When Signalmen were called Policemen
Before there was a system of fixed signals on railway lines Policemen along the line controlled the trains with flags but not the colours you'd think!
10/12/20231 min read
A little light relief these past two nights making this chap in 4mm scale.
On the London & Birmingham Railway in 1839 there were no signal boxes as such, just cabins like sentry boxes outside which would stand a man with a flag (or lamp if it was dark). White for ‘all clear’, green for ‘proceed with caution’ and red for ‘stop’.
I have yet to make his cabin but eventually he’ll stand in front of it on my Coventry 1839 layout and signal the trains leaving the station. The operating lever behind him will be controlled from the lever frame that controls the points and be disguised inside the cabin.
What larks!