At some locations there was electronic communication between the water tower and the signal box, enabling the signal man to know how much water was available. We do not think this system was installed at Settle where the water level indicator on the outside of the tank would have been visible from the signal box. (Photographs courtesy of the Midland Railway Society)
Hi Mark, fascinating series of articles as always - keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletePresumably the Garsdale water troughs would have required a similar water indicator system? But would it have been positioned in the signal box, or in the water tower - or
perhaps even in both locations?
The Craven newspaper article from 2011 quotes Dr Bill Mitchell as saying, "The area being remote, a duty man was appointed to keep his eye on the system. He was also expected to prevent water in the reservoir from freezing over. The troughs were designed to fill up, under normal circumstances, in about ten minutes".
This suggests water level indicator inside the water tower, but if the troughs were frozen in winter, dry in summer or suffering from leaves in autumn, then would the duty man have had a permanent all year round job maintaining this? 🤔