Mechanical weight-driven block-signalling apparatus

About the sound

Mechanical weight-driven block-signalling apparatus used in the first half of the 20th century. This announced train movements through a section or ‘block’ of railway line – for a ‘down’ train with two rings, repeated three times, or for an ‘up’ train with three rings repeated three times.
In 1991, it was transferred from the warehouse of the Signalling and Telecommunication Devices Service in Celje to the Railway Museum of Slovenske Železnice, the national railway operator.
Sound: The apparatus is on standby when the weight is lifted and is activated from the station via a telegraph line. The electromagnet releases the bolt and the force of the weight is mechanically transmitted to the outer signal bell. The electromagnet is impulse-triggered and allows controlled, repeated ringing.

Sound level: 68,1 dB

Sound recordist: Boštjan Troha
Photographer: Neža Renko
Video recordist: Barbara Grilc