Replacing pole numbers

A very pleasant day on the railway, working the crossing gates at Cranbrook Road. A sunny day with some energetic working up the bank and over the crossing by the Norwegian locomotive.

A couple of members of the signals and telegraph gang were working on replacing all the numbers on the telegraph poles between Tenterden and Bodiam. Each pole has a number which is the best way of identifying your exact location on the railway. Very useful if the train has failed for any reason.

The poles are about 125 feet apart so you can calculate how many poles there are on a 10 1/2 mile railway. 

These two have already renumbered between Wittersham and Bodiam and we're working between Tenterden and Rolvenden today and as they passed by the crossing keeper's hut I invited them in for a cup of tea which was very well received.

They were a jovial pair, I've known them both for a while and were joking that the two shortest guys on the railway had been given the task of replacing the numbers as high as possible on the poles. They also said they often had trouble remembering the numbers and sometimes had to go back to check the number of previous pole. It would have been a real downer if you got to the other end and found you were one number out