Question about a signal

[Pashina12]

On this page http://senrohaisenzu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2009/02/1979106-12f3.html is this picture:

http://senrohaisenzu.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2009/02/21/19791006c092.jpg

 

What's the meaning of the signal with the 上本上出中 beneath it? Is that like a stop/go signal? Is that illuminated? It looks like it's like neon tube lights, which makes me guess that whichever is lit up, is what the signal applies to? Like then if 上本 is illuminated, that's to indicate the signal's indication is applying to the mainline, but if 上出中 is lit then it applies to the exit track?

 

I'm just totally guessing here based on my understanding of the (Chinese) meaning of the characters...

[kvp]

The top one is a US style repeater signal. It has 3 possible states, horizontal, diagonal and vertical. If you look at the background, you can see the actual exit signal it's repeating. For the bottom part, i think it's just a sign telling that the repeater is for the exit signal.

[Pashina12]

Yeah I was thinking the disc signal there had a pretty strong Pennsy flavour to it...

[Socimi]

Wikipedia Page:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_railway_signals#Repeating_signals

[Pashina12]

Thanks for that. Still curious about the 上本上出中 though... I did a google search for that in quotes (i.e. as "上本上出中") and this thread was the only hit...

[Ewan.in.gz]

I think what 上本上出中 means in this context is that when illuminated, it is repeating the exit signal. In the photo it appears that the sign is not illuminated. 上本 means "this", while "mainline" is 本線.

 

Ewan

[Pashina12]

Ah, okay. I parsed 上本上出中 separately as 上本 and 上出中 with 上本 as "on main" and "上出中" as "on exit"... makes sense to mt Chinese comprehension as "shang ben; shang chu zhong".

[bikkuri bahn]

The meaning is: 上本　＝　"up mainline" (as in the up direction to the capital/main city)

                           上出中　＝　"repeater signal for up mainline departure signal"

 

The track on the opposite side by the station headhouse is the "down mainline", while the track on the other facing side of the island platform is the auxiliary line.  This is the most common layout for mainline small to midsize JNR era stations, when there were still many local freight trains.

[westfalen]

Coming from a country that also uses up and down terminology for timetable direction the up and down characters on signal signs made immediate sense to me the first time I saw them years ago.

[marknewton]

Me too. Also worth pointing out that the Pennsy, B&O and N&W position light signals, while similar in appearance, were running signals, not repeaters.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark?

[Ewan.in.gz]

So, it's the repeater signal for the Up Main (towards Tokyo)?  I notice that there is no crossovers between the 2 signals, so it must only be referring to the signal at far end of the station.

I know that in JNR/JR signaling terminology "Up" is towards Tokyo and "Down" is away from Tokyo. But I was confused by 上本, as I said, it a totally unrelated meaning in Chinese.....  :confused5:  :confused5:

I am guessing that the purpose of the repeater is to allow non-stopping trains to know the status of the next signal even though it may be obscured by the footbridge?

[marknewton]

Repeaters are typically used where sighting of the running signal is limited or obscured for some reason. In this case the footbridge. But it's for the benefit of all trains, not just those which aren't tabled to stop at this station.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.