Signals at Newton Abbot

Newton Abbot had a fine collection of semaphores until the mechanical boxes were replaced in 1987 as part of the Exeter resignalling scheme.

In those days there were still six tracks, comprising main, relief and through lines, in each direction through the station between East and West boxes, and four of these - the mains and the reliefs - continued to Aller Junction where the main lines continued towards Totnes while the relief lines essentially became the Torbay branch.

I have split this gallery into separate pages for each of the signalboxes:-

Newton Abbot East controlled the northern end of the station, the junction with the Heathfield (and, formerly, Teign Valley) branch, and the southern entrance to Hackney Yard.

This signal was its down main inner homes gantry, controlling entry to the station, and carried an unusual variety of arm types. The stop arms on the two middle dolls were a traditional GWR wooden design, known affectionately as 'wasp waist' signals because of the narrow metal strip that connected the spectacle glass casings to the main bosses of the arms. The stop arm on the right was a later BR pattern in metal. The lower-arm distants on the second and fourth dolls were of an unusual Westinghouse pattern (see below). The goods arm on the leftmost doll has a wooden arm and GWR-pattern spectacle case: it's possible this was originally a ringed arm, with the ring having later been removed after BR abolished them.

The six lines running through the station, from down side to up, were the

Down Through

Down Relief
(1)

Down Main
(2)

Up Relief
(3)

Up Main
(4)

Up Through

(platform numbers shown in brackets). In other words, the through lines ran round the outside, and the main lines were to the west of the relief lines in each direction, reflecting the layout at Aller Junction.

Newton Abbot West up through and main starters

Newton Abbot West controlled the country end of the station. This gantry carried its up through and up main starters, together with inner distants for the East box. These motorised Westinghouse signals were an unusual feature of Newton Abbot - as you can see, their motors (the black boxes) drove the arms' pivot spindles directly, rather than being placed lower down the post and connected via signal rods.

Aller Junction controlled the Torbay branch junction while the main line to Plymouth swept round on a right-handed curve while the branch line continued more or less straight ahead.