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End of an era as semaphore signals are taken down

John Devinein Manea
News imageGetty Images Wooden semaphore signals that were used on the railway lines. It shows a downward facing rectangle of red and white painted wood attached to a pulley and hingeGetty Images
The semaphore signals at Manea were the last in use on the Ely to Peterborough line (stock image)

A railway historian says he believes the traditional semaphore signals removed from a rural railway station could have been the last in use in the entire Eastern region.

The wooden signals were dismantled from the trackside at Manea, in Cambridgeshire, on 1 November.

Network Rail confirmed they were the last semaphore signals on the Ely-Peterborough line, but the company was not completely sure if they were the last on the East Anglia system.

Peter Wright, a volunteer at the March and District Museum, said: "As far as everyday commuter services go, they could have now disappeared forever in our region."

Semaphore signals have been part of railway life since the 1800s and are currently being upgraded across the network - being replaced by a modern light system.

They were controlled by a system of levers within a signal box.

News imageJohn Devine/BBC Inside a railway signal box where lots different coloured leavers, about 1m (3ft) high sit under a shelf with various electronic equipment on.John Devine/BBC
The Victorian railway signal box at Manea displays the various levers which controlled the movement of the semaphore signals
News imageJohn Devine/BBC Peter Wright, 77, has short grey hair with a matching beard and moustache, he is wearing a blue fleece top with a striped t-shirt underneath and is standing on a railway platform with the tracks behind him, a semaphore sign, which is black and white and is suspended from a metal tower beside the track.John Devine/BBC
Peter Wright says he believes the railway semaphore signals removed from Manea on Saturday could have been the last in use in the Eastern region

Mr Wright, 78, the son of a Fenland railway man, said that Manea was, to his knowledge, the last bastion of Victorian mechanical signalling systems in East Anglia.

He said that signals and points were all controlled by wires and rods, levers and pulleys, with the whole system known as "mechanical signalling".

"The semaphore signals are being replaced with colour light signals (like traffic lights)," he added.

"Heritage railways do continue to use semaphore signals - so you can still see them at places like Nene Valley Railways in Peterborough, but as far as everyday commuter services go, they could have now disappeared forever in our region."

News imageCharlie Marks A red and white semaphore signal is being removed by two men in high-viz orange outfits on a large cherry picker device, two other workmen can be seen on the ground, a lot of tree branches are in the foreground.Charlie Marks
The last semaphore signal on the Ely-Peterborough line was taken down at Manea on 1 November

Richard Foster, the associate editor for Trackside railway magazine, said semaphore signals had quite a history.

"The signals themselves were called semaphores, dating back to the days of the flags," he said.

"If the signal arm is in the horizontal position, the line ahead is not clear; with the arm either pointing up or down, the line is clear."

Mr Foster said he thought the Peterborough-Ely section of railway was probably the last line in East Anglia to be converted, but he added that some isolated signals in yards and depots could still be in place.

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