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Section 26; pages:
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Section 26: Distance Markers
(Page 2 of 2)
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On a section of the West Coast Main Line between Bushey and Hemel Hempstead, large yellow boards with black roundels [26.14] are installed on both sides of the railway, attached to the electrification masts situated nearest to each quarter-milepost. These are sighting boards to assist staff working on the line in assessing sighting distances and they have no relevance to train drivers. The boards face in both directions along the track.
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[26.14] Sighting Board.
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In the Manchester Piccadilly area, extra markers have been provided midway between the quarter-mileposts. These markers are of similar style to the mileposts, but quote the mileage in miles and yards [26.15]. The lower figure giving the number of yards will be either 220, 660, 1100 or 1540, equating to one, three, five or seven eighths of a mile respectively.
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[26.15] Miles and Yards Marker (Manchester Piccadilly).
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In some complex areas around London, lineside markers are installed at intervals of one chain [26.16]. There are eighty chains to one mile. Similar markers are installed at the London end of the Great Western Main Line [26.17], where in addition there are metric markers provided at ten metre intervals from the zero point at Paddington [26.18].
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[26.16] Chainage Markers ( (a) - mile marker; (b) - chain marker ).
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[26.17] Chainage Marker (miles and chains) (Great Western Zone).
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[26.18] Metreage Marker (Great Western Zone).
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From c.1998, new reflectorised mileposts were installed along certain parts of the Great Western and Southern Zones. They are normally double-sided and placed edge-on to the track so that they face drivers [26.19].
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[26.19] Reflectorised Mileposts.
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A chainage marker may carry additional plates showing the full mileage and the Engineer's Line Reference (ELR) which identifies the route [26.20].
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[26.20] Chainage Marker (e.g. ELR = 'VIR').
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A new standard form of kilometre post was introduced in 2003. To distinguish them from mileposts, they have yellow figures on a black background [26.21].
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[26.21] Kilometre Post.
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Schedule 9 of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act 1996 exempted that railway from Section 94 of the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 (see above). The CTRL, which opened from 2003, therefore has no mileposts but kilometre markers are provided every kilometre. These comprise large square yellow boards [26.22] clearly visible to drivers. The name of the adjacent track is identified on each board. In addition, a plate giving the kilometrage to the nearest tenth of a kilometre [26.23] is fitted to each block marker (see [2.123]), shunt marker (see [3.85]) and group of emergency replacement switches (see [25.25]).
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[26.22] Kilometre Marker (e.g. beside Down Track) (CTRL).
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[26.23] Kilometrage Plate (CTRL).
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Distance markers are placed at 110 yard intervals along the Bedford to Bletchley line. This was achieved by installing three additional markers between each pair of adjacent quarter-mileposts. The new markers give the mileage in miles and yards and also state the Engineer's Line Reference (ELR) for the route, which is "BBM" [26.24].
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[26.24] Miles and Yards Marker (Bedford-Bletchley line).
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Kilometre posts (see [26.21]) were installed at 500 metre intervals along the Cambrian Lines in 2008 in preparation for the introduction of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). They had been intended to replace the mileposts but were subsequently removed.
