Of Interlockings And Other Machines ...

Friday, September 23, 2016

Switzerland 1988: Semaphores at Kiesen

Deutsche Version dieses Postings

Update 25.3.2020: I stumbled over a wonderful Youtube video, which shows the frame in action before the modifications of 1988, with all the noises and sounds of such a signalbox.

From Kerzers I continued to Kiesen, where I had seen a semaphore on the previous day. Here are three photos taken somewhere on the ride to Kiesen:

Rear end lamp, Switzerland, 18.8.1988

Panel for brake test and "right away" signals, Switzerland, 18.8.1988

Bells, Switzerland, 18.8.1988

Kiesen had, in 1988, still all the signals of a small intermediate station—two home signals and two group starting signals—, but half of the track connections had been dismantled a short time earlier, as can be seen on the track panel—here with signals cleared for a southward train:

Track and signal panel, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Here is a track diagram of this small station. Like St.Blaise, it had been reduced from a station with a loop track to a block post with a storage track:

The lever frame at Kiesen still had all the levers—but of course, the levers for the removed points were no longer connected. There were five signal levers on this frame, namely

the lever for home signal A^1/2, a semaphore, which also controlled the corresponding distant light signal A^*,
the lever for distant signal ("Durchfahrsignal") A^d, a disc signal, for starting light signal C^1/2,
the lever for starting signal B^1/2, a semaphore, as well as corresponding light distant signal B^* mounted on home signal D,
the lever for starting signal C^1/2, a light signal,
and finally the lever for home signal D^1/2 and corresponding distant signal D^*, both light signals.

Lever frame, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

On the handles of the disconnected points levers (which had moved their points with rodding), small blocks prevented that they could still be pulled:

Disconnected points levers for rodding, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

This handle lock, made by Integra, locks the signal lever C on the right, which is reversed and hence invisible here:

Signal lever for semaphore B^1/2 and handle lock for signal C, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Here one can see the three reversed signal levers for the train route shown in the first picture above:

Levers set for a through train, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

And here are the six route levers—five of them are moved from their central position. From left to right, the levers are as follows:

The first one for route "a^I from Wichtrach into track I" is reversed downwards.
Also the second one, for a route "b^II to Wichtrach out of track II", has been moved down (the upper position "b^III to Wichtrach from track III" should have been covered, as the corresponding points were already missing).
The third lever, allowing a route out of the shed track "c⁴ to Uttigen from 4", is in its central position.
The fourth lever is reversed for the route "c^I to Uttigen from track I", its other position is for route "c^III to Uttigen from track III" out of the former loop and now stub track.
The fifth lever for "d^II from Uttigen into track II" is also reversed; its other position is for the route "d^III from Uttigen into track III".
Finally, this frame, like the one at St.Blaise, also had a "switch-out lever" to switch the station out of the line block. Here, this lever is of course moved upwards into position "Stellwerk und Streckenblock in Betrieb", i.e., "signal box and line block operational":

Route levers, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

The line block still used four Siemens block instruments. Here, all of them show white disks, i.e., all tracks from and to Kiesen were unoccupied:

Line block instruments, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Below the line block case, these locks provided the logic to connect the signal levers with the block instruments:

Block locks, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Points 15 and 16 had already been provided with electrical points machines, the corresponding levers were therefore wound with brake bands over the cog wheels formerly moving the rodding. The leftmost lever for connected points 10 and 11, however, was still connected to its points via rodding. The signs on the levers say "Attention: Catenary grounded.", in other words: Don't reverse them and send a locomotive with pantograph in, as this will create a colossal short-circuit on entering:

Points levers, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

The electrical points had a few fuses both for the motor current and the monitoring circuits:

Points indicators and fuses, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Right outside were these electro-mechanical bells for announcing trains along the line:

Bells, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Here is the small shed that housed the frame. The building with single glass sheets was probably horribly cold during winter:

Signal box, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

From the station building, I went out to starting signal B^1/2. On my way, I passed the wire tensioner for home signal A^1/2:

Wire tensioner, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

A little further, I took a picture of the wire tensioner for the starting signal:

Wire tensioner, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

And here is a train:

BLS Re 4/4 171, starting signal B^1/2, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

After I returned, I took a picture of the station building:

Station building, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Just before leaving, I took a shot of the signalman returning a signal lever:

Clearing a signal, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Finally, I got a picture of a goods train rumbling through. An enlargement would show that all five signal levers had been reversed at that time—there was quite some traffic on that line in this summer:

SBB Ae 6/6 11502, Kiesen, 18.8.1988

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Switzerland 1988: "Diamond crossing" at Kerzers

Deutsche Version dieses Postings

The signal box at Kerzers is preserved as a museum, thus one still can visit the interlocking apparatus shown here. My photos, however, were made when the interlocking was still controlling the points and signals of Kerzers station, where the lines of BLS and SBB cross each other.

The four lines emanating from Kerzers are

the SBB line towards Lyss via Fräschels,
the BLS line towards Neuchâtel via Müntschemier,
the BLS line in the opposing direction to Bern via Ferenbalm and Gummenen
and the SBB line towards Murten and Payerne via Galmiz.

Here is a track plan of Kerzers, showing the main tracks and the stop signals (click opens a readable PDF file):

In addition to the typical routes entering and leaving the station, Kerzers also allowed a train to leave the goods track 14. Moreover, it was possible to leave and enter the SBB track towards and from the BLS line to Ferenbalm, presumably so that goods trains could reach the part of the station with the goods shed without too much zig-zagging:

From Müntschemier into 6,5,4
To Müntschemier from 6,5,4
From Fraeschels into 3,2,1
To Fraeschels from 3,2,1
To Fraeschels from 14
To Galmiz from 3,2,1
To Galmiz from 3,2,1
To Ferenbalm from 1
To Ferenbalm from 6,5,4
From Ferenbalm into 1
From Ferenbalm into 6,5,4

The signal box contained, to the best of my knowledge, the last interlocking frame that was mechanically connected to the corresponding command frame in the traffic bureau. The following pictures show that command frame, which used large cranks for transmitting the respective route commands to the signal box. One can see the inclined arrow that indicates that a route is set from track 3 towards Galmiz. The rectangular mechanical track occupation indicator for track 3 ("Gleis III") is showing red because of that line:

Command frame, traffic bureau, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

The following pictures show the command frame with the route set from track 3 towards Galmiz:

Command frame, traffic bureau, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

A somewhat "artistic" picture of all the route cranks:

Command frame, traffic bureau, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

The track panel, which contains the signal indicators, is a later addition to this original Schnabel&Henning frame:

Track panel with signal indicators, traffic bureau, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

Detail of track panel, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

Something was improved on the outside of the signal box—new lamps, new paint, new something else?

Signal box, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

Here is a picture of the complete interlocking frame inside the signal box. On the left and the right are the route releases (which are moved via the cranks in the traffic bureau), in between are the points and signal levers. On the very left and right, line block operation panels had been added later:

Lever frame, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

The original builder's plate from Bruchsal does not show a year—according to the website of the preservation group, the frame was built in 1896:

Builder's plate, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

The signal levers are still in place, however, because the station had been resignalled with light signals, their wheels are wound by brake bands, and the signals change their positions via electrical contacts:

Lever frame, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

On the right route release, one can see the turned route wheel for an outgoing route from track 1 towards Fräschels:

Route levers, Kerzers, 18.8.1988

Some points had been converted to electrical points machines—this can be inferred from the brake bands around some points levers. The leftmost, blue lever moves the shunting signal R, which guards the intersection of the two lines: