I'm baffled by these objects on the Lime Street panel. Nothing in the manual or Wiki symbols page seems to match them. What are they for and how do you use them please? The little buttons resemble slots of some kind. Thanks.

The grey blob is the signaller sitting at his panel, thus showing the orientation. Common on panels to show this; not so relevant to IECC. It's a "you are here"!

The hollow orange circle is a TRTS indicator that's not drawn on a platform. However, I note the Wiki does not indicate these symbols.

GeoffM wrote: I have sometimes also heard it said that the blob in the middle of a signalbox represents the centre of the box, for measurement purposes. If so there's no consistency whatsoever; some multi-manned boxes have one dot while others have one per signalman. (I'd like to see them put in a dot for every signalman at London Bridge or Victoria!)

Incidentally, the straight bar in the signalbox represents that it's a lever frame (in this case a Westinghouse Style L power frame of, I believe, 1947). If it were a panel there would be "wings" at the end, pointing toward the centre line of the box (down in this case - the bobby works back to traffic) at 45 degrees.

kbarber wrote:
I have noticed that this seems to be the case whenever such a box is shown. What is the reasoning behind it?

So that he can turn round and observe the passage of the trains. It's historical from AB days when the signalman had to check the tail lamp of the train to ensure it was conplete. However, before someone pipes up and corrects me.. It doesn't mean that in those days EVERY box was that way round, it was the 'preffered' way.

GoochyB wrote: Originally virtually all railways put the frame in the front of the box; the bobby looked over the levers to see the passing trains. There were few instruments on the block shelf (and in many cases the shelf was very short); sometimes (the Great Northern was fond of this apparently) the block instruments were in the back of the box (perhaps no block shelf at all), so visibility was excellent.

As the years passed, layouts became larger & more complex (many increased from 2 to 4 and even 6 main tracks), which meant the diagram (hung in the roof) became larger & intruded into the signalman's view. Obviously the number of block instruments increased in line with the number of tracks. As signals were placed further away signal repeaters sometimes had to be provided, along with track circuit indicators (illuminated diagrams came later, or in some cases not at all). Electric locks on the levers often meant plungers (large pushbuttons) on the front of the block shelf to release the electric lock while the lever was pulled, forcing many of the repeaters & indicators onto the top of the shelf where they further obstructed the view. This was, in fact, the signalman's lot for (probably) the majority of signalboxes right up to the end of mechanical working. There's an example of what it could end up looking like here www.signalbox.org/gallery/lm/westhampstead.php .

From just before WWI a few companies realised that, although it would mean the signalman having to turn away from the levers, a better view of traffic would be obtained by putting the frame in the back of the box rather than the front. The idea took hold steadily between the wars, although the GW never did it and nor, in general, did the Western Region. (There was certainly one exception in the frame they installed in the LNWR box at Kensington South Main and I believe the one at Greenford is likewise in the back, but I know of no others.)

Many of the early power frames were likewise installed in the front of the box, but by the 1920s back of the box was pretty standard (the casing would, of course, obscure the view of lines close to the box). In this instance the GW followed tha majority; the power frames they installed at Cardiff and at Bristol were in the backs of the boxes.

All the early panels were in the backs of boxes. But in the early 1960s quite a number, in desk format (the panel surface nearly horizontal) were installed in the front of the box; Barking, Southend Central and Hackney Downs were certainly of this form. Larger panels werre always installed with the signalman working back to traffic - again the panel itself would obstruct the view too badly, in the days when it was reckoned a bobby still needed to see the trains.

Thanks for that - it's very interesting.
kbarber wrote:
And although there is now no need for them to do so, and they can only see a small part of the control area, the practice presumably continues... [Although I appreciate that the question originally came up on Lime Street sim, for which the large control area argument does not apply].

GoochyB wrote:
worksop, barnsley, thrumpton all face away from the track, admittedly thrumpton and barnsley also have MCBs to supervise. however barnsley has responsibility to see tail lamps for trains, ex woolley coal sidings (although it now has a camera for this purpose as well.

Most boxes in Sussex i've noticed have the levers are at the front of the box except for Eastbourne where the levers faced the back of the box as well as the panel, I presume this was to give the signaller a better view of the station, and sidings.

'Course, these days with VDUs, there is no requirement to face any particular direction - or even to be anywhere near the railway. Sandhills is in the middle of an industrial estate; Liverpool Street is now surrounded by buildings with the railway beneath hidden from view; Swindon B, though next to the railway, is a good 11 miles away from its nearest controlled signal.