PHOTO GALLERY: LONDON, MIDLAND & SCOTTISH RAILWAY

Thornhill

OPENED: 1943, CLOSED: —-

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Thornhill signal box is to be found on the old Glasgow & South Western Railway’s main line between Dumfries and Kilmarnock. A new box was provided here in 1943 when goods loops were provided to handle the extra traffic generated by the second world war.

New boxes on the Scottish Division of the LMS built between 1940 and 1947 were mostly to their ARP (Air Raid Precautions) design, replacing the short-lived style introduced in 1939 at Coupar Angus South. In the process, all attempts at good looks were abandoned and instead the focus was on sturdiness, with reinforced wall and ceilings designed to withstand any bomb blast apart from a direct hit. A larger box of similar design is illustrated at Aberdeen South.

The layout was controlled from a 30-lever frame of the REC type design, seen here after many levers had become spare with reductions to the layout. The levers are fitted with the same type of coloured bakelite plates as described at Caverswall, suggesting that the levers themselves were painted grey when the box was first used.

A pair of Glasgow & South Western Railway block instruments grace the block shelf.

By the 1990s, the general decline in freight traffic had led to the removal of the goods loops and the box fell out of use, becoming permanently switched out. However, an unexpected increase in freight around the turn of the century saw the Up loop being reinstated in virtually its original form. The box is now staffed again on a regular basis.

At the time of writing (2020), abolition of the box is scheduled for 2023.