In the frame

Tim Helme looks at the humble ground frame, once ubiquitous but now becoming increasingly rare.

- Tim Helme

I THINK Archimedes was on the right track (no pun intended) when he said ‘Give me a lever big enough and I will move the world’. I do not think any levers I pulled in my railway career moved the world, but they might have helped to revolve it a little.

Ground frames – basically a set of manual point levers – were once a common sight dotted all around our railway network, mainly used to enable a loco to run round, allow a train to enter or exit a siding, or operate an emergency crossover. However, track and signalling upgrades over the years have rendered many of these quaint lineside features obsolete. Where once a shunter or member of the train crew would have to pull a set of localised point levers, the same is often now achieved by a signaller clicking a mouse in a control centre many miles away.

During my time as a British Rail trainman in the early 1990s, there were about 50 ground frames in my locale (a 30-mile radius of Derby) – most of which I would be required to be familiar with, their operation ranging from regular to infrequent. Today, however, more than half of these have been removed. Around 14 are still in situ but disconnected and in poor state, leaving five still in (albeit occasional) use. Oddly, at least one is still being maintained, even though its levers have long been disconnected and its relevant siding was lifted years ago.