Non-consecutive RCS milages

[Osthagen]

UK RCSs are by no means perfect, but they're generally pretty good for consistently listing the destinations in the order of distance with the nearest going at the top, and the furthest away at the bottom. Every so often, you get the odd, usually pre-1994 sign which lists the main super-control city like 'London' or 'Birmingham' at the top (presumably in lieu of a regional heading), such as this after the turnoff for the M40 South at J17, where you've got London listed first, but the other control cities of Warwick, Leamington, Stratford and Banbury are listed top to bottom from nearest to furthest, that's understandable.

However, you get the occasional one where the order of destinations follows no coherent pattern whatsoever, and look almost as if they were designed to test the OCD of Sabristri.

One of the biggest offenders in this regard for me are those on the section of A50 west immediately after you turn off from the M1 at J24A, this sign being a good example. The sign lists:

A50
(M6) 43
Stoke-on-Trent 40
Burton-upon-Trent 16
Uttoxeter 24
Alton Towers 30
Stafford 38

You've got the two furthest away control destinations listed at the top, which isn't great in itself, but the rest are arranged in a complete and utter jumbled mess. Also, not exactly relevant, but the sign makes no mention of Derby despite the A50 being the signposted route from the M1 towards 'Derby, Stoke', and the A6 Derby spur being less than 3 miles away.

[Rillington]

The RCSs on the M1 east of Leeds begin with London before listing Leeds and Manchester. Shame that the distance to London wasn't included.

And the first RCS to list London on the M1 also begins with London. The RCS states:

London 117
Derby 17
(Coventry 38)

[Chris5156]

The RCSs on the M1 east of Leeds begin with London before listing Leeds and Manchester. Shame that the distance to London wasn't included.

They're a strange thing - part of the odd strategy that gives you "London" one way and "The SOUTH" the other at the A1/M1 split. The way those RCS use "London" makes you think they wanted to put "The SOUTH" there but couldn't, so they wrote "London" instead.

[wallmeerkat]

M1 Belfast

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.5698081 ... ?entry=ttu

Dublin 101
Lisburn 8
Craigavon 25
Enniskillen 81

There is a sort of logic, you're likely using this road to either head South/Dublin, or west towards the other destinations. Though should Dublin technically be in brackets as it is a turnoff for the A1?

[Chris5156]

M1 Belfast

https://www.google.com/maps/@54.5698081 ... ?entry=ttu

Dublin 101
Lisburn 8
Craigavon 25
Enniskillen 81

There is a sort of logic, you're likely using this road to either head South/Dublin, or west towards the other destinations. Though should Dublin technically be in brackets as it is a turnoff for the A1?

It used to be the case that a major destination would go at the top, and the others below it in the order you'd reach them. That's not normal practice any more but presumably this sign copied an older one. Another change that was made at about the same time was to get rid of all brackets on RCS - so it's correct that it doesn't have them. It looks rather like whoever designed this sign updated it to get rid of brackets but didn't update it to change the order.

[Rillington]

Do you know roughly when this was the case?

[Bryn666]

Do you know roughly when this was the case?

No roughly about it, the change to RCS design was part of the 1994 TSRGD and had its origins in the Guildford experiments from 1987 onwards.