It was nearly 20 years ago that I traveled on this Irish Railway Preservation Society special from Connolly Station Dublin to Mullingar.
The train paused for a crossing with an up-passenger at Enfield, and I made this view from the main road bridge.
It was my first trip to Enfield, and I returned many more times over the years. The signal cabin and mechanical signaling were the big attraction for me.
The illumination used paraffin lamps filled once every two weeks by the signalman. The signal shown wasn’t too difficult to pull, but pulling the down distant was a real chore and took a lot of elbow grease. Sometimes it took two or three attempts, especially for the uninitiated. Brian Solomon
Yes, the mechanical signalling system is very interesting. I used to be intrigued by the mechanical signalling systems at South Station (and also at Riverside) and have been collecting photos showing them. Here, if you figure the cars and loco are about 60′ long the run from the tower to the semaphore is about 600′ and it looks as if two temperature-compensating cranks are in the line of pipe. Also looks as if the illumination in the signal is a kerosene (gas?) lantern.
Ah happy days! Might have been on that myself!