Help with sign

I'm trying to work out what sort of loaction this sign would have been located. I don't expect to find out where it came from part from Eastern region but would like to know more about what its saying. I recently acquired it as I have a weakness for large signs that few people want!!

It could be a bridge over something like a river that had rail track(s) and a wide footpath and be just a warning to avoid using when trains were approaching or stood on track. Depends if triucks refer to rail trucks or road trucks which would suggest a rail quarry or something.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

Only a guess but, as you say, it does seem to refer to a railway overbridge, probably over a river/canal, that has also become a tolerated footpath. Not on a running line but probably giving access to a private siding or yard. Until the arrival of H & S legislation, such things were common, especially where the railway line provided an easy short cut. Indeed, it was only last year that Network Rail fenced off the unofficial footpath alongside the EVL between Whitby & Ruswarp which, being the easiest foot route between the two places, saw regular usage., everything from families with pushchairs to cyclists. I wonder how many other similar unofficial footpaths still exist on our railway byways?

No idea where the sign came from, though.

 

Thanks for the reply and probable meaning

 

I wonder would it refer to a swing bridge or jetty

 

Interesting that it says trucks, not wagons.

 

As road vehicles are prohibited trucks must refer to railway trucks, only posh people said waggons. Interestingly it does not refer to trains. Eastern reguin suggests docks,although if London docks it would be PLA. Was this a bridge over a dock where shunting was by capstan or horse. Would one refer to dockers as the public? Just a speculation.

 

Trucks (troublesome or otherwise) appear in Thomas the Tank Engine books (written by a person from a fairly posh background). On the real railways Wagons (or Waggons) is the usual term used. Was this sign an early attempt at Plain English, based on an assumption that the local trespassers must be Thomas fans? Or peraps this bridge was at the boundary of the exchange sidings for the Isle of Sodor.

 

Just for interest I googled the Oxford English Dictionary. It defined truck as amoungst others a railway vehicle. It defined wagon also as "a railway vehicle - a truck". As a good south London boy we called them trucks and what is good for the Oxford is good enough for me. I concur however that all references by railwaymen use the term wagon, having checked a number of autobiographies.

 

Or perhaps more likely thay're made to order? Of all the stuff John Beesley does, loco headlamps are premium price items - so he won't want to have a load of money invested in stock sitting around on the shelf when orders for loco lamps probably only come in a couple of times a year.