Signal Boxes and kind of sad departure

[rjhowie]

A few months ago there was n item in a newspaper about the continued demise of the traditional sign box based on continued computerisation progress. i am sure it mentioned that north of the Border we would have only 6 control centres for the whole network? I can well understand that this is a natural progress on the railways but somehow it has a touch of sadness that these buildings from Victorian days will increasingly and fastly disappear. It may be possible in an odd place or so to keep one as a museum piece according to the same article. When looking at background info on my present continuing build of NI Railways, I discovered that a lovely wee box at a quiet station towards the Ulster/Eire Border border was closed but the villagers allowed to keep and look after it.

 

[masontaylor]

Not sure the figure of just six in Scotland can possibly be right, Bobby: we still have a working box at Carnoustie (and rodded semaphores) and Arbroath, just up the road, has one, too. Since there's another at the South end of the Tay Bridge, and a further one at Leuchars, that would mean that everything else was controlled by just two - and I have a feeling that there's another in operation at Cupar, and Pitlochry certainly still has one. The one at Usan governing the single track over the bridge to Montrose went a couple of years back, but, come to think of it, there's also one at Stonehaven still in operation.

The famous box which used to be part of the footbridge at Broughty Ferry was dismantled years ago but has recently been restored in a different configuration as part of Dundee council's conversion of said station to restaurant premises, and looks very smart in LMS colours - I'll see if I can find a pic.

The box at Kyle of Lochalsh has been demolished ahead of a complete rebuild - as a museum, I gather, certainly not as a working box, since the whole of the Skye and North Line system has been radio controlled for decades.

 

[Blutorse4792]

We call them "interlocking towers" in the United States, and they are becoming harder and harder to find here as well.

 

[jlp1551]

It is sad, losing these relics from our past. Glad to hear some are being taken over for people to see how things once were.

 

[Konni]

Hi,

The traditional signal boxes were part of entirely mechanical systems for operating turnouts and signals. Connections between levers in the signal box and turnouts or signals is either by systems of rods and levers, or by steel wires guided by rollers. As the distance between mechanical signal boxes and turnouts must not excced several hundered feet, lots of signal boxes are needed.
Larger stations had several signal boxes at either end and probably somewhere in the middle too. A typical example of an English mechanical signal box can be seen at the Science Museum in London.

This technology was becoming obsolete around 1910, but survived in some instances to the present time, if it remained adequate for handling traffic - and the line was not closed for that very reason.

Mechanical signalling was gradually replaced by electric signals, where initially only the power needed to operate the turnouts and semaphore signals was transmitted electrically. That allowed larger radii around signal boxes for controlling turnouts. The signalmen nevertheless needed to look at the tracks. Typical signal boxes of that age were sitting astride tracks on bridge like structures. Later signalling was concentrated to tall buildings with one band of large windows on the top floor, pretty much like the control towers of airports, from where even large railway stations could bee overseen by the signalmen.

Modern electronic "signal boxes" do not need to be placed within sight of tracks, as the signalmen are monitoring traffic on computer screens. Accordingly they are frequently large unconspicious buildings and not visible for train passengers. They can be quite large and are almost windowless providing space and climatisation for the extensive computer hardware.


Cheers,


Konni

 

[JCitron]

It is sad to see pieces of history being eliminated by progress, but then again computers are much more accurate than a human flipping levers.

I wonder though if the old switch towers (interlocking towers) actually helped prevent the vandalism we so much of today. With railroad people near the ROW at various locations, they would have a better chance of seeing graffiti artists and copper thieves. Today with no one nearby and the dispatchers located 1,000s of miles away, anything can happen along the ROW and go unnoticed for a long time.

John