- This topic has 18 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated November 2, 2020 at 2:23 pm by JG Morgan.
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Posts
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Midland_Signalman
Hi,
I am working on a full-size signal box simulator of Roxton Sidings Signal Box in 1953.
Would anyone be able to help with local signal box instructions, bell codes and signal box opening times.
Thank You.
Paul
The Signalman
Hi Paul,
Roxton was open 6 am to 10 pm Weekdays in 1953.
That poses an interesting question – there was traffic outside those hours (not really in question but confirmed by boxes either side being open continuously) so it must have had a closing switch. (Bless my soul, there it is: https://signalbox.org/photo-gallery/manchester-sheffield-lincolnshire-railway/roxton-sidings/ – I hadn’t noticed!)
And, whilst closed the level crossing would be closed too, unless the signal box was staffed by a lesser mortal at night in the capacity of crossing keeper.
Best regards,
John
Midland_Signalman
Hi John,
Thank you, that’s interesting.
Paul
Mike Hodgson
I shan’t post a link here as the photos are copyright but rail-online has photos showing it boasting a somersault signal surviving since the date you are simulating. The site seems to confuse it with the village ofRoxton near Tempsford on the ECML, a location probably better known asthe notorious Black Cat Roundabout on the Great North Road roughly where it seems the new Oxford-Cambridge route and the upgraded A428 will soon be going.
However one of the photos does contain comments that the box was originally called Immingham Siding and that it was renamed Roxton Siding in 1905 (final S on the box boards but not the diagram). A Crossing-keeper’s cottage, now demolished, is shown on the opposite side of the line.
Midland_Signalman
Hi Mike,
Thank you, the pictures are very good. I will order a copy of each of them.
Paul
The Signalman
Yes, Roxton was known as Immingham Siding until 1905, but it wouldn’t have had any somersault signals.
John
PS – Mike – you are free to link to sites such as that (see “Rule 8”) if you wish.
Midland_Signalman
Hi John,
The home signal from Habrough Junction was a GN Somersault signal.
Paul
The Signalman
I stand corrected. I have never heard of somersault signals on the GC, any idea how this came to be?
John
Inspector Boggins
Steven West
Hi I have just look at the website I linked to in another topic and if you scroll down there is a picture of Roxton Sidings Box and you can see the back of a somersault signal. http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/gyhabrough/gyhabrough.htm
Steve
Mike Hodgson
Thanks for that John. This page shows the signal, albeit said to be on ECML,
https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p1063009244/he1229bc8#he1229bc8
while this one is obviously another train from the same spot also September 1960, and is clear as to location although the signal is perhaps less obviously a somersault
https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p353285794/h694cd77a#h694cd77a
This view on another site with a DMU in full-frontal yellow although undated would be more recent and is even clearer
https://amiguru.wordpress.com/picture-gallery-of-times-past/
Maybe it shouldn’t have been a somersault but perhaps that concrete post was all the LNER had immediately to hand when it needed urgent replacement. The number of stay wires might be a clue to what had happened to its predecessor?
Shows how difficult it is to be certain about how things were at a historical date – various photos show a later home signal both with and without a sighting board and apparently further from the box. For a while the working was AB to Stallingborough, TCB to Ulceby.
The Signalman
Sorry to be while coming back on this, I needed to consult somebody who knows more about concrete than I do (!).
The GCR did not use concrete post construction, apparently – it was the LNER that introduced the idea on their territory. Therefore it would appear that both the signal and the post are from GNR territory. If it was a planned renewal it would have been a new LNER post and arm so I reckon that signal must have been a hasty replacement after a derailment or other incident.
I still think it is remarkable that remained in that form alien territory. It may well have been unique. (But somebody is going to come along now with pictures of fifty others).
John
Mike Hodgson
I understood, perhaps incorrectly, that the GNR got the idea of concrete posts from the M&GNJR. Both steel and timber were in short supply during WW2 whereas concrete seems to have been ubiquitous, which could well explain it if the LNER had to be replace the post then.
Wouldn’t subsequent retention have been a simple case of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it? Cost of holding spares is usually given as the reason when scrapping perfectly serviceable rolling stock just for being non standard, but spares for a somersault should have been readily available even if not stocked in the immediate locality.
Once erected and in good order, I can’t see that replacement with a standard arm would be justified by lack of clarity, given that somersaults are in the LNER rule book. I don’t see any risk of confusion as between a somersault and a mechanical 3-aspect as also used nearby, as in both cases horizontal is on and vertical is fully off.
The Signalman
. . . as long as visiting drivers on a Summer Saturday didn’t all stop and report the signal arm falling off!
John
kbarber
But surely visiting drivers on a Summer Saturday would be on their way to a day at the seaside (and, if Gerry Fiennes’ reminiscences are any guide, the wife and kids might well be hitching a ride as well). Nothing to see here… keep going… fish & chips and an ice cream waiting.
Of course, if they were making the same journey on a freight on the Monday morning (with the prospect of some overtime if they could get put in every refuge from here to Kingdom Come) it might be a different matter…
- This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by kbarber. Reason: Bad typing
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