers; there's a good example in the North Yorkshire Moors photo on levers 24 and 25.

johnthefireman wrote:You'll certainly see points and signals operated by wires in Kenya and South Africa.

The Great Northern Railway was famously using wire controlled signals that didn't work at Abbots Ripton in 1876.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbots_Ri ... l_accident" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Here's a photo of a Swiss signal machine.

ExCon90 wrote:North Yorkshire Moors photo

I can't find it. Help!
Is it Cromer Beach or East Gate Junction?

talltim wrote:I've not come across wire-pulled points/switches, they normally use rodding (usually square section). One thing you have to be careful of when preparing to pull a stiff signal or point lever is that if the wire or a joint in the rodding has broken, it may pull far easier than your expecting!
In the first picture, some of the levers that look white may actually be yellow.

That's certainly a good link, Tim. Great photos. That phot in "Crockery," Ireland, (I'm half Irish, but Gaelic isn't my strong point,) show a white lever, 1, in use.

johnthefireman wrote: I have thrown the odd lever here and there, usually on ground frames operated with a points key

Is this it?

The underside of the machine interests me. You can see its connection to the rods. The machine at "G" rested on two I beams, and there were also "T rails" supporting it.

I mentioned that "G" tower had the interlocking mechanism behind the levers. Middle picture is an example (in Saskatchewan!) The machine in "G" had about the same number of levers.

This bottom machine reminds me of something out of a move, "Around the World in Eighty Days" perhaps. It's in Everglades. The only "Everglades" I know of is a swamp in Florida, complete with alligators. But this machine doesn't fit the description.

philipmartin wrote: That red can on 99 switch is a blocking device, to remind you not to throw it.

Like strong arm levers, the levers on these machines have latches on their ends which secure them or release them when you twist them. The blocking devices fit over the latch, preventing you from moving the lever.
Tracks covered with rust may not shunt circuits. The interlocking may not "see" trains, and may allow you to throw a switches under them. Hence the "rusty rail" signs on the switch levers affected.
31 is a traffic lever. It's on the top row, but unlike switches, it doesn't have a notched bar over it. An operator can throw it right over if the operator at the other end has his lever over in that direction.
On tracks with rule 261 in effect, (traffic either way by signal indication,) where there is a tower at either end, to change the direction of traffic, the operator that has traffic reverses his lever. Then the operator at the other end can swing his lever around and send trains into the track. The traffic lever is part of the interlocking. Here, 31 lever is leaning to the left, so traffic on track 3 is westbound.
A few towers can change the direction of traffic on a track wholly within their interlocking by themnselves.
The knob 22-28 actuates the slow release mechanism for those signals.
22L and 28R are pulled up on tracks 1 and 4, towards Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
The first model bord picture shows 22L is displayed (but not 12L west of it on track 4;) and 28R is displayed on track 1. Traffic on track 3 (31) is west. Four toots from a train means that he wants a signal.
The track circuits are numbered on this board.
There are low air pressure lights on this model board: 45lbs, line switches the way they are most likely to be used; and 20lbs, the maintainer has to block and spike the switches.
There are lights on the model board showing what the three (in this tower) slow releases are doing.
The bottom model board picture shows that 9 lever throws switch, and a derail to protect track 1; and that 10 lever to the right controls two 10R signals, depending which way 13 switch on track 4 is laying.

Bottom photo: a General Railway Signal machine. The levers don't turn, but only go in and out. "In" is "normal" for switches and "stop" for signals. Ten slow releases above the machine in this picture. This interlocking may have had electric switches; there is an ammeter? on the wall near the ceiling which may show the current drawn when you throw a switch.
There is also a little CTC machine to the right of the big one.
Top photo: the GRS style machine at WC tower, which I worked a few times. It is a little smaller that the usual GRS machine, and I heard that it was imported from England. Note the meters to show amperage while switches are going over, and the slow releases. Those blue print charts showing the lever combinations for the various possible moves, are unusual. Normally you pick that up from the model board, if you are not sure.
GRS and US&S are rivals. In my limited experience, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Lackawanna were US&S customers, and the New York Central and the Erie were GRS customers. With the Conrail union of railroads, I got to work machines on three of the roads, (but not the NYC.)

philipmartin wrote:The blocking devices fit over the latch, preventing you from moving the lever.

I think I'm more familiar with this device being referred to as a "reminder", as its purpose is to prevent a signalman from forgetting that he has a train in a non-track circuited area and setting points and signals to permit another train into that area, although I can't recall whether that is British or South African terminology. To me the term "blocking" risks getting confused with block working.

"I think I'm more familiar with this device being referred to as a "reminder" I never heard that expression before. That's what comes of having an ocean or two between us; but reminding is what it does.

"To me the term "blocking" risks getting confused with block working." We Americans, with our superior intellects, don't have that problem. It's the fresh air and good living that does it for us. Also, I'm not familiar with the phrase "block working." I suppose it means "train in the block."

philipmartin wrote: Top photo: the GRS style machine at WC tower, which I worked a few times. .

That photo of the interlocking machine at WC is Copyright © 2009-2013 Fluidr.com. jeffs4653. He posts that WC had air switches. I don't remember, but know that you had to look at the ammeters when the switches were going over, to look for trouble.

philipmartin wrote:

ExCon90 wrote:North Yorkshire Moors photo

I can't find it. Help!
Is it Cromer Beach or East Gate Junction?

I was referring to the one posted by johnthefireman on Aug. 5.
I've never been in a tower with a GRS machine; do the upward handles control switches and the downward ones signals (or the opposite), or is that not significant?

ExCon90- thank you for answering my question. 24 and 25 are definitely chopped down. In the towers I worked with strong arm levers that were connected electrically to switches and signals, they weren't cut down. Maybe that's only European practice. It seems silly to me because anybody who's qualified on a machine, knows which need muscle and which don't. If you inadvertently throw an electrically connected lever too hard, what difference does it make?
It's so many years since I worked a GRS machine, I can't answer your question. I have a vague recollection that pulling out the handle to throw a switch might have been a two part operation, (like throwing a US&S switch.) Pull it part way out, then finish the throw. The same for putting it in. But I no longer remember if it made any difference whether the handle was pointing up or down.