Eggesford box

Hi Bill, nice to see your progress. A few photos of the south end of Crediton including a 'Pillbox' brake in view of Bachmanns latest release. Well Mike I know the others who where older and less naive than the young me said it was his wife/partner though if he had two women on the go it would explain his lack of energy in other respects! I can remember once visiting a box in Cumbria and the signalman and his female visitor going through a complicated rigmarole to explain she had merely turned up owing to a puncture on her car. The father of a friend of the family was a signalman ending his days either at Braunton or Instow. According to the friend he hung his duster outside to dry to tell his lady friend if the coast was clear! Returning to Crediton, another of the relief signalmen was Ken Davey, always dressed in a suit complete with an attache case which contained his food and a neatly folded lever cloth. Incidently, there was a box duster but each signalmen also had their own personal duster. There was also Ray Allen. Ray used to call me Bo, abbreviated from Bo Diddley owing to my small size (5' 6" with the build of a Whippet); a bit of a joke as Ray was even shorter than me. I was told that shortly before the panel was commisioned it was placed on the block shelf. The existing equipment was piled up on framing at either end of the shelf to the extent that Ray had to stand on a chair to ring the block bell. The last time I saw Ray was on one of the few down trains that stopped at Tiverton Junction. I stared bored out of the window in the darkness as the carriage drew to a stand opposite the signalbox. I met the equally bored stare of the signalman and realised it was Ray. There then followed a mimeing session that would have left Marcel Marceau speechless with admiration. Much to the amusment/bemusement of the two women sat at the same table! When learning at Crediton with Dave Northcott one day a train drew to a stand to give up the token for the section from Eggesford and Dave and the driver had a slightly heated conversation. I asked Dave what it was about and it revealed that some drivers did not uderstand how Salmon Pool Crossing operated. It had not long been converted to an AOCL (Automatic Open Crossing Locally Monitored). It has possibly a unique configuration with two parallel single lines over it. Only one train was allowed to pass over it at a time. The first train to hit the approach controls got priority over the crossing with a white flashing light to proceed. Any other train approaching the crossing on the other line would get an illuminated sign saying literally 'Wait'. On this day a passenger from Barnstaple and a stone train from Meldon where both approaching the crossing. The stone train hit the approach controls just before the passenger, got the white light to proceed and trundled slowly up to the home signal to wait. The passenger was brought to a stand at the 'Wait' sign with the driver clearly able to see his home signal off a little further up the track. The passenger driver was not amused thinking Salmon Pool was controlled directly from Crediton box. Such situations where not much appreciated by any motorists at Crediton or even the signalmen as you would have to pull off before the train passed over Salmon Pool to avoid delay and then the barriers would be down at the crossing by the box with the signals off and the passenger train stood at Salmon Pool waiting for the crossing to go through its sequence and recieve its white flashing light. Enough for one night, I hope the photos are of some use, David

When the station site at Braunton was being redeveloped in the late 70s/early 80s the waiting shelter on the up platform was demolished and behind one layer of boarding these where revealed:- They ended up in the goods shed at Barnstaple for onward movement to the NRM as far as I know.

Hi Ian, hope the below of some use. Nearly gave the station manageress a heart attack as not wearing HiViz at time and she glanced up from car park and saw a strange figure dressed all in black about to hurl himself off station roof!

Carrying on with our ramblings about Crediton box. After a fortnight at Eggesford I finally arrived at Crediton. Compared to Eggesford the box was cramped but I soon got to think of it as cosy. The box contained a 22 lever Stevens frame with 15 levers working with the levers standing upright in the frame when normal. Apart from the block bell to Eggesford, the tension adjusters and the frame all the rest of the equipment was of western pattern. I presume most of the southern equipment had been replaced when the layout was altered in 1971. The levers had been fitted with standard western Ivorine lever leads (description plates) but you could see the holes at the bottom of the levers where the southern plates had been fitted. Here I met the only resident signaller, Ray Knight; who, I hate to say, reminded me of no one more than Sheriff Roscoe P Coletrain out of the Dukes of Hazzard! There where two vacancies at Crediton as not only was it a bottom grade box (A) but the hours put most people off. It was worked on two ten hour shifts 0300/1300 and 1300/2300 with one turn on a Sunday which was 1120/2025. The vacancies where covered by relief men from Exeter. I do not think Ray was that keen to teach me fearing the loss of his overtime. As it was , once I took on we covered the box between us for most of the time as with resignalling in the offing the Exeter men where tied up with covering the vacancies on the mainline. Most of the time I learnt with the relief men. Covering a wider variety of boxes relief men where often the best to learn with. There was Dave Northcott, a large gentleman both in size and volume, known to everybody as Basher. The first time I learnt with him I went away hoping I would not be on with him to much. I soon learnt, however, his bark was much worse than his bite and got to really enjoy his company. I can still remember him asking me rules. If I did not know the answer back would come the comment in a loud voice "Clem will smack your ar*@e if you don't know that!". A complete contrast was 'Rigor' who would spend most of the shift slumped in the chair virtually horizontal. The first shift I was on with him he barely said a word. Now 'Rigor' lived at Copplestone and on lates his other half would often drive to the box and spend the evening with him. I knew this and was slightly miffed at his lack of conversation. Come late afternoon 'Rigor' started to suggest that I may as well get away early as while learning it would be my only chance to do this. I knew what his ulterior motive was so the veritable picture of beaming fresh faced innocense I said no that was all right, I did not mind staying. Phil Arnold who tended an allotment overlooking the box told me the next day how a mini had arrived outside the box whilst I was out to a train, 'Rigor' had emerged from the box and then the car had roared away with its driver in high dudgeon! I think 'Rigor' twigged afterwards that I had been making a point and was more sociable in future, even giving me some strawberries. More on learning and details of the box later but here is a shot of a 47 entering the newly singled section to Cowley.

The one of the lonely traveller reminds me of a B&W photo in Amateur Photographer many years ago. A misty, dull, miserable day. The end of a platform with a Crewe nameboard, a few BRUTEs and sat on a seat, back to the photographer slumped down and shoulders hunched despondently a lone passenger. The caption....'Never on a Sunday'

Certainly looks a lot sprucer than in my day though someone appears to have used 0 gauge gas lamps on an 00 model!

I do not think it has changed much but some photos of the downside shelter at Crediton. On a Sunday when things where quiet I used to go up to the platform and sweep and mop out the shelters on the up and downside and clean the windows. A few memories of learning the job. One Wednesday at Barnstaple the station supervisor, Owen Gregory, told me I was going to Eggesford on the next Monday. This was a bit of a surprise to me. I had put in an application for the signalmans job at Crediton some six months previously and heard nothing. Since the Exeter resignalling had been announced right afterwards I had assumed that the vacancy would be frozen. It turned out that the idea of sending me to Eggesford was because there was only one mode of signalling instead of the three at Crediton so I would do my first fortnight of training at Eggesford. Eggesford box was roomy, being a replacement for the old box which had suffered badly from subsidence. The old box had been to the LSWR type i box design like most of the others on the line though it had appeared different as it was the only one to be built with a gabled roof instead of a hipped roof which all the others had. Anyway, the replacement had a twelve lever frame, eight working and four spaces giving plenty of room and was a standard WR prefabricated design. When I first went there it still had an arrangement of slats above the windows to act as a light baffle (I presume). When the box was later repainted these where removed. The box faced a hillside so low sunlight causing a glare was not a problem. The slats collected rainwater and would funnel it down your neck when you went out for the token. The box looked a bit 'bareheaded' though without the slats. Eggesford box with Bill Butt stood on the landing On my first day at Eggesford I met Harry Toulson who lived opposite in the station house with his wife Betty. Harry and Betty had met when they both worked on the trams in Leeds and to listen to Harry you would think he had only just moved down from there. Harry was the local rules expert and he would sit me down at the table with him the other side and we would go through the rule books for the entire turn. I went home with my head buzzing and had to sit down again at home with the books to get everything straight in my head. That is not a criticism by the way, I really appreciated all the trouble he was taking. One day Betty turned up with Harrys dinner. I pulled her leg about there being no pie for me. The next day she appeared and presented me with a whole apple pie she had baked just for me! It was Harry who told me that the slats above the windows where fitted to reduce glare from spotlights as the box had come from a marshalling yard in Birmingham. Years later I had to smile as the box was actually second hand from Ashendon Junction. The location is even more rural than Eggesford with no road near and Ashendon village away on a hill. I have since had occasion to go to Ashendon to clear cattle from the line, its site only marked by the up and down lines slewing away from one another and then back again as a reminder of the flying junction that once existed there. Doubtless the confusion was because the box had been located on the GWRs direct line TO Birmingham. Until the booking was abolished at Banbury South signalbox a little while ago, all the up Chilterns services had AL entered in the remarks column in the train register for Ashendon line. Sadly, Harry died a few years ago of cancer. He is the only Eggesford signalman that I have not got a photo of. A year or so ago, Betty was still living in the station house. The other signalman I learnt with was Jimmy Hughes who used to come to work in his scrap metal lorry. Learning with him was much more relaxed, I think I read the newspapers more when I was with him than I did the rule book. Bill Butt, the other resident was on annual leave when I was learning so I must have had a day or two with Bill Woolridge who was a reliefman based at Eggesford who I had already met at Barnstaple. The first time I was entrusted to change tokens at Eggesford I was stood on the crossing as the train approached and realised at the last moment that I had the token in the wrong hand. I do not think many signalmen exchange tokens with their arms crossed! Eggesford was always my favourite location on the line and I spent many hours taking photos around there. The scenery is still the same (except for there being more of it!) but it does not seem the same without the human presence. Later we shall go on to Crediton and my learning there. David.

Hi, yes I was thinking of a fairly heavy adaption. What it is like in the flesh I would not know but it looks a little less 'trainset' like than some of their structures.

Hi Bill, starting to take shape. You have got me started, making a model of a LSWR box, a mix of that at Portsmouth Arms and Crediton. Bit busy at the moment, this being my fifth consecutive 72 hour week and twice they have tried to book me 76 hours and then plenty to do when I get home. Still, I have two four hour turns to do at Claydon LNE Jc tomorrow and Wednesday, just one train and you do not even get to see it so may make some progress. If you do not mind I will post a photo here as and when there is anything to see. Have you seen the Metcalfe Models advert for their latest station? Just wondering with a recovering with brickpaper and some new quoin work it may end up looking Creditonesque, just a thought.

Hi, before my time but I believe it was Tom Earlam that Clem took over from. Perhaps Clem was different with the management than he was with the staff. I must admit, however, the one time I dropped him in it a bit he was nice as pie the next day about it just pointing out my error. I did not check a train at the down home whilst Clem was in the box and he did not realise what I had done unlike Mr Forrester, his superior at Bristol, who was out on the ground and did not arrive in the box until after I had gone home.

Hi, a few shots of the goods shed at Crediton, not the most attractive of structures and a further tale. One of the 'delights' of the railway and I daresay other industries is the characters to be found. A fearsome character, at least to a young trainee signalman, was our District Inspector (DI) at Exeter, Clem Chapman. Why he should be of such a character I do not know. I had my suspicions that it was due to him coming off the Southern. The Southern had always been the quieter side of the railway in the west country and whether he thought the Western men looked down on him and compensated for this by his aggresive attitude I do not know. Maybe he was just like that anyway. One story was when he was taking a guard on rules. Clem "What should you do in such and such a situation?" Guard "You should do......" Clem "And why should you do that?" Guard "Oh, well you should do it because......" Clem "And why else?" Guard "Oh, well uhmm, ah well because........." Clem "And?" Guard " Ummh, ahh, ummh, well, I don't know" Clem "BECAUSE ITS IN THE BOOK!" Bellowed our Clem, hammering the desk with his fist on every word and sending the tables contents on a merry jig across its surface. Some years later, when travelling back to north Devon from south Wales, I bumped into one of the Exeter drivers at St Davids. " I know when you where passed out as a signalman" he told me. A little bemused as to why he had this nugget of information I discovered he was being passed out on HSTs in the adjoining classroom the same day. He had told his instructor that he could not go on with all the shouting and banging emanating from next door! I must have been one of the last signalmen Clem passed out. I know he failed various others and his assistant ended up waiting for Clem to go on annual leave and then sent them up to Bristol for their final rules exam to be passed out. Mind you, I think the fact that I had come from Barnstaple, like Clem, had as much to do with it as any prowess at rules. At that time, in the Exeter area, we did not go to signalling school but learnt all our rules in the box. The quality of training depended on who you where with and I must say I was very lucky. Harry Toulson at Eggesford and most of the Exeter relief men really took time and effort to teach me the rules which could not have been easy. I would say I ended up really good at rules but before you think me too big headed, I soon found out that being able to recite from the rule book and implementing the rules in a real situation where two different things and there was, to put it politely, not always a dirrect correlation between the two, a further story! Anyway, back to Crediton box. I had a trainee with me, Neil Geeson who is now a driver with FHH. Having had a go at the rules earlier we where sat having a cup of tea and a read of the papers. Into this peaceful scene entered Clem with a management trainee in tow. Looking at Neil, Clem demanded," Where are your rule books?". "Here they are Mr Chapman" said Neil handing Clem his rule books. "This, this is what you should do with them" said Clem, throwing the proffered rule books onto the floor. "Thats what I always do with them Mr Chapman" said Neil. I think the management trainee wondered what lunatic asylum he had wandered into. I was squeezed up between the booking desk and the frame smirking out of the window and trying not to burst out laughing! Happy days!

Hi, seems strange sat in the office and looking at a model of it! As you say, the signals at the South end of the down platforms see regular use. The terminating services that arrive on the down relief and then form an up service normally stay on the down relief unless the relief is required before their departure time by another service when they shunt via the north end and start from the up main platform. Very occasionally they may shunt across to the up bay if trains are running out of course and they would cause delay crossing from the down to up on departure time. There is also a regular departure in the up direction from the down main platform by a FGW service at 0607 at the same time as a Chiltern service departs the down relief heading north.

How are the mighty fallen.

Hi, yes, a sad sight indeed, all those years they had been polished and burnished. At least the frame from Barnstaple went to the Mid Hants. I have checked the signalling plan and my recollections about the pre 1971 signalling where correct though the box at the Exeter end of the station (East) was downgraded 07/12/1913.

Hi, have not got the old signalling diagram to hand so will have to check but there was a siding on the upside just north of the box. I think from memory but not sure that the connections to the yard proper on the upside at the station end where also controlled from the box. There was a ground frame (downgraded from signalbox in 1916) released from the box which controlled the yard connections at the Exeter end. Will have to check with my set of signalling diagrams when next home. The lecturn thing is indeed the barrier control unit. There was a switch on the unit to turn the audible alarms on or off and raise and lower buttons along with lamps to show that the road traffic lights where operating. The barriers had a tendency to shake of there own accord. I presume they started to droop and then the circutry would sense and push them back up. Bit disconcerting for horse riders as horses did not seem to like crossing the line anyway, something to do with the shiny rails I believe. I can remember one young lady having difficulty controlling her somewhat skittish horse one day when this happened. Still, if it had not happened I would never have got chatting to the lovely Simone! The ladder was used for cleaning the windows which where done every week. Funny story in connection with that. The resident men had their own keys to the box, the reliefmen used a spare which was kept in the outside toilet (the concrete hut at the back of the box. The relief men where hellers for never putting the key back in the toilet but just leaving it on the booking desk. One day I was late turn and there had been a lot of people in the box to do with the early stages of the resignalling. At the end of my shift I locked the box up with my own key and went home. Never gave any thought to the spare key as it was not on the desk. Just gone 0300 next morning I was woken up by my landlady, Exeter where on the phone, the early turn, relief signalman could not get into the box. Borrowing the landladies sons bike off I cycled down the hill. Just getting to the box to see the barriers down and the mail passing over the crossing. The reliefman was so proud, telling me how he had propped an old 'To Let' sign up against the front wall and clambered in through the front windows. I did not have the heart to point out to him that every time he went out to deliver the token or staff he walked right by a ladder! Oh yes, and the key, we can only presume one of the people in the box the previous day had knocked it off the desk and had hung it up on the back wall amongst a large collection of odd keys hanging there. The reliefman still did not put the key back but when I relieved him at 1300 pointed it out to me sat on the booking desk.

No excuse for not making a model of the box now! Cheers, David.

Hi, a shot of the diagram in the signalbox and also a shot of the replacement panel. Somewhere I know I have taken a closer shot of the panel to show the detail but have not got around to scanning it. Just noticed in the lower shot, the token instrument on the left was a no signalman key token instrument intended for use on the Meldon line but never commisioned.

Thanks for that info. The one at Barnstaple was mainly used for unloading steel plate for Appledore shipbuilders.

An enlargement of the background of a damaged negative. A Freightlifter at Barnstaple sometime between 1979 and 1981

Afew shots around Severn Beach in 1979 or 80. Never been back there since.

Some shots of Exeter traincrew. Some have appeared on the net before but I am hoping someone be able to put a name to the faces since I have a memory like a sieve. To help, I have lettered the photos. 'Bimbo' Burridge, something of a madcap character. He was driving the up freight from Barnstaple when a clay wagon derailed and ripped up a couple of miles of track near Copplestone. None of us on the branch where convinced that excess speed was not involved! Bob Passmore hands down the token to signalman Jimmy Hughes at Eggesford. When I was on the platform at Barnstaple Bob often used to get me to go up and pull down the blinds in the cab of the DMU, much to the dissapointment of the passengers who had bagged the best seats behind the cab and where looking forward to a drivers eye of the journey. It was not that Bob was a miserable character. He could not get on with his false teeth! They would be lying on the table in the messroom, he would put them in for the walk along the platform. Once safely ensconced and out of sight in the cab, out they would come again. Jimmy Hughes was my regular shift mate at Eggesford when I was at Crediton box. His other job was as a scrap metal merchant. A somewhat innapropriate choice for a railwayman in this day and age! He used to come to work in his lorry, parked at the end of the station building. A bit of a long shot but if anyone has a photograph of it I would love to see it. A Unknown B Unknown C Unknown and no, it is not Tom Sellick! D Unknown E The one trip I hitched down to Meldon the 33 failed on us and we just managed to creep into the quarry with the empties. Here are the traincrew waiting for assistance.The drivers name escapes me at the moment, I know he started at Oswestry, was always plying me with snuff and his daughter was born on the same day as me (I never met her) F And here is the assistance, again any help with identification gratefully recieved G unknown Yes, I wondered what that is hanging down from the ceiling in Exeter Central box as well.

Some shots of the signalmen around Exeter in the eighties, not all of the best quality I am afraid. Norman Bartlett at Cowley Bridge Junction Michael Hayman at Cowley Bridge Junction withdrawing a token for the short lived EKT section to Crediton Bill Sims and his 'booking boy' Sam at Exeter Middle Dave 'Basher' Northcott working Exeter Central Neil Geeson, now a FLHH driver, working Crediton

A few from south Wales Bernard Trett working Little Mill box Dick Prosser lamping at Abergavenny Edmund point greasing at Abergavenny

Hi, I was a signalman at Hereford for all of a year in I think 1990. Apart from the trip there was also a freight in the early hours of the morning on the down road that conveyed traffic for Hereford. The traffic was at the front of the train. On arrival at Hereford the wagons where uncoupled from the front of the train and the train engine pulled them forward and then set them back on top of the pilot which was stabled on the siding known as 'under the wall' next to the island platform. Just before I went there they had a derailment with the tanks for the yard. The train was stood on the down relief. The crossover and connection to the yard north of the station are controlled from a GF released from the box. The signalman gave the shunter the release for the GF and told him it was OK for him to get the train of tanks to set back. As soon as he had done this he realised the motor worked points for the down relief where still set normal from the last move, that is for the down main. The signalman managed to get hold of the shunter and got him to stop the move. The following is just my interpretation of what they where thinking as to what happened next. The signalman asked the shunter if the train had passed over the points fearing he had run through the relief points but did not say which points. The shunter had just pulled over the crossover points so I presume that those points would be the ones he was thinking of so he said no. The signalman then got the shunter to wave the train back onto the down relief. Since two of the tank wagons had actually run though the relief points when the set back move began the end result was that they derailed as they passed back over them in the facing direction. The signalman should have looked at the point indication on the block shelf and he would have seen he had lost detection when the points had initially been run through. Hopefully, I am humble enough to know that it was a case of there but for the love of God go I. Hereford box could be a really busy and hectic place to work. The sort of place you could be literally running from one end of the box to the other to keep traffic moving for an hour or so at a time. Afterwards, when you had time to catch your breath, you would look at the train register and wonder how you could have been so busy as there had not been that great number of trains. On that particular morning it had been really busy. I know I made more of my share of mistakes in the short time I was there, fortunately without such consequences.

5Z47 Banbury, today.