speed recorder, North Eastern Railway

Speed recorder, clockwork with telegraphic paper recording trace, believed to have been originally installed at Manor House cabin (on the main line to Thirsk) in 1891. In 1893 it was moved to Long Siding cabin, Arthington and in about 1925 it was relocated to Arthington South Junction to monitor the speeds of Down trains, made by Latimer Clark Muirhead & Co, Westminster.

About 1925 the instrument was relocated to Arthington South Junction to monitor the speeds of Down trains. There was a 30 mph speed limit (25 mph in 1922) over the junction (towards Otley to the left and towards Harrogate to the right). The recorder now appears to have been worked by track circuit occupation - when a train "struck in" the paper tape began to move and at a specific interval (probably every 1 second) a dot was punched on the tape. This punching stopped when the train "struck out" at a given distance from the strike in. If the train was travelling too fast, there would be too few dots on the tape between the start and finish. Trains were to be reported if there were less than 30 dots on the tape.