Yes, old fashioned semaphore is perhaps more resistant to lightening, but it still fails. Wasn't there a failure at Worcester recently?
... or "this morning" as we say in the trade.
Whole of Shrub Hill area failed this morning.
I arrived at Foregate Street to catch the 07:00 to B'ham to find the 06:14
HST▸ to Padd'n still sitting in the platform.
Our train managed to avoid the chaos by using the other line (the track layout at Foregate St is a tad odd), so I got to B'ham on time.
But the 06:14 to Padd'n gave up - never made it beyond Foregate St. Dunno what happened to the HST that was an hour behind.
The 08:16 arrival at Foregate St from Padd'n never made it beyond Evesham - it turned round and went back to London.
I'd love to know what went wrong with the old-fasioned lumps of metal that caused such extensive chaos.