About seven years ago I discovered the Youtube channel of one Ian Ives, who had posted a variety of VHS era videos from inside British power signalboxes (PSB's) in the early 1990's, such as this one of Glasgow Central. Well as the way things tend to go I lost track of the channel until a recent keyword search brought it back on my radar. It turns out that Mr. Ives has had quite the exciting career as over the intervening years he posted a number of videos from Australian signalboxes. These are especially interesting due to the mix of British and American influences.
For example he has some video of the operation of a local Australian copy of the GRS pistol grip style interlocking machine, only in Australia it is paired with pneumatic point machines!
A British style lever frame at Hurstville.
A British style panel controlling a US style CTC layout at Salisbury.
A British style miniature level power frame at Sydenham.
An interlocked and manually controlled grade crossing with a modern panel interface at Parramatta Road.
And finally a modern signaling center at Wollongong.
Just like in the US, Australia has been seeing its own drive towards the elimination of manned signalboxes and non-video interfaces so most if not all of the videos capture railway infrastructure that has been now lost to time.
In addition to the tower content, Mr Ives has also posted a number of industry training materials including instructions on manual operation of every model of power point machine in service with the railway including pneumatics.
Please check out the channel as many of the above example videos came in multiple parts. New videos continue to be posted so it might be worth subscribing to.
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