CAST IRON SIGNS
Mike Williams
This article sets out to describe the various families of cast
iron signs used by the LNWR to notify, inform and warn its staff and
the public. Although the designs were many and varied there was a
considerable amount of standardisation, especially when one considers
that the LNWR existed for some 76 years. No attempt has been made to
cover signs displayed on joint lines, since the pure LNWR ones are
complicated enough. Similarly, signs attached to moving vehicles, or
those associated with signalling and signal boxes have been described
in great detail in specialist books on these subjects. My thanks to
Ken Jones for many of the photographs, and for checking the text.
Perhaps an enterprising manufacturer would like to use these
illustrations, with the sizes given in the text (width by height), to
produce a set of etches for modellers.
We start with a common line-side sign, usually referred to by its
title – NOTICE. Measuring 18in square, it is very thick and
with a plain border having square corners. They were screwed to gates
and warned of an enormous (for those days) fine if any person should
neglect to close the offending gate after use. For some reason which
has never be explained to me, there are two versions of this sign,
usually referred to as double paragraph and single paragraph, for
obvious
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reasons. The single paragraph is slightly easier to find and
is half the thickness (and half the weight!), suggesting a later
date, but both are common signs. The single paragraph version only
bears a date of 1st November 1883, which presumably refers
to an Act of Parliament and may indicate that double paragraph
variants were cast prior to that date.
SHUT & FASTEN THE GATE. Unusually for the LNWR, this sign is
thin, plain, and has no border at all. It measures 33½in by 3in. No
varieties are known to me, though some other railways used similar
styles. These were often fixed to the top rail of a gate, with the
previously described NOTICE lower down. Since no company name appears
one can only assume that these signs were made by the LNWR.
BEWARE OF THE TRAINS – on a post. These were used at
footpaths or fences where there was no gate, not necessarily where
anyone was expected or entitled to cross the line. The message was
simple and obvious. A rarer variety has thicker, more clumsy letters
and is assumed to have been older, since generally earlier signs were
thicker. Both types measure 21in by 13in, with a flange on the
bottom, through which four bolts fixed them to a 4ft 6in tall cast
iron post which was cruciform in section with a 12in square heavy
base. They were simply buried
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