Portarlington Signal Box

[snapper]

Would anybody know of any source online where I could see pictures of Portarlington Signal Box back in the days of semaphore, or failing that any good books that have one.

 

Thanks Snapper

[UP6936]

Eiretrains might have something if you browse the stations

[Eiretrains]

Jonathan M Allen has a good shot of it on his geograph profile site, taken in 1971. CTC did away with the semaphores in 1976, although the Down starter were colour-lights since the 1960s. The cabin was demolished in 1984/5.

Portarlington signal cabin

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licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

[snapper]

Thats a great pic, thanks. A bit uglier than I thought it would be.

[Broithe]

A bit uglier than I thought it would be.

 

I dunno, I quite like it...

[Mayner]

Looking at the cut stone work below the cabin it look like the GSR or CIE plonked one of its standard hipped roofed cabins on the base of an older box.

 

I wonder how the signal man got the electric train staff for the Athlone Branch ain crews?

 

A basket arrangement on a rope was for Navan Branch trains at Drogheda South cabin.

 

Portarlington got very busy when main line train frequecies were increased and Galway & Westport services were diverted over the branch in the early 70s. The signal man would have needed an assistant to do the walking and climbing between the station and cabin, or possibly a subsidiary staff instrument in the station building to allow a staff to be remotely released while the signal man remained in the box. With greatly increased train frequencies and the Athlone Branch a main line the signal an would have been worn out waking up and down the stairs and crews no longer time for cup of tea and a natter between branch linearrivals and departures,

 

In GSWR days Portarlington probably had East & West Cabins, the GSR& CIE re-signalled several of the larger stations like Athenry, Bray, Claremorris, Dun Laoire replacing a number of cabins with a large standard hipped roof box.

 

I wonder are there any photos of the original?

Edited March 18, 2014 by Mayner

[josefstadt]

As far as I remember, the signalman would hand the staff to the driver of a Down train at the platform in the station. For Up trains, the driver would throw the staff out when passing the cabin and the signalman would come down to collect it. Of course, when two branch trains were crossing in Portarlington the signalman would have to come down to collect the staff from the Up train, then go back up and put it through the staff instrument, go back down to hand the staff to the driver of the Down train and finally go back up to the cabin. They must have been fit!

[Broithe]

Obscured, but the top of the old elevated box at Ballybrophy is just visible here.

 

 

http://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/610604rc.html