Is it my imagination, or are speed limit signs missing from Spirit of Steam. One place I can never see it is leaving Crewe Station and reaching the point where the 20mph changes to 90mph. There are other places on the system where speed limits go up or down, but there are no speed limit signs. I presume they did have speed limit signs in the 50’s or was it down to driver knowledge of where a speed limit is supposed to change.
This has been discussed in other threads and the result was at best an open verdict. We can’t decide whether the route builder(s) omitted to put them in or whether factually correct for the era. Certainly other historic routes set in a similar era in TSC etc. have speed boards. What I think you used to find and maybe still do to some extent, is that you get a board for the start of the restriction but not when line speed resumes, all down to route knowledge.
On 23 January 1955, a derailment occurred at Sutton Coldfield, causing the deaths of seventeen people. An express train, which had been diverted from its usual route, derailed at a speed of around 60 mph on a curve restricted to 30 mph. As a recommendation of the Ministry of Transport's report into the accident, British Railways reconsidered the provision of speed restriction signs, and in 1957 it decided to adopt the ex-LNER system as standard across the whole network. In 1963, following what had been an exceptionally cold winter, BR took the decision to re-paint all cut-out speed restriction signs yellow to improve their visibility in snow. As Liverpool to Crewe is a main trunk route. You can almost guarantee, that the white cast speed signs. Were in place by 1958 - 1959.
