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Birmingham New Street - Southern Approaches: lnwrbhm_sa2320a

Close up showing the headshunt used when marshalling freight for Curzon Street Goods depot and Landor Street

Close up of image 'lnwrbhm_sa2320' showing the headshunt used when marshalling freight for Curzon Street Goods depot and Landor Street running adjacent to the embankment. Landor Street commenced at this point, off Lawley Street, and was an incredibly long straight section of road to find in a city centre see image 'mrbhm_sa1902' which shows the road continuing past the former Midland Railway's Camp Hill line and on to Adderley Park where it became Arden Road. The track on the left is the head shunt which allowed trains to be made up (marshalled) for Curzon Street Goods Station as its sidings were seriously limited in accommodating full length trains. The white disc beneath the signal repeated the signal seen above. These disc signals were devised at about the time of the First World War a new design appeared, consisting of a more or less circular plate perhaps a foot in diameter, usually painted white with a red stripe across the middle. The disc was pivoted in the centre so it could rotate, on early examples the disc was bolted to the arm of the miniature semaphore signal. When the red stripe was horizontal it meant stop, when at forty-five degrees it meant all-clear, for night operation small holes with coloured glass lenses were fitted to the plate and an oil lamp mounted behind to give a clear indication. These rotating disk signals could be either upper quadrant or lower quadrant depending upon the preference of the owning company. Ground signals were only used for shunting purposes and by convention are mounted to the left of the track (as is the case for every signal). Information on the disc signal courtesy of Mike Smith.

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