SAXBY AND FAMER'S RAILWAY SAFETY APPLIANCES
THE GREAT LOCKING APPARATUS
BRIGHTON RAILWAY, LONDON
BRIDGE TERMINUS.
The Illustration --- shows the interior of the signal cabin in which are
concentrated and interlocked 280 LEVERS for working the Signals, Points,
Facing Point Locks, and other safety adjuncts for the safe working of the
enormous traffic of the Brighton Railway Company at their London Bridge Terminus.
The total number of Trains and Light Engines working to and from this Terminus
in a day of 24 hours is about 600; and at the busiest time, the two hours
from 8 to 10 in the morning, when City men are arriving in thousands from
their suburban residences, the number is about NINETY. This is
irrespective of shunting operations.
This Cabin gives employment to Twelve Signalmen, divided into Three sets,
each set of Four men being on duty for Eight hours.
Extract from " Iron," October 10th, 1879.
The London and Brighton Railway.—The London
Bridge Terminus of the Brighton Railway has during the last twelve months
undergone a complete transformation as regards its internal arrangements
for facilitating the ingress and egress of trains, with such complete success
that, without the necessity for purchasing any additional land, the accommodation
of the station has been almost doubled, and the comfort and safety of the
public increased accordingly. By making a clean sweep of the old system of
intercommunicating lines which had from time to time been altered and patched
expediently, and by laying out, as on a clean sheet of paper, an entirely
new arrangement of the points, and crossings, and signals, several additional
platforms and lines have been added, and direct communication obtained between
all the lines and all the platforms. The old-fashioned notion of setting
apart certain platforms on the one side of the station for arriving trains,
and certain other platforms on the other side of the station for departing
trains, is exploded. Every platform is now available equally for all trains,
either for arrival or departure. In some cases, alternative routes for trains
passing to or from the several station platforms are provided, which greatly
increase traffic-working facilities; and the safety of the arrangement is
provided for by special supplementary locking mechanism. The
working of the traffic is greatly simplified, and no less than four trains
can run side by side in and out of the station at one time. This will
obviate the provoking delays to the express trains which not unfrequently,
after a splendid run from Brighton, were stopped outside the station to await
the starting or shunting of some other train out of the way. The punctuality
of these express trains is an essential element in the arrangements which
permit of City business men having their homes for the season or permanently
at Brighton, and they will not fail to appreciate these improvements accordingly.
Great credit is due to Mr. J. P. Knight, the general manager, for the broad
and comprehensive manner in which the subject has been dealt with, and also
to Mr. Banister, the engineer, Mr. Goldsmith, assistant engineer, and Mr.
Williams, the traffic superintendent, for the admirable manner in which the
alterations have been carried out, a matter of no little difficulty, considering
that the enormous traffic of the station has during the whole time
been carried on as usual, and, as it is gratifying to know, without a casualty
of any kind. The interlocking of the points and signals has been carried
out by Messrs. Saxby & Farmer. The apparatus in the principal cabin consists
of 280 levers, almost three times the size of that at Waterloo Station, which
was supplied by the same firm and which until now was one of the largest
they had ever made.
It is worthy of note that the Brighton Railway, which was the
birthplace of the "INTERLOCKING SYSTEM" in
1856, is now, in 1880, the scene of this its most marvellous development
Saxby & Farmer-sidan
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Sidan uppdaterad den 21 januari 2006