Post 31

Post 31 was the situated adjacent to the Doveton Street sidings and had both Home and Distant signals mounted on the same post.

The distant arm on post 31 had rare method of enamelling on the arm, known unofficially as the reverse K marking. This was the standard method of painting distant signal arms until 1928 when the change to a chevron (and yellow arms) was adopted.

A Jim Leppitt photo showing the location of post 31 between the main line and the Doveton St sidings.

Besides the A and B signals that controlled movements at the Doveton Street and Flour Mill sidings I'm yet to model any of semaphores signals on the layout.

I made the post out of balsa wood filed down to get the right tampered profile. The arms are made from Evergreen board and batten siding, and are attached to the posts using bits and pieces from the scrap box. The ladder is plastic and brass wire was used to form the handrails and mechanism for the signals. The lamps are also bits from the scrap box.

The lens for the signal arms were formed by printing resized photos of signals onto clear label sheet that was then stuck to clear plastic sheet. This was then trimmed to shape and attached to the arm bracket.

The top arm on Post 31 was provided so that drivers leaving Ballarat could see the signal arm above the Armstrong Street Bridge.  As the top arm would have been difficult to see if the train was standing at the signal, a lower co-acting arm was provided which repeated the signal indication.

Post 31 visible above the Armstrong St bridge. Scenery is yet to be completed for this section of the layout.

I still need to add some details such as the post number board and cable mechanism at the base of the post. Building this post has give me the confidence to tackle some of the other semaphore signals that were such a feature of railway operations around Ballarat.