Felix Pole was an ambitious employee of the Great Western Railway. Born in 1877, by the age of 27 he was working in...
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How did train drivers read semaphore signals at night?
Semaphore signals were a common form of railway signalling before the advent of modern electronic signals. During the day, train drivers could easily see and interpret the position of the semaphore arms. However, reading semaphore signals at night presented a significant challenge.
To overcome this, a process called "lighting up" the signals was used. This involved the use of oil lamps or gas burners positioned behind the signal arms, some of which had coloured lenses. These lamps illuminated the signal arms, making them visible to train drivers during the night. The lamps were usually coloured to correspond with the different signal aspects, such as red for stop and green for clear.
To read the signals, train drivers would look for the position of the illuminated arms. For example, if the arm was horizontal, it indicated "danger" or "stop," while a raised arm at a 45-degree angle indicated "proceed with caution." By memorizing the different positions and colours of the semaphore arms, train drivers could safely navigate the railway network in the dark.
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