Birmingham New Street Station: lnwrbns_str412

Looking from the East end of the South Staffordshire bay across New Street station towards the South end of the passenger footbridge circa 1880s. The subway's girders can be seen in the bay as can a pair of white painted steps either side of the subway. The steps were provided to aid a train's fireman or other railway staff to climb back on to the platform after hooking or unhooking the locomotive. The signal arm at the top of the post on the left has been pulled 'off' giving the LNWR 2-4-2T tank locomotive on the left the 'right of way'. This type of signal is described as being lower quadrant signals because their arc of travel is down from the horizontal (which shows the signal indicating danger) to about 45° below the horizontal giving the driver the authority to proceed. A later design of signal had the arms travel in an arc above the horizontal and so were described as being upper quadrant. Under the top arm is a signal with a shorter arm and in this instance it controls the shunt ahead function limiting the distance the locomotive can operate within.

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