Preserved Mechanical Controllers?

[freebrickproductions]

Hope no-one minds me asking this question, but it was something on my mind recently.
As I understand it, the modern electronic/solid-state controllers over there didn't come-out until the 1970s, upon which, all of the old mechanical ones started being phased out.
I know over here in the US, the earliest electronic ones were introduced in the late-60s in some regions of the country, and became more widespread by the 1970s, though you can still find some of the old mechanical controllers clunking away at various intersections across the US if you know where to look, and at least a few signal collectors have preserved a good few examples of them as well.
However, I haven't heard the same about the mechanical controllers y'all used over there, other than the fact that you can still apparently find the odd abandoned one (or at least the case for it) around if you know where to look. As such, I'm curious, has anyone over there preserved any of the old electro-mechanical traffic signal controllers y'all used to use? If so, do any of them work?

[traffic-light-man]

It's way before my time, and unfortunately I've found that generally the history isn't particularly well recorded, but I believe mechanical controllers weren't all that commonplace in the UK. I think the majority of controllers made use of relays, valves, transistors and the likes rather than being mechanical.

I think you'll struggle to find anything pre-microprocessor still in use on junctions these days. In fact, in a lot of areas, I think you'd be doing well to find controllers that are even getting on for 30 years old.

I did have a bit of a 'heritage' thread going not too long ago with some pictures of old cabinets, but I've never been in a position to open any of them up so see what's inside.

[L.J.D]

Kinda on topic. In the 1969 Italian Job movie when the signals mess up it shows a scene of the supposed controllers. Were those cassette wheel type controllers ever used ? Or was it just an effect for the movie ? I've always wondered this.

[Chris Bertram]

Kinda on topic. In the 1969 Italian Job movie when the signals mess up it shows a scene of the supposed controllers. Were those cassette wheel type controllers ever used ? Or was it just an effect for the movie ? I've always wondered this.

Those, my friend, are open-reel computer tape decks, pretty common into the 80's and 90's. Designs varied - sometimes all you saw was one reel, with the take-up spool concealed within the unit housing. Back in the 60's and 70's they would have stored source and object code, with the programmes being loaded from tape before execution. Later on they were used a great deal for daily backups, but as technology moved on DAT became widely used, being more compact, and backup to CD/DVD also took over. I'm not sure that tape is used even as a backup medium these days, and older tapes will likely have been subject to degradation over time unless stored in conditions designed to prevent this.

[Chris584]

From memory, the few control cabinets I’ve seen open were equipped with relays of the sort used in GPO telephone exchanges (which as an adult I had worked with). They were open for the police to manually operate the lights when some junctions go overly busy like near football stadiums etc. Some boxes had the buttons on the outside but a special key had to be used to switch them in. As a kid I used to press them thinking I could control the lights
I’d be surprised if any remaining cabinets even have anything left inside, but you never know.

[traffic-light-man]

There was a trio of ATE/Plessey Type (I think) 54 cabinets in Liverpool. One was bashed about during some roadworks and was subsequently removed. Of the two left, one is empty and I think was probably a termination cabinet rather than controller given the layout, as for the other one, I'm not sure but I suspect it could be the same.

It's a struggle even finding Type 70 cabinets still around these days.

[tom66]

Kinda on topic. In the 1969 Italian Job movie when the signals mess up it shows a scene of the supposed controllers. Were those cassette wheel type controllers ever used ? Or was it just an effect for the movie ? I've always wondered this.

The most ridiculous thing about that scene is that it would have made any difference that the lights were malfunctioning. From my experience in Italy, red means "stop about 5 seconds later if you want" and yellow means "accelerate so that you pass red at 50 mph".