365-307 Exeter West Railway Signal Box, (Now Sited In Crewe) UK

My first real experience of signal boxes was when my friend from the next year up in school Pete Williams used to blag me into the signalbox at Dinting on the Glossop to Piccadilly Manchester line. It had a chip pan, baby belling and all mod cons. I even remember the incumbent signalman holding a train for ten minutes while we finished our chips!

This is a panoramic shot of the Exeter West signal box, which is now located in original form at Crewe Heritage Centre, formerly the Crewe Railway Age. What's it doing here? you may reasonably ask.

Signalling in the Exeter area was renewed in 1985. this was part of the old GWR area (Great Western Railway or Gods Wonderful Railway as it can occasionally still be referred). It would have been demolished but for a group of enthusiasts who carefully dismantled it so it could be re-erected as a working museum demonstrating how the larger signal boxes of the past were. It indeed works virtually every weekend, trained "signalmen" are present most weekends to describe and demonstrate signalling days of the past and answer questions from visitors.

Exeter West signalbox was built by the Great Western Railway in 1913. It was located at the west end of St. Davids station, controlling the junction for the London & South Western Railway's line to Waterloo and connections to the Goods Lines avoiding the station, the engine sheds and various yards. The previous box was not spacious enough to accommodate the greater layout following enlargement of the station. The lengthy new signalbox contained a lever frame of 114 levers, but this was replaced in 1959 by an even larger new frame of 131 levers.

The signal box remained in use until 1985, when colour light signalling controlled electronically from a new box at Exeter was brought into use. After closure of the box, the Exeter West Group moved in and carefully dismantled the signal box, marking each of the hundreds of parts for future reference. The first task was to safely remove all furniture, then dismantle the massive lever frame. all pieces were numbered and after two floundered attempts to site the box in Bristol and Swindon, Crewe found space for it.

The 131-lever frame was rebuilt lever by lever, and the interlocking painstakingly reinstated, and was completed during August 1992. The instrument shelf and the signalling equipment was then added. The box was formally opened to the public on May Day Monday 1993.

With the box once more restored to its proper condition, a start was made on rigging up equipment to simulate activity as it would have been when the box was operational. Most of the levers have been weighted to simulate real operation, although some are actually connected to real signals erected around the site.

An electronic simulator has been provided, and the job working the simulator can be harder than working the box itself, for the operator has to act as signalman at all the adjacent boxes, make telephone calls representing local staff, and work the track circuit lights to emulate the passage of trains.

The box can be worked to the full summer timetable of the 1960's, although generally the box is demonstrated to visitors with a very limited timetable to allow movements and actions to be explained. However once a year, on May Day weekend, members of the Group occasionally simulate a full timetable for a 54-hour continuous period. At its busiest, this requires four staff in the box (just as it used to be) and two further operators controlling the simulator.

If you were wondering, black levers are for points, blue locking points red for signals and black/white for detonators.

Whether you find trains and railways fascinating or not, this is a really interesting place. a bit of a trip back in time at least 25 years to a more manual age. Oh and if you were wondering, they do have a baby Belling, which would be capable of doing chips!

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(c) Hotpix / HotpixUK Tony Smith - Hotpix.freeserve.co.uk WDCC

Taken in: United Kingdom / England / Crewe / Church Coppenhall (show map)

Taken on: April 25, 2010

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, f/16.0, 1/50 sec, 12mm, ISO 320 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens:	12-24mm
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	12mm
ISO:	320
Exposure Bias:	-7/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto bracket
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows
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