STELLENBOSCH

Stellenbosch is a well-known name, being one of the historical towns of the Dutch settlement in South Africa, and featuring a large university. For now, the sense of history extends to the signalling, and Stellenbosch is one of the last outposts of semaphore signalling in South Africa. Here is the signalling area in the station building, closed on Saturday afternoon in March 2012, but very much in use during the week.

A 24 lever frame controls the signals and points at the station. There are some good yards, so a number of interesting signals are included at the station to allow for the shunting movements, although the goods traffic is probably very limited at this point in time.

Another picture of the frame by Greg Hart.

Van Schoor token at Stellenbosch for the section to Vlottenburg.

Stellenbosch features examples of a number of different types of signal- this is the up outer home.

Another picture of the up outer home.

An interesting pair of signals here- the route signal at the top allows continuing access on the main line, whereas the shunt signal at the bottom allows access to the sidings on the right of the running line. The up home signals can be seen in the distance.

Another picture of the yard signals.

A better view of the route and shunt signal pair, picture by Greg Hart.

While the age of semaphore signals in active use in South Africa is winding down, there is still replacement of equipment. Around 2009, the "doll bracket" up home signal in the lower picture (and earlier on the page) was replaced by this post in the upper picture.

Dwarf signals controlling shunt access- just a minature semaphore arm!

This is a point indicator, controlled by the point lever.

A ground frame in the defunct goods/container yard that was used to operate derailers in the yard.
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