Great Western Railway Signal Box Nameplates by Michael Dunn
Great Western Railway Signal Box Nameplates by Michael Dunn
An essay in elegance
A guide to the GWR's cast iron, signal box, crossing and ground frame nameplates and their origins, manufacture and demise.
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
184 pages
Copyright 2004
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS8
BIBLIOGRAPHY9
IN THE BEGINNING11
THE NAMEPLATE ORDERING REGISTER15
THE PERSONALITIES WITHIN21
THE SIGNAL BOX NAMEPLATES29
Design29
Theme and Variations30
Latter-day Developments36
GROUND FRAME AND CROSSING PLATES43
Introduction43
The "Ground Frame" Plates44
Crossing Plates46
The Large Ground Frame Plates49
The Small `S 20' Plates51
ANOMOLIES AND STATISTICS54
THE MANCHESTER & MILFORD RAILWAY PLATES56
PLATES FOR THE `ABSORBED COMPANIES'58
CASTING THE PLATES60
FITTING AND PAINTING63
USE, DEMISE AND COLLECTION69
THE LISTINGS73
Introduction74
Names74
Date Ordered74
Page Number75
Notes75
LIST OF PLATES ORDERED79
INFORMATION WANTED183
INTRODUCTION
The Great Western was the most wayward and individual of all the old railway companies and one of the longest lived, surviving from its auspicious birth in 1835 to its untimely demise at the end of 1947.
This longevity gave rise to traditions and ways of working which were not troubled by the upheavals of amalgamations or groupings which other companies suffered. Consequently, on the G.W.R. standard practices became inherent and clearly understood methods of operation which changed little, if at all, throughout the lifetime of the Company, and were accepted without question by its employees. Nowhere was this long-lived tradition more obvious than in the cast-iron nameplates which the Railway designed and fitted to its signal boxes and the huge variety of derivations which were produced for the many ground frames and crossings the Company also possessed. It was a style virtually unaltered in nearly sixty years and stands as a monument to simple, elegant design, so typical of the Great Western.
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