Standing at the peg, bobby!

[John Ashworth]

Can any of the drivers and firemen tell us what, "Standing at the peg, bobby!" means, or should we just go straight to the "links" section of the FOTR website and click on the links to read some old railway slang?

[Mike Haslam]

I don't know it from the South African context, but in the British Railway world a "Peg" was a semaphore signal. "Pegged" meaning a signal is in the off position.

In signalling terms, to "peg up" meant to move a block instrument from 'Line Blocked' to 'Line Clear' or 'train on Line' position, the preliminary to pulling off a signal.

I have no idea who Bobby is though! Maybe it was a gentle hint from the driver to his fireman that tea should have been made.

[John Ashworth]

The signalman was known as a bobby, so "Standing at the peg, bobby" means, "We're standing at the signal, signalman"

[Mike Haslam]

Well, yes. I suppose so. When the early railways became so busy they started to have accidents, running into each other was not a pleasant experience, so policemen were seconded to display flags indicating whether a driver should proceed or not.

Policemen at that time were often called Peelers or Bobbies after Robert Peel, a parliamentarian who 'Founded' the police force.

I guess that as fixed signal were introduced, the name carried on for a while until the term Signalman became more fashionable.

One interesting part of this was that the early colour light signal for 'proceed' was not a green light, but instead a white light. As electricity came into common use and white lights appeared everywhere, they changed the colour to green.