No new puzzles of Italian semaphore levers in episode 2: Matelica und Castelraimondo-Camerino

Deutsche Version dieses Postings

In Matelica I photographed the signals when we arrived at the station:

Distant signal, Matelica, May 1990

Home signal, Matelica, May 1990

Here is a picture of the station buildings, with its massive canopy that had obviously been added later:

Station building, Matelica, May 1990

The lever frame was of the same type as at Cerreto d'Esi:

Lever frame, Matelica, May 1990

Here is an enlargement showing the numerous locks above the levers:

Locks above lever frame, Matelica, May 1990

The following enlargement shows the lower part of the frame, with the wires going down (and letters A, B, C, D on the lever supports). These wires must somehow be connected to the single-wire lines to the signals; with the complication that the wires for the home signals must be pulled when reversing the lever, whereas the wires for the distant signals must be released, because there is this compensator in the line (which in turn requires the different diameters of the rolls). I would have expected that one can see this difference somehow already here, where the wires vanish into the pit below—but this seems not to be the case. The only interesting detail is that the back wires are not parallel, but seem to diverge a little—so they cannot be all vertical, and hence not directly connected to a counterweight. But I cannot guess which sort of mechanics is down there (or somewhere else?) which moves the single wires correctly.

Wires vanishing below the lever frame, Matelica, May 1990

Also Castelraimondo-Camerino had the same type of lever frame, but it is hidden by the signalman on the only picture I took:

Lever frame, Castelraimondo-Camerino, May 1990

Here is an enlargement from the blurred picture:

Lever frame, Castelraimondo-Camerino, May 1990

On leaving the station, I took photos of the signals. Both are mounted on gantries, and both had gotten solar cells, probably for feeding batteries for the signal lamps—an interesting late modernization of these old semaphores:

Home signal on gantry, Castelraimondo-Camerino, May 1990

Distant signal on gantry, Castelraimondo-Camerino, May 1990

So much from these two frames that introduced no new puzzles—more will come in following postings.