In the frame

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