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THE SIGNAL box at Barry town railway station closed for the last time in its 117 year history last week.

The signal box, located at the end of the platform, will now be demolished in the next few weeks.

Following resignalling work, all the old semaphore signals that it controlled are now redundant so there is no need for a box and the levers it uses to control the signals and points.

All the modern signalling is controlled from Cardiff, with the closing down of the signal box being done in anticipation of the forthcoming electrification of the line.

Barry-born Michael Baker, 48, has admired the signal box for many years and finally had the opportunity to step inside it and fulfil a boyhood dream by pulling the levers before it was closed for good last Friday, June 27.

^It^s a very sad day for us trainspotters,^ he said.

^I'm appalled that this wonderful piece of Barry history will soon be demolished."

The grand box survived as a monument to Evans, O'Donnell & Co, who were the contractors that built the box, as two cast iron plates are mounted on the front of the box with their name on it.

When it first opened it was provided with a 117 lever frame, although this was replaced by a standard GWR frame in 1957, which was more recently shortened to 77 levers.

The area, which was the hub of the Barry Railway network, was originally controlled by a number of boxes, but today the box controls all that is left.

Until the closure of the other boxes, this one carried the name Barry Station.

Until 1895, Saxby & Farmer supplied the Barry railway's signalling equipment, but a switch was made to Evans & O'Donnell.

The design of the box is unusual - it is not a standard Evans, O'Donnell & Co. product, but appears to have been "lifted" from the Great Eastern Railway standard box of the 1884 to 1889 period.

At 9.30pm on Friday, June 27, it was all over. The box will soon be demolished and will sadly just be history and a distant memory to those that knew it.

Can't Network Rail put their gubbins in former signal boxes rather than REBs (Relocatable Equipment Buildings) as the former are generally much more aesthetically pleasing than the latter (which, essentially, are portacabins)? The new single-aspect colour lights are also aesthetically poor compared to the three/four-aspect ones and, particularly, semaphores.

The point of REBs is that they are built and tested in a factory so that the lime taken on site is drastically reduced.

If they put the equipment in the existing signal box they would have to remove the old signalling first and do the necessary changes to the building then assemble and test the new equipment on site so that would be several weeks of closure.

I like to see these old boxes and signalling system as much as I like to see steam trains but as a railway engineer I want to see a modern vibrant railway system that can handle the demands of the 21st century, so the place for these old systems is on heritage railways.

Maybe a quicker, cheaper and eaiser way of modernising without creating too many eyesores would be to build a new shell designed to look like an old signal box around the REB once it is installed and working. You mention heritage railways, why shouldn't parts of the national network, particularly the quieter branches, look like one (Birmingham Moor Street seems to be praised quite a bit, and that's not even on a quiet branch)?

Is the frame/locking frame being retained and offered to a heritage railway?
to scrap it would be a shame.

It could be broken down into smaller sections with less kl
levers each.

As a railway enthusiast I am very sad to see the closure of Barry signal box but I accept it is progress. I am currently photographing all the remaining signal boxes in South Wales and south of Hereford on the Marches line. It still fascinates me that Victorian technology still exists on our network to this day and I want to capture as much as I can before the signal boxes and semaphores become history. I was able to take this shot of a Class 60 locomotive passing Barry signal box about an hour before the box closed. A rare sight indeed to see a Class 60 loco on a coal train in South Wales (the loco is now in storage) and poignant as it was the last day of operation for the signal box after 117 years of operational service - https://www.flickr.com/photos/99220921@N03/14338142887/

As a railway enthusiast I am very sad to see the closure of Barry signal box but I accept it is progress. I am currently photographing all the remaining signal boxes in South Wales and south of Hereford on the Marches line. It still fascinates me that Victorian technology still exists on our network to this day and I want to capture as much as I can before the signal boxes and semaphores become history. I was able to take this shot of a Class 60 locomotive passing Barry signal box about an hour before the box closed. A rare sight indeed to see a Class 60 loco on a coal train in South Wales (the loco is now in storage) and poignant as it was the last day of operation for the signal box after 117 years of operational service - https://www.flickr.com/photos/99220921@N03/14338142887/