Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/79

 lamp by night, held in the hand of the pointsman, as he was then called, and an old print from the "Illustrated London News" shows us the pointsman, or policeman, in the long-tailed coat and tall hat of the period, standing outside his hut, and making the prescribed; motions with his flag; but this simple device was soon found to be insufficient, and, about four years after the line had been opened, stout posts were provided, upon which lamps were placed by the pointsman. This really marks the first step in the creation of the present system of signalling; but about the same time the Grand Junction Railway was approaching completion, and the necessity for some improved form of fixed signal seems to have been realised, since we find that the line, at its opening in 1837, was provided with station signals in the form of discs, carried on poles about 12 feet in height, with a lamp at the top, the disc and lamp being arranged to turn through a quarter circle by the pointsman actuating a lever at the base. If the disc was turned so as to face an approaching train, or the lamp showed a red light, it implied a signal to stop; while, if the disc was turned edgeways to the driver, or the lamp showed a white light, it meant "go on." These signals, which may still be seen in use in some remote country districts, were fixed on the platforms at stations, or outside the pointsmen's huts at junctions, and corresponded in position with the home signals of to-day, the "distant signal" being, at that time, a thing unknown.

Some five years later, about 1842, a semaphore signal, somewhat similar to those in use at the present time, was introduced, and it appears probable that this now universally-adopted type of signal very rapidly