Buckden Box: Site visit
As I mentioned in my previous post, nothing of the station at Buckden now remains in place, however some of the station complex does, in fact remain intact. The small signal box originally from Buckden stood at the site long after trains stopped running, and can be seen on the site in photos here:
http://www.signalbox.org/gallery/lm/buckden.php
and
After apparently being used as a greenhouse on site for a time whilst the station house was occupied "Branch Lines around Huntingdon" shows a picture of the box taken at Fleggburgh, near Great Yamouth after the box was presumably rescued from destruction.
However the well travelled box went even further and after a clue from wikipedia I tracked it down to it's new home at Tunbridge Wells West station on the Spa Valley Railway (http://www.spavalleyrailway.co.uk/). Thanks to some very kind people at Spa Valley, and a wedding in Kent which took us down that way, we were able to visit the box to take some pics!
This is a very happy me stood on the box, which is now much taller than the original platform mounted arrangement at Buckden:
Further pictures are in my gallery here:
As can be seen, it really was a wee little box, plausibly the smallest standard designed of the Midland boxes. The early build date also means that the front sash windows are not as long (2 rather than 3 panes) than was the case for later constructions.
At present the box contains a Westinghouse "A" pattern frame in it (ex-Crabtree Crossing, near Dartford), and is currently just a ground frame controlling one set of points at Tunbridge West. However there are plans afoot to commission it as a full-on box in the future controlling the Tunbridge West yard and station.
I'm currently in the process of kit bashing a Ratio 536 plastic kit down to size (http://www.peco-uk.com/product.asp?strParents=3340,3344&CAT_ID=3345&P_ID=17803), although I'm starting to think it might have been easier to start from the Churchward Models CM44 brass kit (http://modelexmodelrailways.co.uk/), more of which later...
My thanks go to Ross and Paul from Spa Valley, Ross for finding the right person to confirm their box's herritage and Paul for very kindly taking time out of his Sunday to show me and K around the box!
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