Railway
Created Monday 23 September 2024
Selex LNER Guards watch #5166 ~1930 (Second)
Railway timekeeping Before the railways, local time in England could be 30 minutes difference from one side of the country to the other. This made scheduling impossible, so Railway time was established in 1846. Timekeeping was a major safety concern for railways too, and several accidents were put down to poor timekeeping. If one station master had his watch two minutes fast, and another three minutes slow, trains were released at the wrong times. Sometimes these crashes lead to massive fatalities.
Due to several accidents and as a means of reducing mistakes station masters and train guards were issued with good watches that would be tested frequently, and now these timepieces are highly collected.
The first standardised time arrangement was applied by the Great Western Railway in England in November 1840. The agreement synchronised the different local mean times into a single standard time. This became known as railway time. It was adopted by all railway companies across Great Britain over the following seven years. The timetables by which trains were scheduled and the time station clocks displayed were brought in line with the local mean time for London or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
It wasn't until 1880 when the government to legislated on the establishment of a single standard time and a single time zone for the country.(Statutes (Definition of Time) Act )
LNER
Company's that supplied watches to the LNER:
Selex 8000
Record 2000
Limit 600
Smiths 450
Vertex 150
Tissot 150
Cortebert 150
Aproximate date for serial numbers
date = (#/690)+1923
SELEX
My Watch
Selex LNER #5166 ~ 1930 (Second)
Selex Movement (Revue) - my Second LNER with slight differences to the escape wheel bridge
Dimier Frères & Cie
were importers of swiss watch movemets for railway watches.
they registered the name 'Selex' in1925
This second watch was bought from a rail enthusiast off Ebay who was selling some of his collection and cost £225.00 inc chain by NCR usual asking price ~£65.00.
Revue Thommen Movements
Selex Movement (Revue) - my first LNER #5794 ~1932
Vertex
It seems that the movements in the Vertex, Limit and Selex watches share the same main plate but have been drilled and fitted with different bridges, these movements have possibly all been bought in from Revue Thommen with different stamps and bridges fitted.
Locomotive No 5166
While the serial number of my watch has no connection to any locomotive, i thought it would be interesting to see if a loco with the same number existed, and i found not only that the loco existed but it had a connection to the shed my father worked at when he joined the railway in 1944.
LNER 5166 at Neasden shed
BR 69801 Ex LNER 5166 in storage at Gorton
Locomotive no 5166 was a class 9N, built in 1911 for the GCR at Gorton Works in Manchester
The Great Central Railway Class 9N, classified A5 by the LNER, was a class of 4-6-2 tank locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for suburban passenger services.
Original GC No 166 changed to LNER no 5166, later 9801 and eventually 69801.
1911 Entered service @ Neasdon
1949 Allocated to Colwick
1951 Brief visit to Darlington
1956 Allocated to Gorton
1960 Withdrawn from Gorton
May 1960 Scrapped @ Darlington
Withdrawn in 1960, last 10 of the class A5
None have been preserved.
This time in History
By 1932 most of the class A1/A3 loco's had been built and the next building program was the A4
Forrest Mars produces the first Mars bar in his Slough factory.
first experimental television broadcast by the BBC
Backlinks: Watches
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