Thanks to John Devine and BBC News Online for this headline.
It is with deep regret that the semaphore signals at Manea( Sounds like an Aztec ancient village but is actually is a rural location with it’s own station on the Ely to Peterborough line.) have been taken down.
Some might regard this as the obvious demise of a manually operated system of gears ,levers and wires which has worked effectively for a hundred years as a disaster and a reflection of the onward march of the boot of the digital era into all areas of our lives.
I , however, am not so dramatic. I know the wooden red and white signals will find a good home in an Antique shop somewhere in Britain and will most likely feature on an episode of Antiques Roadtrip, where the expert “Oohs and Aahs” about this wonderful piece of Railway History and then two doors down in another shop , finds the full set of levers which were used in the now fully digitised Signal Box. More” Oohs” and “Aahs.
” I wonder if they worked together, this will be a railway buff’s dream lot.” The Roadtrip expert looks a the camera.” Exciting!”
From a maintenance point of view, no one is going to miss painting the Semaphore Boards and maintaining the tracks levers and pulleys in order to operate them. So although their demise is sad , it’s probably for the best and they will I’m sure go down in TV. posterity.
thenotsomightyom 