Mike_Walker

At least one current and highly respected TOC managing director is a life-long passionate rail enthusiast, locomotive owner and good friend of Peter Hendy... And, is highly respected by his team at all levels. It does help if you have a passion for what you are doing in any walk of life not just seeing it as a means of earning a crust.

The mind boggles!

Reading the links kindly provided by Purnu's reply to my OP, it seems there are plans to lay a short length of line at the farm and run a "Zyder Express" for visitors. The bizarre paint job has only recently been applied and it seems the hundreds of dots have been applied using a paint that glows when exposed to UV light.

Be careful what you wish for! There's a lot of debate as to how the 769s will perform on the route. Yes, the Turbos did struggle at times but that's because they were geared for 90 mph to take advantage of Brunel's billiard table. That's why the Chiltern fleet are geared for 75 mph to cope better with the hills on that route.

There were two tests last week. On Monday 769946 ran a single Reading-Didcot-Maidenhead-Reading trip on electric only. On Wednesday it did two round trips. They tried running on diesel but there were "issues" so most of the run was again on electric. A third test was planned for today but was cancelled after two of the three units at Reading were declared failures. The current tests, when they run, are being handled jointly by GWR and Colas and appear to be booked off Reading at 11:33 running as 5Q10. As I understand it, they will not change between modes on the move as it requires actions by the driver which are regarded as a distraction risk if moving. As to which mode will be used on which section of the North Downs route, that has still to be advised.

Brilliant, thanks! Mike

Morning all, A long shot this, a friend spotted this industrial shunter in a yard whilst passing through Glastonbury a few days ago. Can anyone identify the type and/or its history? Note the suitably "hippy" paint job! Thanks, hopefully... Mike

Looking at a few photos in my collection: 11100 October 1959: Plain black, early crest, no valences. April 1967: D2200 Green with wasp stripes, late crest, no valences. 11101 July 1955: Plain black, early crest, valences fitted. September 1965: D2201 Green with wasp stripes, early crest, valences fitted. 11102 1961: D2202 with small D, Plain black, late crest, valences fitted. 11103 August 1958: Plain black, late crest, valences fitted.

Another preserved box: Romsey. Open to the public on selected dates and well worth a visit if you are in the area https://romseysignalbox.org.uk/ Not in its original position but close by and still almost next to the railway. The group have also made this miniature version of Cowley Bridge Junction which is portable.

Colour Rail DE2177 shows an unidentified GRCW Class 122 at Bridport in September 1964 and I have a photo in my collection (not mine so can't post) showing a GRCW Cross Country unit, Class 119, led by W51067 on an unrecorded date but it is green with speed whiskers.

I would think the annex existed in the 1930s. I can't see it being built to that ornate style after that. Likewise the canopy was probably there then too.

Nice weathering but still rather too clean for most SP locos I came across most of which were closer to black and that was after the black livery had been abandoned!

I'm not sure how viable this would be. There are questions being asked as to the viability of the Okehampton line. Brent's main role was, of course, as the junction for Kingsbridge. It never served a large community of its own and that hasn't grown appreciably since. Would it act as a railhead for surrounding communities? Doubtful, surely they already go to Totnes which has a better service than Ivybridge which would be the pattern for Brent if it were to reopen.

Rust.

Frome North Box provided the upper works for Frome Mineral Junction at Didcot.

Of the 13 original WR panels only Plymouth remains intact and will probably be "last man standing". Gloucester is reasonably intact (see above) with no short-term plans for replacement. Port Talbot has already been reduced by around half and the rest will be decommissioned during a current resignalling scheme. As mentioned, only a small part of Bristol remains operative. It was a desire to keep an example of this important era of UK signalling that led us to preserve Swindon Panel in such a way that the public can not only see but operate it too - when we are allowed to reopen that is... As one of the regular demonstrators I'm suffering withdrawal symptoms!

Gloucester PSB today. Opened the same year as Swindon, 1968. it controls a large area extending from Sapperton on the Swindon line, Charfield on the Bristol line and Newent on the Lydney line to the south and, originally, to Bromsgrove on the Birmingham line although this has now been cut back to north of Ashchurch. Gloucester PSB is adjacent to and controls the Horton Road level crossing which is operated by looking through the windows at the left. Until a couple of years ago it also operated a semaphore signal, the distant at Norton Junction for the colour light home at Abbotswood Junction - thought to be the only such example worked by a PSB. The arm was motor worked not by lever and wire! Sadly the junction signal at Norton Junction has been replaced by a modern Dorman LED "lollipop". Part of the north (left) end of the panel covering Cheltenham. The former northern extension at the top has been removed and covered over. Barnwood Junction, the north end of the Gloucester triangle. Note the various notes added by the signallers to remind them of moves etc. The south/west ends of the triangle with the Horton Road LC shown at the bottom and Gloucester station at the extreme bottom right. When first commissioned, Eastgate station was still operation and occupied the space on the panel now occupied by the keyboard which is used for entering train ID's into the train describers. the right hand end of the panel showing Standish Junction and, from top to bottom, the Swindon line, Bristol line which is continued in the middle, and South Wales line. one of the VDU train describers, the lefty screen is showing the Gloucester area whilst the right hand screen shows the area covered by the section of the panel shown above.

Swindon PSB before the great move. It was on the Down side at the London end of the station behind the new platform 4. Looking along the panel from the London end. The control area was from Challow to Box on the Main Line, to Chipping Sodbury on the Badminton and to just short of Sapperton Tunnel on the Kemble line. The west end showing Wootton Bassett and Kemble in the bottom foreground. The panel was mostly worked by two signallers, east and west and this picture shows basically the latter's "patch". The east end of Swindon showing the little used branch at South Marston. Also the VDU train describers, telephone concentrator panels and the GSM-R radio plus its associated screen.

Dot matrix LED displays as can be seen in the Bristol images above. CRT TDs were not used on the WR although they were elsewhere.

The early WR panels had "Sodeco" electro-mechanical indicators which comprised of four illuminated rotating drums. These were prone to sticking and were replaced by the LED displays when they became available. The Swindon Panel Society has been fortunate to acquire several of these Sodeco displays and plan to use them on the Badminton section of the panel with LEDs on the main line west of Swindon whilst the east end will remain with VDUs thereby demonstrating the evolution of train describers.

Exeter Panel, like Westbury, was supplied by Westinghouse and therefore differs considerably from the traditional WR ones. However, the interlocking is still based on the Reading designed E10k pattern. The panel comprises a large wall mounted panel showing the entire controlled area with the train describers. In front of them are desks at which the signallers sit. Again "London" is at the right hand end and it controls from Coagload Junction (inclusive) to just west of Totnes plus the Torbay branch excluding Paignton which has its own mini-panel at the station. The desk covering Exeter St Davids. Route setting is "push-push" like other BR regions. The knobs above are various manual controls, mainly for individual points, and above them the telephone answer buttons for the STPs. When an incoming call is made they light up. The corresponding part of the main panel. Note that the signal box icon shows the correct orientation of the panel within the building, at right angles to the tracks outside but east-west geographically, the railway runs basically north-south through Exeter. A unique feature of Exeter Panel is this computer display which monitors the cliffs around Dawlish and Teignmouth. If any movement is detected by sensors buried in the cliffs alarms sound. Ever wondered what "downstairs" is like in a Panel Box? Here are just a few of the relays at Exeter. A mixture of miniature relays controlling critical functions and PO type ones for non-critical functions. And this isn't all, there are remote relay interlockings working in conjunction with the main panel building for example at Totnes and Newton Abbot.

Bristol PSB, largest of the WR power boxes in its time and still with us - just. Opened in 1970 it is a classic example of the WR style of "Turn-push NX Panel" built around an Integra frame with domino tiles supplied by Henry Williams of Darlington. Routes are set by turning the switch at the entrance signal and pressing a button at the exit - hence the name. The exterior view. For those who don't know, it stands outside the old terminal part of Temple Meads and this view looks east. Bristol Panel had two panels. The main one controlled from Box Tunnel (at the right hand end) through Bath and Temple Meads down to just short of Cogload Junction. A second smaller panel was mounted at right angles at the right of the main panel (just visible above) and covered the Badminton line from Chipping Sodbury through Bristol Parkway/Stoke Gifford and as far as Pilning plus the Gloucester line to Charfield an Filton Bank down towards BTM. This picture shows the west end of the main panel with the Weston-Super-Mare loop just visible. All the Reading assembled WR panels were originally configured like this with the controls on the lower part of the panel and the track layout repeated above with the train describers which were originally electro-mechanical devices - noisy and prone to sticking. These were replaced by LED displays as seen here and later still in most PSBs the train describer functions were replaced by VDU screens and the upper panels plated over. Only Bristol and Cardiff retained their LED train describers. Here we have the "heart" of the panel Bristol Temple Meads station. Here we have the left hand or west end of the Stoke Gifford panel with from top to bottom, the Tunnel lines to South Wales, the lines to St. Andrews Junction and the Filton lines down to BTM at the bottom. Bristol Parkway is to the right of the shot. The other end of the Stoke Gifford Panel with the South Wales Main Line at the bottom and the Gloucester line above connecting at Westerleigh Junction. The only part of Bristol Panel still in use is the west end of the main panel from Flax Bourton. As an aside, much of the train describer equipment from the Stoke Gifford panel was recovered by the Swindon Panel Society for reuse in back dating Swindon panel at Didcot.

Bristol's main panel covering Box to just short of Cogload Junction was arranged with London (the east end) to the right. The Stoke Gifford panel was separate and at right angles to the main panel at the London end and was also arranged with London at the right hand end. Exeter is the same, London at the right hand end. I'll post some photos on the Signal Box Photos thread.

Merseyside PTE 1975 Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R Alexander H43/32F

I feel you are possibly mis-understanding the purpose of this list which is primarily to act as an index to the photos on this excellent thread whereas the SRS list is a record of surviving signal boxes. The references are purely for information and allowing the tracking of "wandering" 'Boxes.