Princes Risborough North Box

[Portchullin Tatty]

I was recently able to go on a tour of the Princes Risborough North Box; the largest remaining GWR box in the country.

 

 

Details of what I encountered and a fair few photographs can be found here.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by Portchullin Tatty

[big jim]

nice to see it in its current condition, only a few years back it was looking sorry for itself awaiting its fate, passed it hundreds of times with work so should try and get in for a look if im ever lodging down there

 

out of interest though isnt shrewsbury severn bridge the largest gwr box the country?

[stovepipe]

Severn Bridge is an LNWR box apparently.

[beast66606]

Severn Bridge is an LNWR box apparently.

 

LNWR box which was reframed with a GWR frame - but from the outside it's LNWR

[big jim]

Never knew that!

[The Stationmaster]

LNWR box which was reframed with a GWR frame - but from the outside it's LNWR

 

5 bar VT frame I believe - installed c.1960

[The Stationmaster]

Mark - you need to lose an 'S' from your thread title.  the place name is Princes Risborough, not the feminine version

 

Incidentally it does not appear to be the largest remaining GWR signalbox - the frame at Risborough North seems to have never exceeded 126 levers while Exeter West had acquired a new frame of 131 levers which I believe is still the size of frame it has in preservation.  However Risborough North is probably the largest ex GWR signalbox to remain in situ at its original site.  

 

Both of course were quite a way short - nearly 100 levers - of being the largest signalbox on the Western but all the larger ones have gone although the frame at Severn Bridge Jcn is the largest remaining Reading design lever frame (albeit with plenty of white levers).

[LNERGE]

Somewhere I have dog charts etc for this box as it was at one time covered by the Hitchin locking fitter.

[sandra]

Princes Risborough North was on the GW and GC Joint Line and therefore whilst the box and indeed the rest of the station were built in the GW style I believe that it was all jointly owned by the two companies. So it's not strictly speaking a GW box. Indeed in the thirties the section of the line passing through Princes Risborough was maintained by the LNER and I understand that all the structures, presumably including the signal box, were painted in LNER colours. At that time when it was necessary to repair the signalling, standard LNER equipment was used and thus the station had a strange mix of GW and LNER signals.

 

The situation at Shrewsbury was similar as the station was jointly owned by the GW and LNWR and I suppose the signal boxes were jointly owned as well although they were built in the LNWR style. The same situation existed at Chester where the station was jointly owned but the signal boxes and signals were all in the LNWR style.

 

Sandra

[The Stationmaster]

Princes Risborough North was on the GW and GC Joint Line and therefore whilst the box and indeed the rest of the station were built in the GW style I believe that it was all jointly owned by the two companies. So it's not strictly speaking a GW box. Indeed in the thirties the section of the line passing through Princes Risborough was maintained by the LNER and I understand that all the structures, presumably including the signal box, were painted in LNER colours. At that time when it was necessary to repair the signalling, standard LNER equipment was used and thus the station had a strange mix of GW and LNER signals.

 

The situation at Shrewsbury was similar as the station was jointly owned by the GW and LNWR and I suppose the signal boxes were jointly owned as well although they were built in the LNWR style. The same situation existed at Chester where the station was jointly owned but the signal boxes and signals were all in the LNWR style.

 

Sandra

 

 Princes Risborough was originally an intermediate station on the Wycombe Railway route from High Wycombe to Aylesbury - that company being amalgamated with the GWR from 1 February 1867.  From August 1899 that stretch was transferred from sole GWR ownership to the Great Western and Great Central Joint committee subsequently being a joint line between the GWR and LNER after the grouping.

 

The way in which joint lines were managed and the way in which this particular one was managed involved various functions changing from one joint committee member to the other at varying intervals - for example staff recruitment was in the hands of the GWR one year then the GCR/LNER the following year and thence back to the GWR.  This meant that staff were recruited by each Company were employed in accordance with that Compay's Conditions of Employment - I can well remember while doing some work in connection with staffing at High Wycombe in 1967 I was told about someone who had recently retired but to his surprise had not received the pension he expected because he was ex LNER salaried staff and unlike GWR salaried staff he did not receive an ex-gratia pension, unlike someone who had retired only a few months previously.

 

Similarly - but on, reportedly, a 5 year cycle - the responsibility for signal engineering maintenance was changed from one Company to the other at regular intervals thus the GWR built Risborough North 'box.  Thus the North 'box is definitely GWR architecture and had a Reading frame (I seriously doubt if anyone else would have been inclined to use GWR double-twist locking!) although over the years various signals were renewed by the LNER in upper quadrant form.  So while Risborough North 'box dates from the time of Joint Committee management it is a GWR structure and in any event when it opened in 1904 considerable parts of the track layout it controlled - including at that time all three branch lines - were wholly owned by the GWR so no doubt it met a considerable portion of the cost for the new 'box.

[Portchullin Tatty]

Mark - you need to lose an 'S' from your thread title.  the place name is Princes Risborough, not the feminine version

 

Incidentally it does not appear to be the largest remaining GWR signalbox - the frame at Risborough North seems to have never exceeded 126 levers while Exeter West had acquired a new frame of 131 levers which I believe is still the size of frame it has in preservation.  However Risborough North is probably the largest ex GWR signalbox to remain in situ at its original site.  

 

Both of course were quite a way short - nearly 100 levers - of being the largest signalbox on the Western but all the larger ones have gone although the frame at Severn Bridge Jcn is the largest remaining Reading design lever frame (albeit with plenty of white levers).

 

Thanks for the spelling correction!

 

Noted re the possible larger box at Exeter.  I have quoted Wikipedia here and at the moment I will leave it as it is for the moment!

[Portchullin Tatty]

 

Similarly - but on, reportedly, a 5 year cycle - the responsibility for signal engineering maintenance was changed from one Company to the other at regular intervals thus the GWR built Risborough North 'box.  Thus the North 'box is definitely GWR architecture and had a Reading frame (I seriously doubt if anyone else would have been inclined to use GWR double-twist locking!) although over the years various signals were renewed by the LNER in upper quadrant form.  So while Risborough North 'box dates from the time of Joint Committee management it is a GWR structure and in any event when it opened in 1904 considerable parts of the track layout it controlled - including at that time all three branch lines - were wholly owned by the GWR so no doubt it met a considerable portion of the cost for the new 'box.

 

This was certainly what I was told when I visited the box.  In particular there is a fairly good record of replacement/amended signals being completed in one style and then a few years later the next one would be in the other company's style.

[The Stationmaster]

Thanks for the spelling correction!

 

Noted re the possible larger box at Exeter.  I have quoted Wikipedia here and at the moment I will leave it as it is for the moment!

 

Exeter West is now at Crewe Heritage Centre - where it was re-erected following dismantling after purchase from BR.

[Eggesford box]

5 bar VT frame I believe - installed c.1960

I think it was just the locking renewed in Western 5 bar VT format. 'Upstairs' it is still Webb stirrup handled levers.

[The Stationmaster]

I think it was just the locking renewed in Western 5 bar VT format. 'Upstairs' it is still Webb stirrup handled levers.

 

Indeed it is - sorry for not making that clear  (although the LNWR stirrup levers do at least have WR pattern leads on them)

[lmsforever]

Later this year you will hopefully be able to travel from Chinnor to Risborough and get a close up view of the box which the S&T team have spent many hours repairing the ravages of dereliction plus intense pigeon attack on the inside!The trackwork and platform are in course of construction and the new station will be a wonderful addition to our line.

[Antony Farrell]

The mentions of how Princes Risborough was run under GWR/GCR auspices did make me wonder what the stations would have been like had the Midland scheme for the London, Buckinghamshire & East Gloucestershire Railway gone ahead in 1864 as this would also have linked at Princes Risborough. I was also wondering what effect this would have had on the architecture of the station and its infrastructure.

[5BarVT]

Looks like a 5 bar VT frame to me!

Paul.

[Trog]

The mentions of how Princes Risborough was run under GWR/GCR auspices did make me wonder what the stations would have been like had the Midland scheme for the London, Buckinghamshire & East Gloucestershire Railway gone ahead in 1864 as this would also have linked at Princes Risborough. I was also wondering what effect this would have had on the architecture of the station and its infrastructure.

 

Makes one wonder about Aylesbury as the station area was a joint railway between the Metropolitan and Great Central Joint and the Great Western and Great Central Joint railways.

 

Was it painted in stripes?