Model railway signal box interior advice

Perhaps I’ve missed it in the discussion but what sort of era are you modelling? If it’s after the mid 1960s it is very likely that your single line sections would have been converted to Scottish region tokenless block.

This would mean a visually different type of block instrument - you can see a double ScR tokenless instrument in the photos of Dunkeld linked in other posts on this thread - and would usually require two levers to be used for Up and Down direction shunt keys. Although if space in the frame was tight, these were sometimes provided in slides on the block shelf adjacent to the instrument. Often when a box was converted to ScR tokenless a whole new frame was supplied from the regional S&T workshop at Irvine and these tended to have white traffolyte covers on the lever tops and catch handles, which are quite distinctive and would be visible on a model.

As this is a crossing point on a single line, what do people who wish to get on or off at the station do if their train is the second to arrive when crossing another train?

Distants could not be automated on a token system (but could be on the tokenless Ron notes) as 'distant(s) off' would be used to convey that the token was in the catcher for a collection at speed. Distant(s) on, stops off would mean a hand exchange.
Depending on layout, for a pass both trains could need to be stopped outside the loop.

Can you supply a photo of the traffolyte? The levers of Dunkled in Bill_gensheet's photo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/58534838@N05/5385033248/ - look normal to me.

Ron_J in post 159389 said:

As this is a crossing point on a single line, what do people who wish to get on or off at the station do if their train is the second to arrive when crossing another train?

Shunt and redock procedure. Train A arrives platform, then reverses back, then pulls forward to mainline. Train B runs to platform and continues, then Train A proceeds.

Ron_J in post 159389 said:

As this is a crossing point on a single line, what do people who wish to get on or off at the station do if their train is the second to arrive when crossing another train?

Shunt and redock procedure. Train A arrives platform, then reverses back, then pulls forward to mainline. Train B runs to platform and continues, then Train A proceeds.

I read somewhere that there's an alternative - less common but still found - where the signal levers are all put in the middle and the points etc. at the ends. If most moves are just straight through or just one or two lever pulls, there's much less walking around required.

Shunt and redock procedure.

Anothersignalman in post 159396 said:

Ron_J in post 159389 said:

As this is a crossing point on a single line, what do people who wish to get on or off at the station do if their train is the second to arrive when crossing another train?

Shunt and redock procedure. Train A arrives platform, then reverses back, then pulls forward to mainline. Train B runs to platform and continues, then Train A proceeds.

That method of operation at a crossing loop wouldn’t happen in Scotland, historically or today. Generally the station would have been built with either two platforms or an island platform. We might do fancy shunting like that with an overlength freight train but it wouldn’t be something that would happen as part of the day-to-day timetable with passenger trains. If there were, for some reason, only one platform at the station then it’s very likely that a passenger train wouldn’t be allowed to cross another passenger train at that location if both were booked to call there.

Ron_J in post 159397 said:

Anothersignalman in post 159396 said:

Ron_J in post 159389 said:

As this is a crossing point on a single line, what do people who wish to get on or off at the station do if their train is the second to arrive when crossing another train?

Shunt and redock procedure. Train A arrives platform, then reverses back, then pulls forward to mainline. Train B runs to platform and continues, then Train A proceeds.

That method of operation at a crossing loop wouldn’t happen in Scotland, historically or today. Generally the station would have been built with either two platforms or an island platform. We might do fancy shunting like that with an overlength freight train but it wouldn’t be something that would happen as part of the day-to-day timetable with passenger trains. If there were, for some reason, only one platform at the station then it’s very likely that a passenger train wouldn’t be allowed to cross another passenger train at that location if both were booked to call there.

Though there's somewhere in Ireland (Limerick Junction ??) where, until quite recently, every train from any of five directions had to reverse to get in the platform.

Here are a couple of photos of a frame with traffolyte covers from Flickr.

[shunt and redock] at a crossing loop wouldn’t happen in Scotland, historically or today.

Just an interesting note about how truly independent the development of Melbourne and Sydney railways were. The language used is totally different, for identical concepts.

There is also Penryn <sp?> on the Falmouth Branch in Cornwall, perhaps copied from Abergynolwyn on the Talyllyn Railway, where there's a double-length platform and the loop ends halfway along it, allowing both trains to call at the same platform without interfering with each other (apart from the little matter of overlaps - but let's not go there). Cambridge (as it was before the new platform was built on the Up side), of course, might be seen as the progenitor of both albeit that was part of a larger and busier layout.

Anothersignalman in post 159396 said:

Shunt and redock procedure.

Although everyone has understood what you meant, it's interesting to note (in my experience) that this is a specifically Victorian description of the move. There is no equivalent term for a 'dock' in Sydney, and I've not heard any of our British friends describe bringing a train from siding to platform in that way either. It may have come around as a consequence of Melbourne's failure to use any sort of train description system until quite late in the semaphore era.

Just an interesting note about how truly independent the development of Melbourne and Sydney railways were. The language used is totally different, for identical concepts. Victorian electric signalling systems used one switch or lever for all routes from a signal where NSW (usually) had one switch or lever per route.

Irrelevant to the post, sorry! As you were, gentlemen

flabberdacks in post 159402 said:

Anothersignalman in post 159396 said:

Shunt and redock procedure.

Although everyone has understood what you meant, it's interesting to note (in my experience) that this is a specifically Victorian description of the move. There is no equivalent term for a 'dock' in Sydney, and I've not heard any of our British friends describe bringing a train from siding to platform in that way either. It may have come around as a consequence of Melbourne's failure to use any sort of train description system until quite late in the semaphore era.

Just an interesting note about how truly independent the development of Melbourne and Sydney railways were. The language used is totally different, for identical concepts. Victorian electric signalling systems used one switch or lever for all routes from a signal where NSW (usually) had one switch or lever per route.

Irrelevant to the post, sorry! As you were, gentlemen

Oddly enough in Scotland we refer to ‘docking’ when talking about platforming and we often call platforms ‘docks’. That doesn’t seem to be the case anywhere else in the UK.