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  • RMweb Gold

Monks Siding Up Distant

 

Once forming Sankey Bridges Up Starter with the lower arm being this one, Monks Up distant, it was erected in the 1960s, Sankey Bridges box was eventually closed and the stop arm removed, the distant arm was then moved to the top of the post. The platform end of the closed (26 Sept 1949) Sankey Bridges station is just visible, the photo was taken from the site of the swing bridge.

 

(this signal has itself recently been replaced by a colour light)

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  • RMweb Gold

I wonder what is going to happin to the signal box, will be demolished when it is decommissioned.

 

Terry.

 

It already is decommissioned, I suspect it will be demolished, I have photos of Willesden Junction (same design) during it's demolition.

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  • 2 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

As mentioned in my blue diesel thread some of these photos have been show in previous forum incarnations and some are poor quality but better than nothing.

 

Sealand - on the line between Mickle Trafford and Dee Marsh Junction

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Here are some western region/GWR boxes, all mostly now gone....

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Athelney Crossing

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Bruton Signalbox. A very small box that I only ever saw switched out.

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My 'home' box - spent many hours here

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PInhoe, near EXeter

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Roskear Junction, Cambourne

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Somerton, again only ever seen switched out.

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Stoke Canon Crossing. This is still here (or was recently) though all boarded up and looking very sorry for itself.

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Tivvy Junction - quite the biggest box i ever saw...

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Here are some western region/GWR boxes, all mostly now gone....

 

Always nice to see some of the 'boxes from my old patches. I think I probably passed out the last two Signalmen who were added to the list for Bruton when I examined two of the resident 'men from Witham to bolster our occasional Summer saturday shortage of Reliefmen. Not a bad little 'box with some truly ancient locking although there was a nasty habit of Down trains SPAD'ing when the 'box was in switch on Summer Saturdays and Drivers were surprised to find the Down Distant 'on', oh and it had 'disc' pattern block instruments as well.

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  • RMweb Gold

Dee Marsh Junction - an LNER cabin - with LNWR blocks (!), not as unusual as it sounds.

 

The outside shots have not reached the scanner yet, these interior shots were taken on 20 April 1979, before the frame was condensed.

 

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I remember crewing on several trips on the Dee Junc. to Mickle Trafford GC route (once we even brought a test-train consist of the then forthcoming new stock for Merseyrail).......it was an interesting route and I looked forward to the sights (incl. the closed stations and overbridge vistas) along the way, the route was clearly being run-down, with the housing estate on the Saughall side of Chester being the place where we would regularly be pelted with bricks by local youths as we passed along, and dumping and vandalism seemed to signal "the end was nigh"......the double track was also becoming very rough, later it was allowed to deteriorate further and the ride in the cab of our Class 25`s might be best described as: 'boingy' and often bone-jarring.....near the end of my time on the footplate, the track on that route became so bad that it was 'singled' (in an odd way) with running crossing-over (effectively) from up to down lines at various places, to make use of the 'best of the worst' parts of the route`s P.way.............I`d left B.R before the route was closed and subsequently lifted to make way for yet another cycle-path.

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Dee Marsh Junction - an LNER cabin - with LNWR blocks (!), not as unusual as it sounds.

 

The outside shots have not reached the scanner yet, these interior shots were taken on 20 April 1979, before the frame was condensed.

 

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Cracking pics Dave. Sadly, by the time I worked there all the interesting stuff had gone. How did the signalman spot tail lamps on/off the Trafford line?

JF

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Don't suppose you did the Mcr Vic-Bolton-Blackrod stretch by any chance.. To my eternal shame (even though I worked most of them)I totally failed to take any internal pics of Pepper Hill or Kearsley and not nearly enough of the others.

Jon F.

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  • RMweb Gold

Don't suppose you did the Mcr Vic-Bolton-Blackrod stretch by any chance.. To my eternal shame (even though I worked most of them)I totally failed to take any internal pics of Pepper Hill or Kearsley and not nearly enough of the others.

Jon F.

 

'Fraid not, but I did get to Agecroft Junction and Brindle Heath (BH through windows only)

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Looking at these photographs [and others] and having recently read Harold Gasson's 'Signalling Days' I am full of admiration for the signalmen of past years. Some rural jobs must have been lonely and isolated, miles to travel by push-bike to get to work in all weathers, and then have an enormous responsibility to bear.

 

Service in the war years in major conurbations would have been hellish, as many others ran for the shelters they stood there, surrounded by glass and sharp things as the bombs fell.

 

Don't think I could have done it....

 

Doug

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  • RMweb Gold

Looking at these photographs [and others] and having recently read Harold Gasson's 'Signalling Days' I am full of admiration for the signalmen of past years. Some rural jobs must have been lonely and isolated, miles to travel by push-bike to get to work in all weathers, and then have an enormous responsibility to bear.

 

Service in the war years in major conurbations would have been hellish, as many others ran for the shelters they stood there, surrounded by glass and sharp things as the bombs fell.

Don't think I could have done it....

Doug

 

Ah but important signalboxes did have their own indoor 'air raid shelters' - although the GWR pattern that were inside the 'boxes were basically little more than splinter-proof(ish) and certainly wouldn't have survived a very near miss let alone a direct hit. Many of them lasted - in use as cupboards/lockers well after the war although I still wonder how a former District Inspector who I knew well in later years managed what he claimed to have managed when as a Booking Lad in the earlier years of the war he had 'shared' one such shelter with a Lady Signalman .. nod, nod ;) ;) ... say no more.

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  • RMweb Gold

A couple of signals from Ellesmere Port

 

When these were taken Ellesmere Port still had 3 signal boxes, No.1 and No.3 having closed several years earlier, No.3 controlled a level crossing which was replaced by a bridge and No.1 controlled the West end yard but access directly to it from the Hooton direction was deemed unnecessary and the box went.

 

Never-the-less the signalling was still nice to watch, as stop signals cleared and slowly the lower distant arms cleared in succession, or occasionally in random orders depending on which "bobby" was sharpest at the levers. Oh for a video camera in those days.

 

Ellesmere Port No.4 up home 1 also acting as Ellesmere Port No.2 up starter with Ellesmere Port No.5 outer distant below, in the distance for the same direction is Ellesmere Port No.4 up home 2, with Ellesmere Port No.5 inner distant below. And there is a rear view of Ellesmere Port No.4 down starter, also acting as Ellesmere Port No.2 down home (slotted)

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compare with this earlier shot (crop from a larger image) - the miniature arm for the facing connection to the West end has been removed.

 

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