I know this is one of my ‘niche interest’ posts here (sorry!) but I do love arriving at a modern station and discovering that it’s still using railway technology that’s well over a hundred years old.
Despite serving a sizeable town on a main line in the densely populated south of England, Hastings station has managed to retain its old Southern Railway signals.
The semaphore signals control the eastern end of station operations and are operated by a brick built signal box dating from 1931.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always liked knowing that a train was on its way after hearing the mechanical ‘clunk’ of a semaphore signal, but it’s a scene that’s fast disappearing from Britain’s public railways.
So if you find yourself at a station that is still using a signalling system that dates back to the steam age, be sure to soak it all in!
Read more: Semaphore signals at Hastings station (photo feature
[Semaphore signals – Wikipedia]
Related posts:
Banbury railway station: fog, semaphore signals and trainspotters
St Erth for St Ives railway station – a country junction
Lightning strike takes out signals: posh Pullman train stuck at signals in Brixton
Brixton station in the steam era (1950s footage)
Closed railway station: Aynho for Deddington, Oxfordshire
Brixton rattles to the sound of a Battle Of Britain class steam locomotive
Tenby railway station retains its Victorian charm, with its Bath stone buildings and cast iron canopies intact
A trip on the Bluebell steam railway, Sussex
Any idea why these signals have been kept? Not saying it’s a bad thing, just wondering?
Unlike in todays electronic signaling age the words “Signal Failure” where rarely heard when mechanical semaphore signaling was the norm on the railway