'An evening at Exeter West.' 

Well, you'd spend as much time in the signal box as you would in your home, so why wouldn't you want to keep it nice? And, of course, at this box they had the 'booking boys' and some of the cleaning was their responsibility.

I was booking boy at a brilliant signal box, Taunton West Station, for 2 years from 1965 -1967 before getting my first "box" at Stonehouse Bristol Road on the Midland between Bristol and Gloucester. Highlight for me at Taunton West Station box was Summer Saturday working, from 10am to 7pm the amount of traffic was unbelievable and for me to keep up with the bell signals was some achievement!! Taunton West Station had 136 levers and required 2 signalmen on Summer Saturday but only one booking boy, meeeee!! Not sure if I like this video although I understand the nostalgia side of things. As I hit my 70's my memories of the "REAL THING" is still vivid in my memory bank. Time to send you a 2-1 for now!

Sadly the signal operator Peter Jordan died at the end of April.

@@Natterleesad 😢 he really enjoyed the job

To keep the metal clean on the levers, better grip too.

@@andyelliott8027 also the metal is quite fragile and over time they become rough and wear away

Stops your hands getting cold and also keeps presentation from your hands into the lever , personally I never used one at Earle's Sidings in Derbyshire in the late seventies and eighties.

Id imagine the tea towel is used because constantly touching the various metal handles would get rough on your hands and cause your hands skin to crack

the levers are for both for signals and points. red levers are signals, yellow are distant signals,black are points, blue are point locks, black and white are detonators and finaly white are spares. a couple of signal boxes still operate across the uk but most are now done from control centres.

'Train Out of Section' was not preceded by 'Call Attention,' or acknowledged, in 1960 in the Western Region block regulations.

I always think, TOS should be preceeded by Call Attention, just as important as calling up, to offer a train on ..I feel Entering section should be exempt from being acknowledged,especially in short sections..

Well, each to their own, I suppose. It never seemed to cause a problem on the Western and, even in 1985 the older hands still just 'knocked out' without giving 'Call Attention.' I know it used to rile one of the DI's but, as I said at the time, if that was the worst thing he had to worry about, he should have counted himself lucky. You should have seen some of the 'goings on' I witnessed in boxes in the London area in the 1970's and 80's.

It isn't a replica of Exeter West, it is Exeter West. There were very few FPLs as the Box was designed to the 'traditional' BoT demands that facing points on passenger lines should be kept to a minimum. That is why these layouts were so complicated by recent standards. I guess you have by now found the Box diagram on-line, and seen how few FPLs there are. You will see a couple of FPL's reversed at the beginning of the film.

It is technically a Western Region Box, despite having some Southern Region traffic as well. For some reason (I'm sure there is one, I just don't know it / can't find out), all signalboxes in the western region did not send call attention before train out of section, nor was train out of section repeated back by the other box. You will notice that it was not repeated back on the time stamp you gave. At 14:20 you can see Peter accept a Southern Region passenger train from Exeter Central on the Down Central. Immediately after that, Exeter Central sends train out of section for a different train that was on the Up Central. Notice there was no call attention, nor did Peter repeat back 2-1.