Contemporary Perspective on LMS Railway Signalling Vol 1 E-Book

Allen Jackson

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

For over 150 years Britain's railways have relied on a system of semaphore signalling, but by 2020, all semaphore signals and lineside signal boxes will be gone. In his previous book, author Allen Jackson covered the GWR lines; here, he continues his journey by providing a pictorial record of the last operational signalling and infrastructure on Britain's railway network, as it applied to the former London, Midland and Scottish Railway (and lines owned jointly with other companies). This first volume covers the routes of the following companies: Midland Railway; Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway; Furness Railway; Glasgow and South Western Railway, and North Staffordshire Railway. Beautifully illustrated with over 400 contemporary images and with detailed information from a 2003-2014 survey, this is an essential resource for anyone with an interest in the traditional signalling systems of railways in Britain.

Leseprobe

A Contemporary Perspective on

LMS Railway Signalling

VOL 1

Semaphore Swansong

Allen Jackson

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2015 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2015

© Allen Jackson 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 026 3

Frontispiece: Blackpool North No. 2 signal box

with some of its signals, March 2010.

Dedication

For Ninette.

Acknowledgements

The kindness and interest shown by railway signallers.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1 Signal Boxes and Infrastructure on Network Rail

2 Midland Railway

Nottingham to Lincoln

Settle to Carlisle

Manchester to Sheffield

Peterborough to Syston

Worksop to Nottingham

Burton upon Trent to Leicester

Cheltenham Spa Area

Chinley Junction to Buxton

Leeds to Sheffield

3 Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

West Lancashire

Walton Junction to Preston

Wigan Wallgate to Kirkby

North of Bolton

Manchester to Oldham

Manchester to Bradford

Preston to Blackpool North

North and East Lancashire

West Yorkshire

4 Furness Railway

5 Glasgow and South Western Railway

Ayr to Stranraer Harbour

Carlisle to Glasgow

6 North Staffordshire Railway

Stoke-on-Trent to Derby

Useful Resources

Index

Preface

The GWR book in this series concentrated more on the ways of working, and while it would be easy and more lucrative to refer readers back to that volume, some explanations of those features have been incorporated in this work. I apologize if this seems slightly repetitive if you have already read the GWR book but I feel there will be some who have not.

Fig. 1 Forest of semaphore signals at Blackpool North station, August 2005.

Introduction

Up until 1 January 1923 there were hundreds of railway companies in Britain. The government at the time perceived an administrative difficulty in controlling the railways’ activities at times of national crisis. The country had just endured World War I and the feeling was that it could all be managed better if they were amalgamated. Thus came the railway ‘grouping’, as it was termed, creating just four railway companies.

The London Midland and Scottish Railway was one of those four entities but the identities of the larger companies within it persisted and do so to this day. Lines are referred to by their pre-grouping ownership even now. This is often because routes were duplicated and so it was never going to be accurate to refer to the line from ‘Manchester to Sheffield’ without the qualification ‘Midland Railway’ if that was the one being referred to. This was to differentiate between the lines run by the Great Central.

Many of the smaller companies did lose their identity, in signalling terms, although their architecture may remain.

The only pre-grouping railways considered therefore are those for which an identifiable signalling presence existed at the time of the survey.

The ex-LMS signal boxes and infrastructure amount to 244 examples, so it has been necessary to split the LMS into two.

Volume 1 covers:

Midland Railway (MR)

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway (L&YR)

Furness Railway (FR)

Glasgow and South Western Railway (GSWR)

North Staffordshire Railway (NSR)

Volume 2 covers:

London and North Western Railway (LNWR)

Caledonian Railway (CR)

Highland Railway (HR)

In the book the system of units used is the imperial system, which is what the railways themselves still use, although there has been a move to introduce metric units in places like the Railway Accident Investigation Branch reports and in the southeast of England, where there are connections to the Channel Tunnel.

As a guide:

CHAPTER 1

Signal Boxes and Infrastructure on Network Rail

The survey was carried out between 2003 and 2014 and represents a wide cross-section of the remaining signal boxes on Network Rail. Inevitably some have closed and been demolished, while others have been preserved and moved away.

Although the book is organized around the pregrouping companies, the passage of time has meant that some pre-grouping structures have been replaced by LMS or BR buildings.

If you are intending visiting any of them it is suggested that you find out what the current status is before you set off.

For reasons of access and position some signal boxes are covered in greater detail than others and some are featured as a ‘focus on’ where the quality of the information or the interest of that location merits that attention.

Some of the signal boxes have been reduced in status over the years and while they may have controlled block sections in the past some no longer do so, but are (or were at the time of the survey) on Network Rail’s payroll as working signal boxes.

Details of the numbers of levers are included but not all the levers may be fully functional as signal boxes have been constantly modified over the years.

Lever colours are:

Red

Home signals

Yellow

Distant signals

Black

Points

Blue

Facing-point locks

Blue/brown

Wicket gates at level crossings

Black/Yellow chevrons

Detonator placers

White

Not in use

Green

King lever to cancel locking when box switched out.

Levers under the block shelf, or towards the front window normally, are said to be normal and those pulled over to the rear of the box are said to be reversed.

There are some boxes where the levers are mounted the opposite way round, in other words levers in the normal position point to the rear wall, but the convention remains the same.

Listed Buildings

Many signal boxes are considered to have architectural or historic merit and are Grade II listed by English Heritage or Historic Scotland. This basically means they cannot be changed externally without permission. If the owner allows the building to decay to such an extent that it is unsafe, the building can then be demolished. The number of signal boxes with a listing is due to increase following the news that they are all to be replaced by 2020.

There are currently sixty-four boxes across the network that are under consideration for listing, so whilst the listing status is given as being accurate when this was written, the status may well change. A Grade I listing would require the interiors to remain the same so that is unlikely to happen with Network Rail structures but may happen with the preservation movement – many boxes have had the interiors preserved as fully operational working museums.

In Scotland the classification system is somewhat different and is as follows: Category A for buildings of national or international architectural worth or intrinsic merit; Category B for buildings of regional architectural worth or intrinsic merit; Category C for buildings of local importance, architectural worth or intrinsic merit.

Signal Box Official Abbreviation

Most signal boxes on Network Rail have an official abbreviation of one, two or sometimes three letters. This usually appears on all signal posts relevant to that box. Finding an abbreviation could be tricky – for example there are eight signal boxes with Norton in the title – until you realize that they are not unique. The abbreviation for each box appears after the box title in this book, if it has one.

Ways of Working

Absolute Block – AB

A concept used almost since railways began is the ‘block’ of track where a train is permitted to move from block to block provided no other train was in the block being moved to. This relies on there being up and down tracks. Single lines have their own arrangements. It is usual to consider trains travelling towards London to be heading in the up direction, but there are local variations.

This block system was worked by block instruments that conveyed the track occupancy status and by a bell system that was used to communicate with adjacent signal boxes.

Track Circuit Block – TCB

Track circuit block is really all to do with colour light signals, which, strictly speaking are outside the scope of this book, except that many signal boxes interface to track circuit block sections and will have track circuit block equipment or indications in them.

Originally track circuits lit a lamp in a signal box to indicate where a train was. Then they were used to interlock block instruments, signals and points together to provide a safe working semaphore signal environment.

With colour light signals it is possible to provide automatically changing signals that are controlled by the passage of trains or presence of vehicles on the track.

Single Line Workings

These – key token, tokenless block and no signaller key token – are covered in detail in the section on the signal box that supervises such workings.

The suffix [i] behind a box title indicates interior views.

Summary of Disposition LMS Volume 1

Midland Railway

Nottingham to Lincoln

Lowdham

Fiskerton Junction

Fiskerton Station

Rolleston Crossing

Staythorpe Crossing

Newark Castle

Swinderby

Settle to Carlisle

Hellifield South Junction

Settle Junction

Blea Moor

Garsdale (Hawes Junction)

Kirkby Stephen

Appleby North

Kirkby Thore

Culgaith

Low House Crossing

Howe and Co.’s Siding

Manchester to Sheffield

Romiley Junction

New Mills Central

New Mills South Junction

Chinley Junction

Edale

Earle’s Sidings

Grindleford

Totley Tunnel East

Peterborough to Syston

Uffington and Barnack

Stamford Station

Ketton

Manton Junction

Oakham Level Crossing

Langham Junction

Ashwell

Whissendine

Melton Mowbray Station

Worksop to Nottingham

Elmton and Creswell

Shirebrook Junction

Pinxton

Sleight’s Sidings East

Stanton Gate Shunt Frame

Stapleford and Sandiacre

Sneinton Crossing Shunt Frame

Burton upon Trent to Leicester

Bardon Hill

Mantle Lane

Moira West Junction

Cheltenham Spa Area

Alstone Crossing

Oddingley

Chinley Junction to Buxton

Peak Forest South

Great Rocks Junction

Leeds to Sheffield

Moorthorpe

Hickleton

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

West Lancashire

Burscough Bridge Junction

Parbold

Wigan Wallgate

Crow Nest Junction

Atherton Goods Yard

Walkden

Walton Junction to Preston

Rufford

Midge Hall

Wigan Wallgate to Kirkby

Rainford Junction

North of Bolton

Blackrod Junction

Bromley Cross

Manchester to Oldham

Ashton Moss North Junction

Baguley Fold Junction

Vitriol Works

Castleton East Junction

Rochdale

Shaw Station

Oldham Mumps

Manchester to Bradford

Smithy Bridge

Hebden Bridge

Milner Royd Junction [i]

Halifax

Mill Lane Junction

Greetland

Elland [i]

Preston to Blackpool North

Salwick

Kirkham

Poulton-le-Fylde (No. 3)

Carleton Crossing

Blackpool North No. 1

Blackpool North No. 2

North and East Lancashire

Bamber Bridge Level Crossing Frame (LCF)

Huncoat LCF

Towneley LCF

Daisyfield Station

Horrocksford Junction

Brierfield Station

West Yorkshire

Cutsyke Junction

Prince of Wales Colliery

Hensall

Furness Railway

Carnforth Station Junction

Arnside

Grange-over-Sands

Ulverston

Dalton Junction [i]

Barrow-in-Furness

Park South [i]

Askam

Foxfield

Millom

Silecroft

Bootle

Drigg

Sellafield

St Bees

Glasgow and South Western Railway

Ayr to Stranraer Harbour

Kilkerran [i]

Girvan

Barrhill [i]

Glenwhilly

Dunragit

Stranraer Harbour

Carlisle to Glasgow

Annan

Dumfries Station

Holywood

Thornhill

Kirkconnel

New Cumnock

Mauchline

Hurlford

Lugton [i]

North Staffordshire Railway

Stoke-on-Trent to Derby

Foley Crossing

Caverswall

Uttoxeter

Sudbury

Scropton [i]

Tutbury Crossing

Egginton Junction [i]

This does not claim to be an all-encompassing list and there are odd stragglers that were not surveyed and are now no more.

Fig. 2 Peak Forest South in Derbyshire, October 2014.

CHAPTER 2

Midland Railway

The Midland Railway was one of the earliest of the larger railway companies and, like so many others, its wealth was built on the movement of coal.

The Midland Railway was often held up in the nineteenth century as being a sure-fire investment. It was returning 6.5 per cent as a dividend when the bank rate was averaging about half that.

The Midland expanded wherever it could into South Wales, the south coast of England with the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (S&DJR) and eventually towards Scotland with the Settle and Carlisle line. It was in the Midlands coalfields where the company made its money. The main line ran from St Pancras in London to Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds and Carlisle. It also had a passenger presence from Bristol to Birmingham and access to the Somerset coalfield through the S&DJR. The company’s centre was at Derby, where the first ever roundhouse, for Derby Locomotive Works, was built in 1839 and is now an exhibition centre and listed building. The Midland developed a strong rivalry with, mostly, the London and North Western Railway. Derby has remained a centre of technical excellence on the railways and an influence in railway matters generally, where it has been seen to ‘get its way’ much to the annoyance of other railway company proponents.

The Midland Railway was also a 50 per cent shareholder in the Cheshire Lines Committee (CLC) but as this is seen as a predominantly London and North Eastern Railway concern, despite most of it being in Lancashire, it has been held over for one of the LNER volumes in this series.

Nottingham to Lincoln

The area from Nottingham to Lincoln is one of contrasts. Nottingham was for many years the world’s centre of lace-making and many innovative techniques were pioneered in the city. It was surrounded by coalfields, and Toton Yard was a massive coal train marshalling complex.

Tobacco and light industries featured in the city’s portfolio of activities with the world-famous Raleigh cycle factory. These works had their heyday when a good proportion of the working population in the 1950s used a cycle to get to work.

Lincolnshire is often considered a flat county of farmland but has delightful undulating scenery around Horncastle and Market Rasen in the Lincolnshire Wolds area.

Lincoln itself was originally built on a hill. The hill was named Lindum by the Romans, who were its founders. Lincoln, as well as being an administrative centre for the county and surrounding agricultural area, was also a manufacturer of small locomotives for industrial use and farm machinery.

The Midland Railway ran into their own station at St Marks in the city centre and added to the bane of pedestrians’ and road vehicle drivers’ lives – the street level crossing.

Fig. 3 Nottingham–Lincoln schematic diagram.

The schematic not-to-scale diagram in Fig. 3 shows only mechanical signal boxes. The journey will be from east to west.

Lowdham (LH)

Date Built

1896

MR Type or Builder

MR Type 2b

No. of Levers

16

Ways of Working

AB

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

Lowdham is a prosperous and pretty village on the road to Southwell, that minster cathedral in rurality. Lowdham rated a mention in the Domesday Book and part of St Mary’s church dates from medieval days. The village was much occupied with frame knitting in the nineteenth century.

Fig. 4 Lowdham signal box, May 2006.

Lowdham station and signal box are examples of typical Midland Railway architecture and ambience. The signal box depicted in Fig. 4 is the archetypical ‘Airfix kit’ design although the steps are now galvanized steel.

The Airfix kit refers to a manufacturer of plastic OO gauge model railway kits in the 1950s and 1960s, and the signal box was actually modelled on Oakham, which appears later in the book. The only features missing are the platform walkway and railings at first-floor level.

Lowdham signal box is 7 miles and 27 chains (11.8km) from Nottingham East Junction near Nottingham Midland station.

Fig. 5 Lowdham goods yard crossing and single slip, May 2006.

Fig. 5 shows an unusual manifestation of a feature once so common. Most railway companies had a fear of placing points so that their blades faced the normal running direction because the force of a train hitting facing points can, under certain circumstances, force the point blades to open and cause a derailment. The right-hand line running direction is towards the camera, and to gain access to the now long closed goods yard it was necessary to travel past the point in the foreground and reverse across the diamond crossing and into the yard, thereby avoiding a running line facing point situation. The siding and its crossover have been retained for engineers’ use. Note the angled paling fencing – this is typical of the Midland Railway but is obviously a much later replacement. The view is towards Newark and Lincoln.

Fig. 6 Lowdham looking towards Nottingham, May 2006.

Fig. 6 shows the arrow-straight line towards Nottingham with just a glimpse of the starter signal behind the box and beyond the road overbridge. The platform edge has been refaced with concrete slabs although some of the original paving exists further down the platform.

Fig. 7 Lowdham station building, May 2006.

The splendid Midland station building survives in private hands and the owner has sympathetically retained a lot of the original character. The building would have doubled as a stationmaster’s residence as well as a booking office, parcels office and waiting room for passengers. Fig. 7 shows this to advantage.

Period features to note are the scalloped barge boards, blue enamel name board, fire buckets and postbox. Note also the difference in ancient and modern platform edging. The Network Rail bus shelter is in attendance. The ventilated goods van body looks as though it is in use as a wood store.

Fiskerton Junction (FJ)

Date Built

1929

MR Type or Builder

MR Type 4e

No. of Levers

30

Ways of Working

AB

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

As with so many of the signal boxes termed junction, there is no longer a junction here. The box was built in 1929 to control a line put in to service two collieries that had opened up in the 1920s, just before the Depression. The collieries closed but the line stayed there until 1966; during the interim the collieries had reopened and outlived the railway that had been built for them.

Fig. 8 Fiskerton Junction signal box, May 2006.

The box in Fig. 8 is in good condition with replacement uPVC windows and steel steps to replace the wooden ones, though there are no roof finials. Unlike other boxes in other regions, the Midland boxes have not generally had toilet blocks grafted on but seem to have a separate building or Portaloo. The box worked its gates from a mechanical wheel within the box at the time of the survey. The box is 12 miles 3 chains (19.4km) from Nottingham East Junction.

Fig. 9 Fiskerton Junction’s home signal on the same post as Fiskerton Station signal box’s distant signal, May 2006.

Fig. 9 shows the single trailing crossover that the box controls together with inner home and distant signals. The distant signal is Fiskerton Station’s as the distance between the two boxes is short, at about half a mile (800m). The ground signal on the left is to signal a reversing move over the trailing crossover.

Fig. 10 Rear of Fiskerton Junction signal box, May 2006.

Fig. 10 is an image of the rear of Fiskerton Junction signal box. The wooden-framed structure at the end appears to be some sort of bird feeder. The crossing keeper’s cottage over the tracks has acquired a new gentility, with a brick toilet block at the end.

Fig. 11 Morton Crossing ground frame, May 2006.

Back up the line a short way towards Nottingham, the Morton Crossing ground frame is shown in Fig. 11. This is what was here before the signal box was built in 1929 and has somehow survived. It controlled the crossing and signals. There is a lever within Fiskerton Junction signal box to release control of the crossing to the ground frame.

Fiskerton Station

Date Built

1902

MR Type or Builder

MR Type 3a

No. of Levers

16

Ways of Working

Gate

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

Fiskerton lies on the bank of the River Trent and has many large homes belonging to wealthy businesspeople who used the station to commute to Nottingham. Fiskerton rated a mention in the Domesday Book and became industrialized to some extent as the river was a main trade artery. After the arrival of the railway in 1846 the riverside industries fell into disuse and the village became gentrified.

There is a two-platform station with the usual bus shelters but the original station building survives in private hands. The station is 12 miles and 46 chains (20.4km) from Nottingham East Junction.

Fig. 12 Fiskerton Station signal box, May 2006.

Fig. 12 depicts the box in rural splendour. The signaller has gone to some trouble to brighten up the working environment with a fine display of window boxes and planter tubs – there is even a trellis against the toilet wall.

This is not a block post in the sense that trains have to be passed from one block to another as in the case of absolute block (AB); so, as it only looks after a crossing, it gains the soubriquet ‘Gate’.

Fig. 13 Rear of Fiskerton Station signal box, May 2006.

The conifer in the barrel tub in the rear of Fiskerton Station signal box must be part of the winter garden display and is taking a back seat to the May blossom on display in Fig. 13. The trellis appears to have young clematis growing. If you like nature this is a good place to work – or rather, the signaller has made it so.

The view is towards Nottingham.

Fig. 14 Fiskerton Station signal box lever frame with home and distant signals pulled off, May 2006.

Fig. 14 gives a glimpse inside the box at Fiskerton Station. The two levers pulled off are a home and distant signal. The distant signals on this line are remarkable semaphore survivors when, even in predominantly semaphore areas, colour light distants are almost universally used. Colour lights are much better in fog and low-light conditions. The lever frame is a typical Midland Railway type that was subsequently adopted by the LMS. All points and signals are interlocked to prevent an unsafe movement from being signalled, and the frame contains some of the levers and other devices to do this.

The Midland locking frame was extraordinarily compact and this meant the box did not need to be very high just to accommodate the locking in a special room underneath the frame. The London and North Western Railway was said to have been the opposite in this respect.

It was not always geographically convenient to have the points and signals interlocked at the frame and where this happens outside the box it is referred to as ‘slotting’ or ‘detection’.

Fig. 15 Fiskerton Station inner home and distant in the Nottingham direction, May 2006.

Finally at Fiskerton Station, Fig. 15 shows the inner home and distant signals for the Nottingham (up) direction. They both have sighting boards that eliminate a confusing visual background to the eyes of the driver. The distant signal is controlled by Fiskerton Junction signal box as the two locations are so close to one another.

Rolleston Crossing

Date Built

c.1980

MR Type or Builder

BR Portakabin

No. of Levers

–

Ways of Working

Gate

Current Status

Active, closure slated

Listed (Y/N)

N

Rolleston has the standard two platform and bus shelter arrangement and sees traffic for Southwell racecourse.

Fig. 16 Rolleston Crossing signal box, May 2006.

The box is just that – a box – in Fig. 16, and is about as basic as a signal box gets. It does not have the saving grace of architectural merit, and unsurprisingly there has been no clamour to list it.

Fig. 17 Rolleston station and MR wooden post signal, May 2006.

Fiskerton’s up distant signal, towards Nottingham, at Rolleston station (Fig. 17), on the other hand, is a Midland Railway survivor complete with wooden post, although the arm is a standard LMS upper quadrant as opposed to Midland lower quadrant. Wooden post signals are now rare on Network Rail.

Staythorpe Crossing (SK)

Date Built

c.1950

MR Type or Builder

LMS Type 11c

No. of Levers

35

Ways of Working

AB

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

Now we come to the first ex-LMS box on this line and the build date tells us that the London Midland Region of British Railways used an LMS box that had been stored at Crewe during World War II as a replacement for bomb-damaged signal boxes. Some were stored at Crewe Works in kit form for just such an eventuality. There doesn’t appear to have been a Plan B if Crewe Works had been bombed, but perhaps there were other storage locations.

The box was built not only as a block post on the line but to supervise the junction with a power station also named Staythorpe (and later Staythorpe A).

Fig. 18 Staythorpe Crossing signal box, May 2006.

It was extended by six feet in 1960 to look after the sidings put in for Staythorpe B power station. This is clearly visible at the far end in Fig. 18, as is the sag in the middle. Perhaps there is such a thing as signal box botox.

The barriers are operated from a panel within the box.

Both power stations, A and B, were closed – in 1983 and 1994 respectively – and a new (2010) gas-fired power station occupies the site.

Fig. 19 Staythorpe Crossing signal box and the siding to the former power stations, May 2006.

Fig. 19 is looking towards Newark and Lincoln at Staythorpe Crossing signal box, and the siding to one of the power stations is still there at the survey date. Note that the point that gives access to the power station is facing, and that T-shaped piece between the track and the point blades is a facing-point lock mechanism. This requires a separate blue lever in the signal box.

The high-voltage distribution power lines are visible; although at the time of the survey no power was being generated, that infrastructure remained.

Staythorpe Crossing signal box is 14 miles 20 chains (23km) from Nottingham East Junction. The yellow quarter-mile post on the right of the picture bears this out as 20 chains is one quarter of a mile. The full-mile distance is usually on the top of the post, and you add both values to get the true mileage.

Fig. 20 Staythorpe Crossing signal box and the signals to the former power stations, May 2006.

Fig. 20 looks the other way towards Nottingham, and the bracket signal subsidiary posts are to control entry to the power station sidings. The main post is straight on for Newark. The trailing crossover is signalled by the ground discs to permit reversing moves. Note the guy wires to steady the signal post.

Fig. 21 Rear of Staythorpe Crossing signal box, May 2006.

Fig. 21 shows the rear of Staythorpe Crossing signal box with cranked staircase to keep clear of the road. Note that the white gate dates from an earlier period than the paling fence, which is distinctly non-Midland Railway in character.

Newark Castle (NC)

Date Built

1912

MR Type or Builder

MR Type 4a

No. of Levers

16

Ways of Working

AB, TCB

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

Newark, on the bank of the River Trent, has its origins in Roman times as it was a stopping point on the Fosse Way. Newark Castle is now a ruin and the skirmishes in the English Civil War can’t have helped. However, the town grew as a marketplace and a centre for the textile trades. Nowadays it is handily placed for commuters to London and Nottingham and is a prosperous growing town that retains a good deal of character.

Newark itself is more properly named Newark-on-Trent, and the station Newark Castle has been termed thus to distinguish it from the ex-London and North Eastern Railway station, Newark North Gate, on the East Coast Main Line.

This is one of the few places in Britain where a main line is crossed by another main line on the flat with rail crossings.

Fig. 22 Newark Castle signal box, May 2006.

There are only ground semaphore signals here and a crossover. Newark Castle works AB to Staythorpe Crossing signal box and TCB to Doncaster power box. Newark Castle signal box is 16 miles 79 chains (27.3km) from Nottingham East Junction and lies at the Nottingham end of the down platform, as shown in Fig. 22; the view is back along the line to Staythorpe Crossing. This box has its frame in the rear – in other words the levers point to the rear of the box when in their normal position.

Fig. 23 Newark Castle station, former MR building, May 2006.

Fig. 23 shows some fine Midland architecture in the generous station building. This is looking back towards Lincoln and from the same point as Fig. 22. The building on the far left under the ‘2’ is the former goods shed, which has now been converted for private business use.

Fig. 24 Newark Castle station, goods shed and crossover, May 2006.

Fig. 24 shows the trailing crossover and ground disc signals, which account for only three levers in the frame. The crossover is used as some trains from Nottingham terminate here. The train arrives on the down platform on the left and reverses over the crossover to begin another journey back to Nottingham.

The former goods shed can be seen with the iron struts for the awning still in place; the archway where the wagons would go in now has a large multi-panelled window in the aperture there. There were goods sidings on both sides together with an interchange siding with the Great Northern Railway as well as a short branch line to a sugar beet factory.

Swinderby (SY)

Date Built

1901

MR Type or Builder

MR Type 3a

No. of Levers

16

Ways of Working

TCB

Current Status

Active

Listed (Y/N)

N

Swinderby is east of the East Coast Main Line and the first station on the Nottingham to Lincoln line in Lincolnshire. Swinderby was the home of a World War II bomber base, one of many in Lincolnshire, and was notable for the number of Polish squadrons based there who fought for Britain. In 1964 it became a recruit training base until RAF Swinderby closed in 1993 and the site was redeveloped.

Fig. 25 Swinderby signal box, February 2007.

Fig. 25 shows a well-kept and looked-after box. The replacement windows are a little on the chunky side but perhaps that is because they are double glazed. There is a neat brick-built toilet block. It is unusual for a box this small to have a walkway and railings around it.

Fig. 26 Swinderby signal box looking towards Lincoln, February 2007.

In the view down towards Lincoln shown in Fig. 26, the ballast pile is the site of the former goods yard. Note the period 50mph speed restriction sign on the up right-hand side. The point rodding coming out of the box is on its own, as a crossover only needs one rod and lever to make it work. The points in a crossover are co-acting and so the rodding and cranks are arranged to make both points operate with one black lever pull. If the crossover is facing the normal direction of traffic, it needs a blue lever to release both locks first before a crossover can be changed. Power-operated points don’t usually need a facing-point lock lever as the locking is integral with the mechanism.

Fig. 27 Swinderby signal box looking towards Nottingham, February 2007.

The view in Fig. 27 is looking up the line towards Newark and Nottingham. The home signal on the right is much taller than its partner on the left as the line undulates after the station and the taller signal is needed to be seen. Note the ‘W’ whistle roundel which is modern and odd in that trains no longer whistle but either hoot or bray. On the left-hand side is a period waiting shelter.

Fig. 28 Swinderby station building and stationmaster’s house, February 2007.

The delightful station building and stationmaster’s house (now in private care) are shown in Fig. 28. Stationmasters had no choice but to live ‘on the job’ so to speak but this would appear to be no hardship at Swinderby. Stations would go to some lengths to cultivate gardens for the passengers and competitions would be held and prizes awarded for excellence. There would often be some railway land nearby that was cultivated for vegetables as with an allotment, and sometimes vegetables changed hands for a large lump of coal from the tender or bunker. If coal was hard to come by there would usually be a supply of old sleepers that had been creosoted and would burn well when split. Old sleepers often manifested themselves as garden sheds or pigsties.

Swinderby station is 24 miles and 64 chains (40km) from Nottingham East Junction.