Smashing to see the old stuff as it was in my days as a signalman on the Cheshire area. Great to see 6E18 out of stanlow. I used to turn this out from Stanlow with the co-operation of Ellesmere Port No4. Then turn it out again from Helsby Junction but on a different shift - I was a relief man so I worked most of the boxes in and around that area. Thanks for the video. Brian.
I worked in this box in the mid eighties with a very good friend Ronny Fisher. This brings back many fond memories. We had a lot of steam excursions trains then. I shall keep this footage to show my family and friends. Thank you.
What amazing footage, thank goodness someone had the foresight to film it. Sadly John C Earwicker passed away this year, 2016, in Canada where he had emigrated to.
Wow, the plate-layers cabin for gang 88 is just a few yards away from the signal box, I was in that gang 1971 to 1974 and I remember with fondness all those old plate-layers. All gone now methinks, God Bless. The P Way inspector was Mr Peter Glover, his office was on Miles Platting Station in the ‘Down side’.
AS an ex Western Region signalman the bell codes bring back so many memories. Seems like a busy old box. Such a shame that the signalman is not using a duster as we always did not least to keep the leavers prestine and shiny.😄
Thanks for sharing, much appreciate the time and effort to show the workings of a once busy railway. I live not far from here and its a good insight to what it was like
Fantastic to see all that parcels and freight ...Where has it all gone Manchester Vic was a really good place then.All that's left are the pacers urrgh !
Excelant archive footage of a once busy station and junction. I worked on the footplate at Newton Heath in the 70s and recall the ex L&Y offices between platforms 3 and 4, already gone in your video, everything as gone now of course.
I have no objections in the use of my clips for non profit purposes. All I would ask is that my name is used and the copyright indicated that it belongs to me. Thanks.
One day network rail will regret pulling down all signals and signal box's to day with all modern signalling it just needs one failed signal to shut down and all trains stop running,
It is disgusting that there is unlawfully no public info put out By Network Rail on Signal Box closures, as they were / are part of our National UK heritage we all own and Network rail should be officially reprimanded for their incompetence, selfishness and unlawful keeping of the info from us all.
I believe that information is provided about signal box closures if you contact the NR area team with "rule" over the area you want. Had some great information regarding signal box closures with Stallingborough box closure and retention
Skill yes, nerves of steel: not so much. You must not forget that most (if not all) of the levers you see are interlocked. Thus, if a switch is not set in the right position you also can't set the corresponding signal to safe and so on. At least, that's how it worked in The Netherlands and I don't expect English signalboxes to be any different. Can remember that when I visited the Railway Museum in York 23 years ago, I was picked from the crowd by some member of staff who would explain something about mechanical signalling and such. Though I could hold a decent conversation in English at age 11, the technical English used in that demonstration was waaay beyond my understandings. So he probably explained everything about interlocks, flank-security for branch-lines connectiong to mainlines and such, but I didn't have the faintest clue what he said. I was glad he gave me instructions on which lever to throw next ;) Besides the whole 'it's just mechanical' aspect what I like about these, I just can't help but marvel about all the thought that has gone into designing these systems, with all their interlocks preventing the operator from doing something extremely stupid. This site has tons of pictures on the Dutch systems that were in use throughout the country. klassiekebeveiliging.com/main.htm
So you signalman who (which original railway) had the largest signalbox and how many levers did it have and what was it's location and name? As for modern signaling 👎
