Category: Articles

Plans for the automation of two level crossings on the York-Leeds “Harrogate Line” will mean a major reduction in semaphore signalling at the remarkable eastern end of this fascinating route, between Harrogate and Poppleton, a growing village three miles north-west of York city centre.

Over the course of 5¾ miles of single line between the stations of Hammerton and Poppleton the half-hourly trains between York and Harrogate will pass three level crossings – Wilstrop, Marston Moor and Hessay – each currently boasting gate boxes with up and down home and distant signals, all but one of which are semaphores.

After five days’ walking a highly-scenic stretch of the South West Coast Path from Padstow to St. Ives with a group of friends, time for a couple of trips on the marvellous St. Ives Bay Line using a bargain-priced Day Ranger (£2.75 with railcard) then a walk south from St. Erth to the remote Rosengrouse Road over-bridge to capture trains passing Britain’s most south-westerly semaphores.

My luck was in on the afternoon of 13 May 2026 when not only did the sun shine, but I had the luck to capture two trains passing the semaphore signals that can be seen looking back from the bridge towards St. Erth, with up outer home signal SE68 on the left, alongside down section signal SE7.

Exactly 43 years ago, on the evening of Friday, 13 May 1983, I travelled on the last ever train from Elmers End to Sanderstead, accompanied not only by a huge crowd of fellow enthusiasts, but also by a very famous photographer, who captured some remarkable images of that fateful night.

At the tender age of 25 I had recently joined the City office staff of The Observer and in my enthusiasm for a story had persuaded the News Desk that I should cover what by the early 1980s had happily become something of a rarity – not only the closure of a railway, but one in the heart of the prosperous South-East.

For lovers of traditional mechanical signalling there are three routes radiating from Shrub Hill station in Worcester that all retain some semaphore interest, in an area bounded by Droitwich Spa to the north and Norton Junction and Moreton-in-Marsh to the south and east.

Westernmost of the nine signal boxes to control mechanical signalling in the Worcester area is the tall Great Western Railway box at Ledbury in Herefordshire, which is one of four along the Worcester-Hereford route, dates from 1885 and boasts a 42-lever McKenzie & Holland frame.

An enjoyable return visit to Pantyffynnon in February 2026 prompts me to pay another overdue return on 21 April 2026 to what is now the only other mechanically-signalled location west of Cardiff in South Wales, and a trip to Tondu on the Bridgend-Maesteg branch line.

Four years on from my March 2022 visit and the only real change since then has been to the rolling stock and destinations served by branch services, with TfW Class 170/175 units replaced by Class 197s, all of which now shuttle between Maesteg and Ebbw Vale Town, rather than serving places as far afield as Cheltenham Spa and Holyhead.

Among the handful of isolated locations across Southern England that still boast any mechanical signalling, one remarkable outpost is in the charming town of Deal, where semaphore signalling has hung on almost 15 years since completion of a major re-signalling project in East Kent at the end of 2011.

Deal boasts one of the classic Type 13 signal boxes built by the Southern Railway (1939) in what is known as the Odeon or glasshouse style, with a model of it produced by Hornby. Another working example (also with semaphores) can be found at Bognor Regis (feature: March 2026), while there are preserved examples at Horsham, Wimbledon, Woking and Portsmouth Harbour.