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Signal Box Photos


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22 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

All that shrubbery can't have helped  sighting of tail lamps.

 

 

The bobby can look out through the hole in the roof ...

 

Only grown since abolition, getting on for 9 years ago.

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Its interesting that that notice has only just gone up, the plan was to demolish all the boxes (that hadn't got new homes to go to)  within the year from abolition.  Indeed some have had WON items allocated to them on a couple of occasions to do the actual work, but all so far still stand... 

 

Andy G

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On 16/07/2021 at 10:52, beast66606 said:

I make no apologies for including a few further snaps of Harling Road - see the last photo for the reason

 

14 July 2021

Harling Road signal box, GER Type 4, McKenzie and Holland, opened 1883, closed 01/12/2012 when barriers and signals controlled by Cambridge PSB were introduced

 

DAS887052.jpg.bc9f7dd6023e86e76816f5861d9837fc.jpg

DAS887053.jpg.d99581fdc6a12c30af4c9597e124d166.jpg

DAS887054.jpg.b040b1761970c432743182f508831ede.jpg

DAS887061.jpg.064694a210fc3d07e5c01afe298ed1a9.jpg

DAS887075.jpg.23c59e9aae91e09b86f9d6b8d026fe25.jpg

DAS887051.jpg.f12b264bc5388eaf3453636c9e2e1969.jpg

I'm glad I got some photos of it last month then!

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On 16/07/2021 at 10:52, beast66606 said:

I make no apologies for including a few further snaps of Harling Road - see the last photo for the reason

 

14 July 2021

Harling Road signal box, GER Type 4, McKenzie and Holland, opened 1883, closed 01/12/2012 when barriers and signals controlled by Cambridge PSB were introduced

 

DAS887052.jpg.bc9f7dd6023e86e76816f5861d9837fc.jpg

DAS887053.jpg.d99581fdc6a12c30af4c9597e124d166.jpg

DAS887054.jpg.b040b1761970c432743182f508831ede.jpg

DAS887061.jpg.064694a210fc3d07e5c01afe298ed1a9.jpg

DAS887075.jpg.23c59e9aae91e09b86f9d6b8d026fe25.jpg

DAS887051.jpg.f12b264bc5388eaf3453636c9e2e1969.jpg

 

Sad news  Dave, if it had been up north it would have had a digger through it when it closed. 

I was the last loco hauled train to be signalled by it .

There were pictures of it at Wymondham where we were given sausage rolls and cake to commemorate it 

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Whitwell in the 1980s some time, probably 1983ish. I'm not sure where this one is though. The Pre-Group Atlas lists two Whitwells, one in Derbyshire and one in the Isle of Wight, it's neither of them. It's open to the membership!

278975837_Whitwell1980s.jpg.01675a6808f3aeb6c430e4f6bb0d48e4.jpg

 

1492697029_Whitwell1980s(2).jpg.79f96ae05891bdfffc2d3f6eb39d1a75.jpg

Edited by Poor Old Bruce
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22 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

A lever at the foot of the stairs is unusual.  Presumably needed to work something when the box was switched out, looks to be fitted with an Annetts lock. The rodding runs away from the level crossing.

 

It was provided in 1965 to operate the crossover, with a key being kept in the box - the signal box frame was replaced by an IFS panel so presumably this was a cheaper option than putting it - and signalling - on the panel.

Edited by beast66606
added signal box for clarity
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23 hours ago, Poor Old Bruce said:

Whitwell in the 1980s some time, probably 1983ish. I'm not sure where this one is though. The Pre-Group Atlas lists two Whitwells, one in Derbyshire and one in the Isle of Wight, it's neither of them. It's open to the membership!

278975837_Whitwell1980s.jpg.01675a6808f3aeb6c430e4f6bb0d48e4.jpg

 

1492697029_Whitwell1980s(2).jpg.79f96ae05891bdfffc2d3f6eb39d1a75.jpg

 

This box was the last place I remember doing time interval working 

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1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

When did that finally get taken out of the book?

 

Sometime around 1990 - 1993 IIRC.

 

Surprisingly late on  

 

Andy

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8 hours ago, SM42 said:

 

Sometime around 1990 - 1993 IIRC.

 

Surprisingly late on  

 

Andy

 

I did my mp 12 in 88 and I don't think it was in the rule book then 

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1 hour ago, Poor Old Bruce said:

Scropton Crossing, North Staffordshire Rly, 1979

678099609_Scropton1979.jpg.e5eee90b0314bfb2568d4a34066eb022.jpg

 

23 Jan 2007

639390327_Scropton23Jan2007-DSCN1243.JPG.506e26247c7cc8e7446a3c74e7aa2489.JPG

 

1956266510_Scropton23Jan2007-DSCN1245.JPG.76a77304ea00abf77e7162084590fa75.JPG

 

and 19 Aug 2008

913550048_ScroptonCrossing19Aug2008-DSC-0089.JPG.111f17a507883d5c852a7114f49129b6.JPG

 

1793315481_ScroptonCrossing19Aug2008-DSC-0090.JPG.70ffaa1cd1a0066183340bc9d0b3fcd3.JPG

Any idea what the gate is for at the front of the signal box? Can't see all the railway so can't see if there is a corresponding gate at the other side of the line, but it does look a little odd positioned where it is.

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1 hour ago, iands said:

Any idea what the gate is for at the front of the signal box? Can't see all the railway so can't see if there is a corresponding gate at the other side of the line, but it does look a little odd positioned where it is.

It must be required.  The first photo also shows a gate in front of the box, but that one is wooden, so it was obviously considered important enough to replace, looks so low I'm not sure it would clear the rails.  Probably not used very often as there is a wooden saw horse in front of it - could be an emergency gate, kept handy ready to be manhandled into position when the normal gate got damaged?

 

Canley Gates, first stop after Coventry on the B'ham line is a skew crossing and its gates were longer than standard.  They got damaged by road traffic fairly frequently*, and I was given to understand the S&T kept a spare in their yard.

https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrchg546.htm

* on one occasion the gates were OK when I crossed on the No 12 bus to Coventry Station, but by the time I was on my train to Brum there was a man holding a line of pennants as the bus had hit it on its return journey!  

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1 hour ago, iands said:

Any idea what the gate is for at the front of the signal box? Can't see all the railway so can't see if there is a corresponding gate at the other side of the line, but it does look a little odd positioned where it is.

 

Not found anything showing the 'opposite' gate, if there is one, but these two pictures might give a clue:

 

This one shows the single lane road, crossing the double track railway, so rather than having overlapping gates across the road, perhaps the one in front of the box was supposed to go across the track.  Interesting to note it's timber gate in this picture, so has clearly been replaced by the time of the later photos.

 

https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=135785&search=scropton+crossing

 

This one shows the 'road' gate closed (you can just see the lamp at the left of the picture), but the one in front of the box is still open.  Perhaps there was a local reason why not, or maybe there just wasn't enough road traffic to worry about closing both gates?

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/154596801@N04/50044399066/in/pool-signalbox

 

Edited by Moxy
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The weeds in front of the gate do imply that it wasn't frequently used.

Not the only place I've seen crossing keepers only doing the bare minimum when it came to working their gates, but I don't know whether that is officially authorised or just idle practice/lack of proper supervision 

 

The old legal requirement to fence the line included gates that swung to close off alternately the road or the railway, so sometimes you did get arrangements like this, though I'm pretty sure there were legal exceptions, perhaps due to grandfather rights on some lines.  The Victorians would have worried about horses or cattle straying onto the line, and the arris rail type of cattle guard seems to be a comparatively recent idea.  

 

I don't know when it became officially acceptable to fence off the line in only one direction and gates like this and overlapping gates got dropped.  Damage to the minor gates during WW2 might conceivably have been seen as a low priority.  Or perhaps it made sense once legislation permitting AHBs came in - but I suspect it had become practice well before that. 

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