MS&LR/GCR Signal Box Types

[1165Valour]

In addition to the types discussed here and here, were there any other major types of signal box used on the MS&LR and GCR? If anyone has photos of different types of boxes, please share them, along with data on location and date of construction, if available of course.

[Stephen Freeman]

Have you looked in "The Signal Box" by the Signalling Study Group? It has details on most  if not all UK Signal boxes.

[Wickham Green too]

Have you looked on the 'Signal Box Photos' thread hereabouts ? ........... Cornelius Lundie's index, therein, should give you further info.

[t-b-g]

Those two sites you link to cover the main types pretty well. You have the earlier type of MS&LR box, with the hipped roof and beading over the joints in the planks. They were mostly all timber but I may have seen a photo of an odd brick based one. Then you have the later MS&LR/GCR types from 1880 onwards, which were a mix of timber bases or wooden.

 

There were different ones on some absorbed or joint lines like the LD&ECR, which had ones very similar to GNR pattern boxes.

 

You need to decide which part of the country your model line is set in and when it was built. For example on the London Extension, I am not aware of any of the MS&LR types. Edit to add I am now! The one illustrated below must have been moved from elsewhere. If you are modelling the original line from Manchester to the east coast you could have either depending on your period, as boxes were renewed or added in the later style after the new type was adopted.

 

So you have three main types. Hipped roof and vertical beaded planking up to 1880. Gable roof and vertical planking from 1880 to 1887 and gable roof and horizontal planking from 1887 onwards.

Edited October 4, 2023 by t-b-g
To add content

[David Bigcheeseplant]

This is a MSLR box at Aylesbury non the London Extension  although not in use as a signal box it defiantly is in design, I wonder where it came from. 

 

David

[Wickham Green too]

On 04/10/2023 at 09:25, David Bigcheeseplant said:

... I wonder where it came from. ...

... and why ? ........... what on earth would they want to move a dirty great, fragile, two-storey building for if it wasn't as a signal box ??!?

 

[David Bigcheeseplant]

3 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

... and why ? ........... what on earth would they want to move a dirty great, fragile, two-storey building for if it wasn't as a signal box ??!?

 

Another photo, definitely not a signal box at Aylesbury as there was four proper boxes built from opening till closure

[Wickham Green too]

Looks like someone just liked collecting huts - whether it be old tin ones, old coach bodies or old siggy boxes ! - it does have phone lines so it's connected to something !

[bécasse]

Aylesbury was effectively a significant node point so it may have been repurposed as a base for RCH checkers.

[t-b-g]

It would be cheaper to bring a redundant signal box from elsewhere for re-use than it would be to build a complete new structure.

 

There have been plenty of examples, especially on preserved railways, of boxes being removed and re-erected but it happened "back in the day" too.

 

If a station or junction was redesigned and resignalled and the original box was now no longer needed, too small or not suitable for the revised layout (but was still in good condition) it would be removed for other purposes. This could be either the complete box if it was timber or just the top half if that was timber and the lower portion was brick or stone.

 

It happened with signals too. On the GNR main line at Retford, there was a GCR signal near the goods shed. So seeing a signal box somewhere it doesn't really belong is quite appropriate as long as you have a good "back story" to justify it. 

[Steamport Southport]

6 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

It would be cheaper to bring a redundant signal box from elsewhere for re-use than it would be to build a complete new structure.

 

There have been plenty of examples, especially on preserved railways, of boxes being removed and re-erected but it happened "back in the day" too.

 

If a station or junction was redesigned and resignalled and the original box was now no longer needed, too small or not suitable for the revised layout (but was still in good condition) it would be removed for other purposes. This could be either the complete box if it was timber or just the top half if that was timber and the lower portion was brick or stone.

 

It happened with signals too. On the GNR main line at Retford, there was a GCR signal near the goods shed. So seeing a signal box somewhere it doesn't really belong is quite appropriate as long as you have a good "back story" to justify it. 

 

The GWR often moved boxes around. Usually when they replaced one with a bigger box.

 

The "famous"* Dunster signal box now at Minehead was originally from Maerdy in South Wales. So moved in 1934 and again in the 1970s.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-pelican-railways/23367470466/in/pool-signalbox

 

*Famous as the R186 signal box in the Yellow Pages advert.

 

 

Jason

[Wickham Green too]

3 hours ago, t-b-g said:

It would be cheaper to bring a redundant signal box from elsewhere for re-use than it would be to build a complete new structure. ...

IF the structure you required elsewhere had to have a second storey which had to have lots of windows - which might well get broken in the move and need replacing at great expense.

[Michael Hodgson]

Long before IKEA, some railway companies designed their signal boxes as flat-pack, produced in the works and delivered by rail and assembled on a prepared site fairly quickly by a gang; this helped as sites were often fairly inaccessible by road.

[Michael Hodgson]

16 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

IF the structure you required elsewhere had to have a second storey which had to have lots of windows - which might well get broken in the move and need replacing at great expense.

These days a wooden box will be lifted complete and moved by road on a low loader.  Provided the total height and width is within limits.  If too tall, the main uprights (corner posts) can be cut and the top half craned onto a lorry.