With automobiles being introduced in America and Britain the traffic situation was getting problematic. The lantern was lit by gas and turned up by means of a lever at its base so that the appropriate light faced the traffic.īut in an unfortunate incident this traffic light exploded, on January 2, 1869, injuring the policeman who was operating it. Red meant ‘stop’ and green meant ‘caution’. This signal was a revolving lantern with red and green signals. Thus, even before the advent of motorcars, traffic lights were introduced in 1868 in London to control the flow of horse buggies, wagons and pedestrians. Since railway signalling was introduced, civic officials decided to try it out in the congested streets of London. In 1893, green lights replaced the white light to avoid confusion as street lighting and house lighting hampered the driver from reading the signal rightly. First, the normally displayed indication for ‘stop’ became red while an additional yellow light was added to indicate to the driver to proceed with caution. This caused a major accident as the Manchester express train, which was running on this track, crashed into the already derailed bogies, killing 13 people and seriously injuring 24 others.įollowing this disastrous accident, the signal system was modified. The derailment blocked the track in the opposite direction. In January 1876, the engine driver of the Flying Scotsman, an express train, rammed into a freight train running ahead on the same track because of the confusion in the signals. However, the white coloured light proved disastrous as it stood for both ‘the all clear’ and ‘warning indications’ and so resulted in many accidents. The signals were painted red as it was easy to identify and attract the driver’s attention.Īt night, oil lamps were added on top of these poles and a red light indicated ‘stop’ while a white light indicated that the driver could proceed. If lowered to 45 degrees it urged the engine driver to proceed with caution and if pointed vertically skyward it indicated the track was clear. This consisted of a signal arm in a horizontal position to express ‘stop’. In 1841, the first semaphore (visual form of signalling) railway signal was installed at London station. ![]() When the kite was raised on top it indicated danger while if the ball was raised, it indicated the all clear. These signals consisted of a ball and something that looked like a kite. In the early railways, a single track was used for both up-going and down-going trains, and safety depended on spacing the arrival and departure of trains according to time intervals. Long before roads needed traffic lights, railways were using a system of signals to control train traffic.
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