This paper, second in the series explaining the Great Western Railway's practices and those of British Railways Western Region from 1900 to 1972, covers the Great Western Railway period from the start of The Great War through to the eve of nationalisation.

Written by our founding member, John Morris, the part of the series covers three decades of wartime exigency, enforced take-overs, peacetime recovery, and a period of renaissance before the cycle restarted. A period during which the Great Western remained faithful to lower quadrant signals while all around went gradually upper quadrant. Money was in short supply compared to the previous era and it showed in the abandonment of several developments that had been proposed.

As John explains, signalling and signal box design evolved as new ideas came to the fore, faded and returned again. He also explains the changes that were wrought on the lines acquired in consequence of the 1921 Act.

If you really want to understand signalling practices, especially if you want to build a realistic model set during this period, then this treatise is an absolute must for you. Even if your interests lie with a different railway tradition then this paper will greatly help your understanding of the whys and wherefores of layouts.

John refers to a number of layout drawings produced by our own Drawing Office and still available from this Society.

This signalling paper is supplied as a photocopied booklet. Copies are created to order - we don't keep piles of them on the shelves - so there can easily be a three week gap between you ordering and the booklet dropping through your letter box. The wait will be worth it!

Need this on a different media? Contact us via the link at the bottom of the page and we'll see what we can do.