"Clive D. W. Feather" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
writes
And normally known as 'theatre type route indicators'. Except that in
the report into an accident at Euston in 1949, the inspecting officer
describes them as 'a route indicator of the music hall type'.
Was this a generally used term at one time, or is the inspecting
officer simply confused?
This kind of indicator was originally used in music halls or theatres to
indicate which act was being shown; the railway then appropriated them. So
both "music hall type" and "theatre" are reasonable names, though the
former probably went out of use as the music halls did.
That's interesting. I'd always assumed that the name came from the fact that
the usual shape of the display (rectangular, and shaded) looked vaguely like
a stage as it appears in theatre when the house lights are down - I always
wanted the ones at Waterloo to have curtains which would dramatically part
to reveal... "ta-da...MT" or whatever.
Another illusion shattered.
Technically they are "alphanumeric indicators meeting sighting requirement
class 2", if I recall correctly. Stencil indicators meet sighting
requirement class 3.
Linking in with the other current thread on signal visibility, I presume
that class 1 is "8 seconds at line speed on the road", class 2 is less
strict than that (but still used in cases where they need to be visible from
a moving train), and class 3 is only for cases where the view will be from a
train standing at a platform waiting for the RA. Is that right?
Regards
Jonathan