I have a pair of Southern Railway Semaphore Boards. I am currently restoring them. They have a green and red lens mounted in them. The boards are painted red on one side and black on the other side. I am wondering what is the the correct paint scheme for these boards. The depot that they go on was built around the turn of the century and was closed in the 1970's. Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks Ralph

-- Ralph E. Campbell (rcampbell@aholdusa.com), July 22, 2002

Answers

Based on your description, I'm assuming that the semaphores do not have an amber roundel (lens). I am also assuming that these are lower quadrant semaphores since you say they came from a depot and not a tower. Based on your description of the paint colors, I believe that they were two-position home block semaphores. If that is true, than they have the correct paing scheme. The red side of the blade would have faced outward and the other blade would be just the opposite. That way, a train approaching the station would see the blade that governed movement in its direction but the black would mask the rear side of the blade governing movement in the other direction. There were also three position block signals that had blades painted in the same color scheme.

-- Alan Walker (awalker2002@comcast.net), January 14, 2003.