Category: Britain

For a route that has seen only freight traffic since its closure to passengers in 1964, the line heading north east from Newcastle to Bedlington and Ashington has done remarkably well to retain its traditional infrastructure.

Much of the route is double-track and there is a fine group of six North Eastern Railway signal boxes still in use and controlling a large array of semaphore signals, as well as level crossings at each of six locations. Continue reading “Semaphores and NER signal boxes on the Blyth & Tyne”

Re-signalling in the Barnetby area at the end of 2015 may have removed some of the finest remaining semaphore signals on the national network, but it did not completely spell the end of mechanical signalling in North Lincolnshire.

Besides the three recently-renewed semaphores at Gainsborough Central (featured in my previous post: Back to Brigg), and one semaphore protecting the Brigg Line at nearby Gainsborough Trent Junction, another surviving outpost is on the fascinating Barton-on-Humber branch line. Continue reading “Wooden gates and semaphores in North East Lincolnshire”

Monday, 1 October 2018 will mark a significant and unwelcome anniversary in the history of the 21-mile long rail link from Trent Junction near Gainsborough to Barnetby via Brigg in Lincolnshire. It will be a quarter of a century to the day since the axing of daily passenger trains on this direct route from Sheffield to Grimsby and Cleethorpes in 1993, and their replacement with a token “Parliamentary” Saturdays-only service.

Paying a long overdue return visit to a route I had not travelled since withdrawal of daily services, I was keen to see at first hand the Brigg Line Group’s success at building passenger numbers along the line. So, after an early morning bus ride from Barton-on-Humber to Brigg town centre, I made my way to the station for a trip on the first departure of the day, the 09.26 service to Cleethorpes. Continue reading “Back to Brigg”

Greenford East Signal Box in north-west London is a remarkable survivor. This 1904-vintage Great Western Railway box is the last of its kind in Greater London, and the only place in the capital where the line is controlled by lower quadrant semaphore signals.

Not only this, but if one counts the daily Chiltern Railways “Parliamentary” train to and from London Paddington as a genuine service (see my earlier post: “Ghost train to Paddington”), then these are also the last semaphore signals in the London area controlling passenger services. Continue reading “London’s last lower quadrant semaphore signals”

Henwick Signal Box is probably best known as the place where trains were famously delayed one day almost five years ago (in February 2013), when a luckless signaller got trapped in the toilet! Happily it now has another distinction.

Work is nearing completion near the box on reinstating a turnback siding, to allow services terminating at nearby Worcester Foregate Street to clear the station before returning towards Birmingham or London, with exit from the siding being controlled by new signal HK9. Continue reading “Britain’s newest semaphore set for service”

2017 was supposed to have been the year that re-signalling of the Leicester to Peterborough line saw its last mechanical signalling swept away, with closure of the nine remaining signal boxes along this important cross-country route.

But as the year draws to a close, there is still no sign of any change to the status quo, and information supplied to me by Network Rail suggests that re-signalling of this route does not now even figure in its plans for Control Period 6 (2019-24). Continue reading “Britain’s rarest main line signal survives another year”

Gold Card (annual season ticket) holders in what is now the South Western Railway (SWR) franchise area have, without warning, lost a great perk of their long-term loyalty to the railway.

After 20 years in which previous franchise holder Stagecoach gave its annual season ticket holders six free week-end tickets a year, this attractive and valuable perk has been quietly abolished by new franchisee FirstGroup/MTR. Continue reading “South Western Railway short-changes its most loyal customers”

A bright red aspect still shines out from signal DR205, more than 30 years after the last scheduled train passed it in order to make its way towards Weymouth Quay station, by travelling along what must surely be the finest and most wasted section of railway line in Dorset – the 1.2 mile long Weymouth Harbour Tramway.

For a route last used when a charter train passed over it in May 1999, the Harbour Tramway remains remarkably intact, still signalled at its junction north of Weymouth’s Town station and surprisingly free of obstructions, such as the parked cars that were once literally bounced out of the way when the Channel Isles Boat Express made its sedate progress along Commercial Road and Custom House Quay. Continue reading “Weymouth’s wasted asset”

Comments made by Transport Secretary Chris Grayling and widely reported today suggest the he, at least, may finally have seen the light and realised that re-opening closed rail links to fast-growing towns and areas that have developed significantly over the past 50 years is far better value than committing infinite sums to HS2.

Particularly striking was  a Grayling quote in The Times, where he goes further than any Government spokesman has ever done by declaring: “People say which is my priority: spend a billion pounds to shave a minute off the journey time or reopen some commuter lines so we get a better service for people? I would go for the latter any day of the week.” Continue reading “Seeing the Light”