1965 London Underground pictures on a German website.

some BR photos
link

Underground photos
www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?17,7479104

very interesting pics... some very nostalgic - fit into the "long lost" category, especially Leytonstone without the wall blocking the view of the trains and a train at Liverpool Street platform 3.

Simon

Fantastic Ron, many thanks and much appreciated. The year I started work!!

If you use Google Chrome you can also use Google translate.

This got me thinking about the procedure involving the Epping north siding and operational stock. Obviously, this doesn't occur now but does anybody know the ins and outs back in the day? Was this to do with using both platforms at Epping for London bound trains but parking one on the siding when an Ongar shuttle was due? 

Were these mostly used in connection with the BR goods trains that still ran up here till 1966? They seem to be the LT equivalent of the BR banner repeater used when the signal in advance was difficult for the engineman to see, as will have been the case at leytonstone, with its multiplicity of bi-directional signals, canopies, and milling crowds?
Not certain about this so happy to be corrected!

It is indeed the Leytonstone inner distant. There was an outer distant not far outside Snaresbrook, though whether it was still there in 1965 I'm not quite sure.

So they're actually closer to being the LT equivalent of a BR semaphore distant signal (except that BR distants usually apply to only one signal (read on for more)). When on, they look like they do in the "Ausfahrt aus Leyonstone in Richtung Hainault" picture, with the black bar horizontal; and when off they look like they do in Hobbayne's signalbox link, with the black bar at about 45 degrees. They quite closely resemble your common or garden BR semaphore distant.

And yeah, they were provided for the steam trains, due to the much longer stopping distances. Standard London Underground repeaters just didn't afford enough warning, so the distants were provided at full braking distance to give drivers of steam trains plenty of time to stop safely. They could apply to multiple signals and all of the signals would need to be off for the associated distant to clear. That presumably explains why the numbers of the signals the distant applies to are not printed on the identification plate. This information was presumably available separately. But, by way of example, if you look at Harsig's diagram of Harrow-Amersham & Chesham, you can see on page 7, the Northwood Hills outer and inner distants. So you have the station starter signal at Northwood southbound, JF22 and underneath that is the Northwood Hills southbound outer distant. It applies to JF22, A773^A, A773^B, A771 (station starter at Northwood Hills) and JDX767. That's the next four signals, one of which is the station starter at the next station and the next of which is actually between Northwood Hills and Pinner. All five of these signals would have to be off for the outer distant to clear. The inner distant is actually beneath A773^B, which is the Northwood Hills inner home. So you can see the inner distant actually occurs within the sequence of signals that the outer distant applies to. The inner distant applies to A773^B, A771 and JDX767. Beneath RJDX767/1 is the Pinner southbound distant, which applies to the next four signals up the road. Sadly I don't have similar information for the Leytonstone distants, but it gives an idea, I hope?

I wonder if this is more due to the different braking systems rather than Steam vs. Electric. Vacuum is not as good as Westinghouse Air...  Also would the steam trains have a greater loaded weight, and therefore a longer stopping distance.