PHOTO GALLERY: NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY
Rigton
OPENED: c1873 CLOSED: 2012
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Rigton signal box controlled a level crossing on the Leeds to Harrogate line.
It is of the Southern Division of the North Eastern’s earliest standard design, which was used through to 1903. Many early examples were very squat -see Leyburn. Nearly all were of all brick construction, with large corner pillars that limited the signalman’s view when compared with other divisions’ and companies’ practices. Weaverthorpe demonstrates an intriguing variation of this type.
The Southern Division chose McKenzie & Holland as their main lever frame supplier from the 1880’s, and this policy permeated into the other divisions in later years, continuing right through into the British Railways era as the North Eastern Region.
Little is known about the original lever frame at Rigton, but it was renewed in 1939 with a six-lever frame of the McKenzie & Holland type. At that date, it can be assumed that this was a rebuild of an older frame from another box.
One particularly interesting feature here was that the modern-looking lifting barriers were actually mechanically worked from a conventional gate wheel. This short movie film taken in 2011 shows them in operation.
The box closed on 20th October 2012 when the entire line was re-signalled and controlled from a new workstation at Harrogate.