IT'S QUICKER BY POGO STICK YAWN

i have driven old steamers back in the day with my dad,,but none of that stuff was around pluss it was on a branch line in Wales,,,haha

THE BUZZERS AND BELLS ARE TO KEEP THE AUDIENCE AWAKE

Thanks Bob, stay tuned for the return journey.

Ray Evans I'm tuned in and waiting Ray...Best wishes...Bob

Is there a video for the return journey? Fantastic video this!

All going soon, replaced with axle counters 😢

Many thanks Lewis

+Jack Kreighbaum hopefully this should clear a few things up and i'l try not to confuse you. Firstly the basic function of signals is to keep trains apart, so the line between each signal is known as a section. the colour on each signal indicates what the situation is ahead. green means the next section is clear (ie no obstructions or other trains ahead) yellow means proceed with caution as you should expect the next signal to be red which means stop. The general system is green-yellow-red though in some places where the gap between signals is short or where the line speed is quite fast it goes green-double yellow-single yellow-red. the double yellow it basically an instruction to slow down as may need to stop further ahead. possibly slightly off topic here but one reason why this may happen is a way of slowing the train down for a junction even if the route is set beyond the junction. some signals will not come off red until a certain time has passed for a train to be between a yellow and the red signal which after the time has elapsed will change to yellow, double yellow where provided, or green. this is known as approach control. in some other cases for junctions where the speed needs to be reduced to come off a junction where the current line speed is in excess of 100mph the route is normally set beyond the junction and when it is, the double yellow and single yellow will flash at a steady pace to tell the driver to slow down to the required speed for the junction As a train ahead progresses along, the signals it has passed often change by them self to indicate for the next train what is going on ahead. in some places though, this is still done manually by someone pulling a lever! (a system slowly being phased out) In order to help the driver with what the signal is displaying, there is a bizarre shaped yellow box on the track at a set distance on the approach to a signal. if the signal is green a ping (or on some older trains a bell) will sound in the drivers cab when the train passes over it (6:18) , however if if the signal is on Double yellow a single yellow or red a bleep will sound (2:30), and the driver has to press a button within a certain time to acknowledge it or else the trains emergency brakes will apply automatically and it can not be overridden. in addition when the signal is showing 2 or 1 yellow or red and the bleep is acknowledged, what's known as a sunflower will light up in the cab as a visual reminder of the signal. when the signal is green again the sunflower will disappear. this is a safety system known as AWS (Automatic Warning System) this system main purpose is to help the driver during 'poor visibility (fog /falling snow) although it is used in all weathers all year On the approach to junctions such as at 4:00, above the colour shown there is a black box. this box tells you the route that has been set for your train when the signal is showing yellow or green. in most cases it will show either D for the Down line or U for the Up Line. where there are just 2 tracks its down main and up main, but where there are 4 its often down slow, down fast, up fast, and up slow. however in some places the box can display a number. this is for the platform you are going on at a big station. at a place elsewhere where there is many route options a letter(or 2 at some places) for a line which is named after a destination may be shown to help determine which one you are going to end up on. say for example UL for Up London line or D for Dover line. on some signals where there is only a couple of route options at a junction, a series of white lights appear above the signal(known as a feather) to indicate the direction your taking. there is normally 5 of them at an angle and always start near the top and head downwards. a bit of common sense here but if its angled to the left your making a left at the junction, and dependant on which one is lit up if there is more than one should indicate how far your going over and the same applies to the right. an additional way you can determine which way your going is normally a Down line is heading away from London and up line is heading towards London. the same applies no matter if you are heading north south east or west. also at the 4:00 you might have noticed the 2 little red lights near the right hand track. this is also a signal (known as a ground signal and i'l let you guess why) On this signal when a route has been set, 2 white lights appear and you are allowed to proceed however its similar to before where you must assume the next signal is at red until you know differently. 2 white lights can also appear if you are going into a siding (indicated on a route box as SDG) or if you are going into the next section say at a station which already has a train in it. (this is known as 'calling on') these 2 white lights can appear either from the ground signal where there is one and also off a main signal where there is a need for one. next there is the bleeping sound which happens a few times during this cab ride. This is a driver vigilance device and is a result of the driver not moving a lever or pressing a button for 30 seconds. to prove he is still alert this noise will sound and when it does, the driver must take his foot/feet of a pedal on the floor then put them back on again to cancel it. if he fails to do this within i believe 2.3 seconds when asked to the emergency brakes will automatically apply and again it can not be overridden. this is similar to a more famous dead man's handle which you may have heard of. and finally the bleeping sound at 3 55, is a new signalling system which will eventually control all trains and works from the drivers cab. its known as E.R.T.M.S (European Rail Traffic Management System) and there are i believe 3 levels to it. as its still a fairly new system i'm not familiar yet with what it all means however a search on-line if your interested should explain it better than i can. i know its rather long and i've probably waffled on a bit as i've covered some stuff not in this video but think of it as extra stuff in case you were wondering what it meant. hope all this helps and if i've confused you i'm sorry.

For our US friends on these lines it is route, not speed signalling. so the signal just advises the status of the block or blocks ahead.

In case anyone was wondering, the 'W' stands for 'whistle', a hangover from steam days. It requires the loco to whistle; it'd be just silly if the driver whistled...

All trains now have Data Recorders, the driver enters his pin number.

freight train

The three tunnels are Lonlas, Llangyfelach & Penllergaer.

@@RayEvans319 thanks!