andyrush Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 And so to Kings Lynn, with apologies for the first one which is the best of the two I have in our collection. Harbour Junction in June 1969 Exton Road on 15 June 1911 (closed 21 April 1940) Image courtesy Mike Brooks collection Kings Lynn Junction has already figured on page 11, but here it is in August 1969 with the Middleton Towers sand train driver surrendering the token Kings Lynn in 1968 And on 6 March 1971 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggesford box Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 A few shots of Weston Rhyn Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 8, 2013 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2013 One of the signals And hanging on the notice board was this Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Rightyho then - to Worcestershire, and don't spare the 'orses...! I'll post a few general views first then get stuck into some individual signals and their workings later (some of the photos I was hoping to post tonight still need shrinking a bit to fit the forum). Standing adjacent to the Down Main near the depot area, this is the view north towards Worcester Tunnel Junction 'box with Rainbow Hill Tunnel beyond, picking this lot out on a foggy night is actually quite fun, as Worcester has more than it's fair share of 'right handers'... Doing a swift 'one eighty' this is the view in the opposite direction with Shrub Hill Station festooned with more lower quadrant loveliness... 'SH24' is the depot exit signal while 'SH2' with the small calling on arm protects the Up Main Platform, and is in fact a 'right hander'... The view from the north end of the Down Platform with two very well known structures... More to come ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyrush Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 Onwards to Hunstanton, then North Wootton at milking time on 3 May 1969 Wolferton on 24 July 1966 Dersingham on 24 July 1966 Snettisham on 24 July 1966 Heacham in July 1966 Hunstanton on 19 April 1969 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 One of the signals das00278.jpg And hanging on the notice board was this das00279.jpg Wheatsheaf Jc..anyone ever seen that place? Never seen a pic or a diagram of it but the earthworks of the line towards Gwersyllt/Brymbo are still just about there... JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RELIEF SIGNALMAN Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Jon, Not seen a photo of the box but I'm sure I have a diagram of the place - Is that the one between Gresford and Wrexham North Jct? Wheatsheaf Jc..anyone ever seen that place? Never seen a pic or a diagram of it but the earthworks of the line towards Gwersyllt/Brymbo are still just about there... JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Back to Worcester briefly! Front and rear views of Shrub Hill box's 'SH10' which is another right hander, controlling southbound movements from the Down Platform, with the disc giving access to the Down Refuge just beyond the box, or 'Long Siding' as it's also known... Shrub Hill's notorious 'banjo' signal, hanging from the canopy of the Down Platform, 'SH80' is the mainline signal effectively splitting the platform in half, while beneath it is the 'calling on' subsidiary signal (which does have it's own number 'SH79' in the lever frame)... Back to the lovely bracket structure at the north of the station, 'SH78' Being another right hander, with the arms controlling movements from the Down Platform, from left to right, Down Main to Worcester Foregate St with Henwick box's fixed distant beneath, Down Main to Shed, Down Main to Droitwich route with Tunnel Junction box's fixed distant beneath... Viewed from the rear window of Tunnel Junction box is 'TJ19' controlling movements from the Foregate St direction towards Rainbow Hill Tunnel... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 correct.. Jon, Not seen a photo of the box but I'm sure I have a diagram of the place - Is that the one between Gresford and Wrexham North Jct? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 9, 2013 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 9, 2013 Is Wheatsheaf in Pre-grouping signal box album ? - I haven't got mine to hand but there's a shot of one of the unusual boxes from around Wrexham in there iirc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyrush Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Having reached Hunstanton, we now return to Ely North Junction and set off...east! This is Padnal on 5 April 1969 Shippea Hill on 27 August 1966 Lakenheath, also on 27 August 1966 The 1931 box at Brandon was also photographed on the same day Two Mile Bottom on 6 July 1969 And finally, for this foray, here is Thetford on 27 August 1966 Further easterly progress to follow! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eggesford box Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Some shots of Croes Newydd North Fork and Wrexham taken on Tuesday 26/02/1985 I presume the 47 hauled freight is a Llanwern - Dee Marsh working. I know there was a 6M33 0700 Llanwern - Dee Marsh which was a regular runner in those days. My abiding memory of this trip is the return journey. I had gone with a mate and we hitched a lift back to Shrewsbury on a 25 running light. We got into the back cab, me first, to join a driver and guard riding back 'passenger'. "Your mates not used to getting on engines is he" was the drivers first comment. Impressed by the drivers quick summing up and believing myself to be in the company of a veritable Sherlock Holmes of the footplate world I turned around to my mate. I had hopped up into the cab in my normal style from my days of passenger shunting and my mate had followed suit. The difference being I am only 5' 6", my mate was 6' tall. There he stood with a bloodied forehead which he had cracked on the door cill! Fortunately the driver had plasters! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted March 9, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 9, 2013 Ah Thetford, my first box, well ok i never passed out, but was the place where i learnt the little I know! A place where there was always something on the block. Now sadly sitting awaiting its fait. The new signalling is bedding in well, the capacity decrease being a real postivie feature, and the fact that the MCB-ODs have failed again in the falling snow today! Andy G Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Worcester Tunnel Junction.... here's 'TJ5' on a cold night taken whilst working the 6G43 Brierley Hill - Croft empties, on the Up Main approach to Rainbow Hill Tunnel, reading from left to right the arms control Up Main to Up Through Siding, Up Main to Shrub Hill Station, Up Main to Up Branch (Foregate Street)... it'll be a very sad day when this is replaced with a single post LED colour light with theatre or route indicators. It's also the spot where D1055 Western Advocate met it's demise on 3rd January 1976, when it ran into the back of a short parcels train hauled by 31 241 during time interval working... On a road learning trip we see the view through the tunnel from the secondman's side - the route is set for us to proceed onto the Up Through Siding on the left... Moving along the Up Through the next signal we come to is this one, worked from a ground frame further round the corner and operated by the Shunter... Down at the far end of the Up Through we come to 'SH59' signal which takes you back out onto the Up Main, while the ground disc beside it gives access to the shunt neck... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Budgie Posted March 10, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 10, 2013 What on earth is that on the top of the post of SH59, and what happened to the finial? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 This is Padnal on 5 April 1969 GE58-07-09.jpg Are you sure that's Padnal? I know it says Padnal on the box board but everything is upright.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Is Wheatsheaf in Pre-grouping signal box album ? - I haven't got mine to hand but there's a shot of one of the unusual boxes from around Wrexham in there iirc. Hmm.. I might have a copy of that somewhere.. JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyrush Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Are you sure that's Padnal? I know it says Padnal on the box board but everything is upright.. I didn't straighten it, guv, honest! I think the box started to acquire its pronounced lean in the mid 70's. See the two pictures in the Middleton book Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LNERGE Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Padnal in happy and not so happy times.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 What on earth is that on the top of the post of SH59, and what happened to the finial? No idea where the finial went but I suspect the hroizontal bar at the top is there as a handhold for the S&T chaps. Happy to be proved wrong mind, it does look a bit odd! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merfyn Jones Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 No idea where the finial went but I suspect the hroizontal bar at the top is there as a handhold for the S&T chaps. Happy to be proved wrong mind, it does look a bit odd! In 32 years climbing up them, I never came across anything like it. No need for a hand hold as you had the hoop to hold you bum firmly in place. Merf. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 I wonder what it's for then Merf...? Can't say I've ever seen one elsewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 10, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 10, 2013 No idea where the finial went but I suspect the hroizontal bar at the top is there as a handhold for the S&T chaps. Happy to be proved wrong mind, it does look a bit odd! You're wrong Mr Nidge sir. the horizontal bar was provided to hold a stencil route indicator (which was actually put in place but never brought into use) as part of a brilliant scheme to close Norton Junction signalbox and have two parallel single lines between there and Shrub Hill. Alas this superb scheme fell by the wayside after various work on it had been done because there was a lack of finance to complete it as the money was required for other jobs elsewhere on the WR. I am of course far too modest to tell you who devised this incredible rationalisation scheme (which was actually going to be Stage 1 of Worcester resignalling) but it was ideally suited to the circumstances of its time and in fact in connection with it the chap who came up with this excellent idea spent the best part of a week at Gloucester going through 6 month's work of Train Registers to see what additional delays would result and the effect was minimal. Subsequently of course far more trains have taken to that route and indeed the chap who came up with the brilliant idea has since come up with even more brilliant ideas (albeit when working outside BR in the last case) which not only envisaged keeping this section as double line but even extending the double line towards Evesham as that offered by far the best mitigation of delays on that route albeit at high cost so his other idea of moving the start of a double section at Evesham towards Worcester seems to have been adopted instead. Strange how times change isn't it but you might be interested to learn that the bloke who did the work on that signal is also called Nigel (who I haven't come across for some years but who I last encountered doing a locking check in Abbey Foregate 'box at Shrewsbury back in 1993). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Ahh, thanks Mike... I guess that would explain why the finial was removed then! Your mention of Norton Junction has reminded me - I sign the road down to there (and beyond to Gloucester but alas not to Evesham and Oxford) but since signing it I've yet to drive over that particular (short) stretch. The strange thing about Worcester is that a lot of folk in the job hate working under the semaphores, but I love 'em! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 Some more views of Worcester... Looking across from the south end of the Down Platform we see 'SH7' signal which controls movements out of the Up Platform... From the same spot but turning slightly to the right we see the ground disc controlling exit from one of the bays... Looking back across from the Through Goods lines we can see the backs of 'SH7' and 'SH10'... Also viewed from the yard is 'SH7' again, along with 'SH11', a right hander which controls movements from the Up Bay... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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