Unusual single line working method - Stamford & Essendine

[Mike Hodgson]

Listed in the forthcoming Talisman Auction is an "early GNR tablet" of a type I have never come across before (lot 364 if anybody wants to see it).
It is lettered "Go on to Essendine" on one side, "Go on to Stamford" in the other and, according to the catalogue, designed to be mounted on a bracket in the engine.
It does not look as though it is designed to fit in any type of electric instrument, so would this effectively have been worked as a simple OES Staff?
The two cast iron sides are painted different colours - why should the direction of travel be colour-coded?
Or does the unorthodox "Go on to ... " wording imply that this was not merely a normal authority to occupy a single line ?

[Chris Osment]

I'm not familiar with GNR equipment, but....

From elsewhere in the country I have come across a Train Staff labelled 'Go on to....' with the two section names on opposite sides. I've also encountered tickets from TS&T sections where the 'Up' and 'Down' direction tickets were in different colours.

I wonder if perhaps these items were in fact 'tickets' rather than the actual Train Staff?

[davidwoodcock]

My suspicion is that the cast-iron object is the staff and that it was used for TS&T working with, as Chris says, tickets in the appropriate colour - so that at A, a driver would be shown the 'blue' side of the staff lettered "go on to B" and given a 'blue' ticket with the usual "you are authorised to go on to B and the staff will follow" wording.

Obviously adjacent sections would never use the same colour pairs.

[Mike Hodgson]

Like Chris, I had also wondered if this might be a metal ticket, as it is a block of wood sandwiched between two castings, so it have been as easy to produce several as to make one. I have also heard of metal tickets which when bolted together form a divisible train staff. However I would have thought any reusable ticket probably ought to be numbered or distinctively marked in some way, so they would know exactly what was missing in case one of them got lost. I doubt the BoT would have been happy unless all the tickets were at the right end when you changed direction, so I think David's explanation sounds more plausible. I guess you were also supposed to hold it the right way up if you gave it to the driver as Train Staff.

According to wikipedia, the line was at one time double track but the signalling did not meet with BoT approval, so they singled it again.
Quite how that was a safety improvement is not explained!

[Paul Tilley B17LNE]

As an avid collector of Stamford items I am very familiar with this tablet. It was obtained along with a similar but circular one with BOURNE on one side and ESSENDINE on the other. I will post photos of both if that is possible on this is possible on this website. The line was operated as OES. I have a photo taken in BR days of a driver handing down a tablet hoop and was told by the late Brian Gelli that the GNR box may have had square brass and steel tablets. I have a drawing.If anyone is interested I have signal box diagrams covering GNR LNER and BR from Stamford GNR, Ryhall & B, and Essendine South.

[GNRSIGNALS]

Hi Paul,

It would make a good talking point to see the signal box diagrams about the Stamford East to Essendine.

gnrsignals

[Mike Hodgson]

Very interesting Paul. Using a hoop could mean you only saw the "right" side of the tablet, but putting it still inside a hoop onto a bracket inside the cab sounds a bit clumsy.

[Paul Tilley B17LNE]

The late Brian Gell implied that the square brass and steel tablets were introduced after the early square one was discontinued. He was able to remove some traffolite lever description plates after the GNR box closed but the signalling apparatus had already been removed.
Jack Day, a well photographed driver (very large chap often seen hanging out of the cab of a C12 and the later N5s) told me about the lozenge shaped tablet. He had retired and I was just 15 in 1965, so he or I for that matter, may have had a memory malfunction. There was certainly no pouch involved with the lozenge shaped tablet but I am sure he mentioned something about it resting on a metal spike ! Both this one and the Bourne Essendine circular one were obtained from an old railwayman in Stamford by the late Greg Burrows of Peterborough. Unfortunately, no more information is availasble for obvious reasons.

[Paul Tilley B17LNE]

I have found a BTC Civil Engineers Department plan dated 1951 with a 1953 amendment for the proposed closure of Stamford East (GNR) station and the demolition of Stamford Junction (MR) signal box. On it is noted "proposed sleeper crossing 4'6" wide...proposed gas lamp with reflector....fitted to signal box wall to facilitate exchange of tokens." This refers to the GNR box whose back support legs were actually in the River Welland!!! I am in the process of photographing all my diagrams so if anyone would like to see them please message me here.

[Paul Tilley B17LNE]

A correction to an earlier post. Reference to a round token should read "Go on to Bourne" on one side and "Go on to Billingboro" on the other and NOT Essendine as previously posted. I have finally found my old photos to confirm this.

[Paul Tilley B17LNE]

New book Great Northern branches from Stamford (Peter Paye) has a lot of information. P 89 he refers to a single line tablet for Priory siding marked Go on the siding between Stamford engine shed and foundry siding. He also refers to the crossover connecting the siding to the main running line being released by the key on the train staff. This would presumably account for the slot in the tablet I now have in my collection.
In the chapter on timetables the pre group one refer to train staff stations on both the Essendine line and the Wansford line. LNER ones refer to Staff and metal ticket for the Essendine line and one engine in steam for the Foundry siding.This continued in the WTTS in BR days.