A Flick of a Switch - Re-signalling Medstead & Four Marks 

Narborough in Leicestershire was a fringe box to Leicester Sig Centre and was a panel in an old mechanical box, and it worked semaphores.

You've got the L-frame at Kingscote which controls mixture of semaphores and colour lights.

there might be many reasons. one that springs to mind is parts. with it being an obsolete technology, the parts and more important the knowledge to make them, is disappearing. so, Logistically speak, updating them with more modern, in production parts makes more sense.

In this case it *looks* like they are moving the signal back to provide a more adequate overlap incase of a SPAD and it could also be to improve signal sighting. It would appear from the video that you couldn't fit that bracket in the new position. The bracket also looks like its in need of an overhaul. However, I do not think that it would be scrapped. At worst it gets stored and reused elsewhere.

@@iainstenhouse8399 It would be very sad for the historical signal to be replaced given that the purpose of heritage lines is to preserve historic infrastructure.

@@JamesPetts While true, colour lights of that design are getting on to be five decades old now, so not entirely modern. They must also consider safety concerns, which sometimes have to come first. Be rest assured, that bracket most likely won't get skipped, nor will any of its components.

@@JamesPetts that bracket signal isn't original to the location though, and as others have said, moving it back improves the sighting and safety. The new location is out of sight of the station, so having a colour light there frees up the semaphore parts for use elsewhere on the line. Medstead already has colour light distant signals as well.

Agreed. This so called heritage railway is being slowly destroyed. Replacing semaphore signals with colour light signals is the ultimate insult.

Good morning chaps, I thought I'd quickly jump in to correct a few misconceptions you may have sighted. Firstly with regards to Medstead re-signalling. I fear you may have misunderstood the intentions here, all of this is a temporary scheme to allow the frame to be taken out of service for overhaul and all bar one signal shall remain in their current location. The new signal that was mentioned will be tucked away round the corner in the cutting where the only people who will see it are the locomotive crew and anyone who happens to stick their head out of the window at the right moment. You won't be able to see any sign of it from the platform. The colour light being installed is in itself a heritage signal as it's a first generation colour light (as far as I'm aware), so is a neat compromise all things considered. Along the lines of motorised signals, well you may be surprised to know that we've actually had those for a few years now, dotted along the line as distant signals. This I can only assume is because of the force required to clear them (I've watched signalmen clearing the next stop signal that they apply to and they have to put a lot of effort into it. Of course some do make it seem rather effortless but that's the skill of the job). With regards to Alresford, the box itself is the original box and the lion share of the point rodding and signal wires are still very much in use, when you're next down I'm sure the signalman on duty would be more than happy to show you around. The remodelled end does have a new point chucked in but, from my layman's perspective, it looks like would be more than a tad challenging to move with traditional rodding due to its distance away from the box (a bit like the distant signals but harder). That and due to Alresford box being the original, the frame is only so big. All the levers are currently assigned a function / point / signal, some actually control two signals depending on whether you push or pull the lever. All in all as a visitor it's unlikely that you will actually see any changes, we decided to make this video to show just how you could keep the heritage feel of a station using a more modern system (well I say modern, the first signalling 'panel' in the UK was in operation circa 1930s) while the current frame is temporarily taken out of action. When you guys are next down I'm more than happy to meet up with you to discuss further and show you around what I can show you from the public areas. Will.

@@WillStratford very well said

Will, thank you for the additional info, it did appear on first site that the railway were moving away from semaphore like they did at Alton. As to the point control at Alresford when we visited last year all the old rodding was disconnected visible from the bridge and all the points beyond the bridge have point motors.its a real shame that apart from the one extra point the others were not reconnected to their original levers.

@@cmclewee9518 alton has always been colour light i believe