Introduction

This page describes the Signals of the former narrow-gauge Lynton & Barnstaple Railway (L&BR) in North Devon, and provides a detailed Signal Register for the line. Please see the separate Introduction page for general background information and details of other pages on RailWest about the signalling of the L&BR. Click here for more general historical details about the L&BR and a Bibliography.

Original Signals

The Lynton & Barnstaple Railway was opened in 1898, which was relatively late in terms of railway construction. Consequently it was signalled throughout in the beginning by a single contractor, Evans O'Donnell (EoD), rather than having its various signalling installations added intermittently over the years. Therefore the L&BR had a common set of signals supplied at the outset and on the basis of the available evidence it is reasonable to assume that all those signals were to a common standard EoD design. With the exception of the early double-armed Down Home signals at Lynton, all the original signals appear to have consisted of a single lower-quadrant (LQ) arm on a straight wooden post with a metal cruciform spike finial, although obviously there were variations in the height of the posts. The photograph (click for larger image) shows the former Up Starting signal from Chelfham, now preserved privately - the post was shortened during its railway life.

Ex-L&BR Signal (EoD pattern)

Shortly after the opening of the railway some additional signals were added to provide Starting signals at the intermediate station passing-loops, but all these appear to have been to the same design as the original signals. Thereafter there seems to have been a long period without any substantial change to the signals. A few signals do appear to have been re-located at various times (eg the Down Starting at Barnstaple Town was moved from the platform to outside the run-round loop - and then back again!), but there was no apparent renewal work that resulted in any actual changes in signal style or design until after the L&BR became part of the Southern Railway (SR) in the 1923 Grouping of the railways of Great Britain.

Photographic Coverage of L&BR Signals

Railway photography was becoming quite common by the time that the L&BR was opened, so fortunately there is a fair photographic coverage of the early installations before any significant changes were made. Apart from Pilton all the signals were situated in the immediate vicinity of stations where they were quite likely to be captured on film. With the exception of the distant signals for Bratton Fleming, there were no signalling installations remote from any places with easy and frequent public access. Nevertheless it has not been an easy task to research more than a reasonable proportion of the full extent of L&BR signal changes.

Although remarkably almost every L&BR signal has appeared in at least one photograph, there can be many years between photographs of the same signal in its different forms, so it is not possible to be very precise about the date of change from pictorial evidence alone. A good example of this problem is the Down Starting signal at Woody Bay, of which there is no known photograph between 1915 (original form) and 1927 (replacement version). Far too often any photograph of the required period frustratingly has the signal hidden behind a train! Many signals appear only in the background of some photographs and without access to the original negative and a high-power magnifier it has not been possible in all cases to distinguish whether there has been any change.

Fortunately the archives of the Signalling Record Society contain an almost complete set of SR Signal Instructions, some of which relate to L&BR signal replacements, and details from these have been included in the RailWest L&BR Signal Register. However it must be made clear that these Signal Instructions merely describe the relocation and/or renewal of signals and usuallydo NOT give any specific information about the type of arm or post used, nor is every L&BR signal alteration covered in those Instructions (the Down Starting at Woody Bay being one missing example).

Signal Replacements

As the original EoD signals would have been only 25 years old by the time of the 1923 Grouping, the lack of change by that date does not seem unreasonable. During that period very little of significance happened on the line that would have required substantial changes to the signalling installations and it is unlikely that the L&BR would have found it necessary to embark on any extensive repair programme. Nevertheless a number of signal replacements took place quite early in the period of Southern Railway ownership, although ironically most of the signal renewals on the L&BR took place during the last few years prior to complete closure in 1935. By the time that the railway closed in 1935 the Up Starting signal at Chelfham was the sole surviving EoD signal and even that had its post shortened at some time - this signal is now preserved privately.

The first signal replacements for which records are known took place in Dec 1924, when the double-armed Down Home and both Up Starting signals at Lynton were replaced by two 2-doll bracket signals. These bracket signals had LQ arms on wooden posts with ball-and-spike finials (different from the EoD type) and in style they were identical to signals previously used by the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR). It has been suggested that these signals might have been second-hand and certainly there are resemblances to bracket signals that were removed about that time from elsewhere on ex-L&SWR lines in Devon. However it could simply have been the case that they were a new construction by a SR Signal Department still working to ex-L&SWR designs.

Replacement Bracket Signal at Lynton

By the mid-1920s a couple of other L&B signals had been replaced in a similar style, but just as ordinary straight posts - the Down Starting at Woody Bay and the Down Home at Pilton (which also acted as the Down Advanced Starting for Barnstaple Town). Unfortunately there are no firm dates known for those changes and the photographic record is very limited - the Pilton Down Home was rarely photographed and there is no coverage of the Woody Bay Down Starting between 1915 and 1927. It is not possible therefore to determine yet if those changes occurred before or after the SR took over the line, but on the basis of the ex-L&SWR style the assumption must be that the work was done by the SR. All these signals are believed to have been fitted with wooden arms.

Subsequently the posts of new signals were mainly L&SWR-style steel lattice and SR-style rail-built, with a couple of examples of concrete posts as well. In almost all cases the replacement arm was still LQ (in the ex-L&SWR style), but the new Up Home at Woody Bay in Dec 1934 was the solitary L&BR example with an upper-quadrant arm and almost certainly this was the last signal to be replaced on the line. By this time the SR were probably using metal signal arms - certainly the Pilton Up Starting was fitted with a 'corrugated' metal arm.

Some of the replacement signals were fitted also with an Annett’s Shield, which was a semi-circular plate fixed to the post to project up in front of the green spectacle of a LQ arm when the arm was in the ‘ON’ position. This shield ensured that no stray light passed through the green spectacle to give a false 'Off' indication when in fact the signal was 'On', and this was quite a common feature on ex-L&SWR LQ signals.

Based on information from the RailWest L&BR Signal Register it is possible to put many (but not yet all) of the signal replacements into chronological order. The replacements for which official dates are known are listed below:-

It will be seen that in general the style of replacement signal post changed over time from wood to lattice to rail-built, but there are some curious exceptions. For example, the Chelfham Up Home was erected with a wooden post 15 months after lattice had been used for the Barnstaple Town Up Home, yet only a day later lattice was used again for the Blackmoor Down Starting. Similarly lattice was used for the Blackmoor Up Home only 3 weeks after the Barnstaple Town Down Starting had a rail-built post. Perhaps these variations are merely a reflection of the fact that the SR Signal Department was continuing to use second-hand materials recovered from elsewhere whenever they became available?

Signal Register

An attempt has been made to compile a Register of all L&BR signals, with details of the various changes, and the available details are set out in the table below. The following should be noted:-

• The signal lever number (where known) is given in the 'No' column.
• It is assumed that all the signals were originally to a standard pattern of a LQ arm on a wooden post to an Evans O'Donnell design. The 'Original' column gives the latest known date for any photographic evidence showing the signal still in that form.
• If a signal is known to have been altered then the revised form is described in the 'New' column and the earliest known date for that new version is given in the 'Remarks' column. Where available the relevant SR Signal Instruction (SI) for the alteration is quoted (SI number/year), together with the actual date of change.

© Chris Osment 1999 & 2010
Ackowledgements for information from Colin Pealling, Keith Vingoe and the Signalling Record Society.