3-011-413 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Charing-Cross Railway: the signal station on the north end of the bridge, [London], 1864. 'The signal station...is remarkable for the ingenious character of its arrangements. By the use of one of Saxby and Farmer's patent signalling instruments, one man is enabled to conduct the whole of the numerous trains in and out of the station without difficulty; whereas, by the old-fashioned plan at least half a dozen men at a time would have been required...Of course the labour cannot now be performed without considerable care; there are, therefore, three signalmen employed at this one station, who have to relieve each other in turn. Posted in a glass room right over the lines, and commanding a full view both up and down, the signalman is enabled not only to communicate with the next signal-box, but to manage the switches which lie at least 109 yards off. When a train is about to leave the station it whistles twice, to signify "ready to go"; whereupon...the signalman adjusts the signal and, if necessary, operates on the switches. The signals at the other end of the bridge (from the signal-box they call the Belvidere) show all to be right, and away the train goes, to be signalled from station to station in the same way'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.