Signal box: End of the line for 'much-loved' building? (BBC News 06/09/2012)

[whole diary]

[JayMac]

An interesting article from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

They are as much a part of Britain's landscape as red telephone boxes but the signal box, the building from which train routes are managed, is approaching the end of the line.

Network Rail, the company which manages the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)'s rail infrastructure, is replacing the remaining 800 signalling locations with 14 route operating centres as part of an overhaul of the system.

The project is expected to take up to 30 years and will cover England, Wales and Scotland. About 80% of the new system is estimated to be in place within the next 15 years

As part of the overhaul, English Heritage has carried out a review of operational signal boxes and those in heritage railways and museums in England to identify those boxes that might be worth preserving.

continues....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19435464

Also, on the same theme from the BBC, there is a 'Top 10' list of signal boxes in England, compiled by the author of the English Heritage report:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19464080

The report published by English Heritage, 'Railway Signal Boxes, A Review' can be read at the following link:
http://services.english-heritage.org.uk/ResearchReportsPdfs/028-2012WEB.pdf

My favourite from that 'Top 10' list? Birmingham New Street. A surprising choice some might think, but I'm actually a bit of a fan of Brutalist architecture. A progression from the earlier Modernist and Bauhaus styles. It's a shame you can't get a decent picture of the front of New Street Signal Box because of all the foreground clutter of OHLE.

Different in style, I also like the Southern Region Art Deco/Odeon style boxes such as the ones at Woking and Templecombe. It's a shame that Templecombe failed listing building status in 2011, so remains under threat of demolition or redevelopment.

Anyone else have a favourite signal box?

[Electric train]

I am involved in a project that will ultimately see the demise of London Bridge Panel Signal Box, and I not even a signalling engineer

[BerkshireBugsy]

Purely because it is local to me I like the one at Colthrop near thatcham which if I recall correctly had a red phone box opposite.

I also like the one at Reigate. I also seem to remember there are some interesting disused boxes on the North Downs line

[TonyK]

My favourite from that 'Top 10' list? Birmingham New Street. A surprising choice some might think, but I'm actually a bit of a fan of Brutalist architecture. A progression from the earlier Modernist and Bauhaus styles. It's a shame you can't get a decent picture of the front of New Street Signal Box because of all the foreground clutter of OHLE.

Anyone else have a favourite signal box?

I wanna push the plunger! 

[Electric train]

Anyone else have a favourite signal box?

"The Bouncy Castle"  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddtmmm/3580908809/

[Btline]

Birmingham New Street
I'm actually a bit of a fan of Brutalist architecture.

 

I was shocked when I heard that it had been listed. As far as I a concerned every bit of 60/70s concrete needs to be pulled down and replaced asap! Scars of Great Britain. I'm fuming that it will grace the entrance to Great Britain's second city for commuters forever.

[JayMac]

I wanna push the plunger! 

Which one? The one that sends out the 'EMERGENCY. ALL STOP' message, or the one that blows Bristol Panel to smithereens, clearing the path for trains to once again use the Brunel train shed? 

[JayMac]

"The Bouncy Castle"  http://www.flickr.com/photos/ddtmmm/3580908809/

Have to say, I quite like that one as well. Bit too young for listing, but it does have some architectural merit.

[JayMac]

I was shocked when I heard that it had been listed. As far as I a concerned every bit of 60/70s concrete needs to be pulled down and replaced asap! Scars of Great Britain. I'm fuming that it will grace the entrance to Great Britain's second city for commuters forever.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 'Brutalist' as a name is always likely to divide opinion, but these structures are products of their time, and examples should be preserved.

Today, 150 years later, we all love 'Victorian' railway architecture. Yet back in the day I'm sure there were forebears of Btline who were decrying these modern monstrosities. In fact I'm sure of their opposition. Just read up on the problems the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) faced building their railway through Bath. NiMBY's are nothing new! Even after a sympathetic architectural style was agreed, Bath residents continued to petition against the building of the line and it's stations.

Who are we to say that in another 100 years people won't be dewy-eyed for 1960s constructs such as New Street Signal Box, Harlow Town Station or the Euston concourse? With that last one my own opinion is somewhat divided, although I actually quite like the current Euston station. Yes, Euston needed redeveloping in the 1960s to cope with the traffic and passenger footfall at the time, but sweeping away everything that went before was perhaps a step too far. That said, the current Euston has architectural merit. Take a look up and around next time you are there.

Oldest, old, new, newest. They can all co-exist. As can sympathetic renewals of existing buildings. The best of the types from each era deserve preservation. They form an important historical document through the ages, and demolishing robs future generations of tangible references to the past. Photos aren't enough. English Heritage are there to protect all styles and eras, be that Norman, Medieval, Gothic Revival, Victorian, Art Deco, Brutalist, Archigram, and so on into the future.

Personally, I see little architectural merit in Shrewsbury's 'Severn Bridge Junction' signal box, but that is listed. Give it another 50 years and I may come to like it. 

Each to their own.

[BerkshireBugsy]

The bold emphasis below is down to me.

Today, 150 years later,we all love 'Victorian' railway architecture.

BNM , I am surprised at your generalisation! Where is your supporting evidence?

All joking aside, I totally agree about looking back in the future and viewing the "carbunkles" of today with more affection. There are those, who in the days of steam, viewed locomotives as dirty smelly things but in the age of diesel and electric units we now regards the steam monsters as heritage items.

Sorry for any spelling errors

[bobm]

The reaction from landowners and others when the railways were being built provides a link to another thread on here - in that a number of stations were not built in the centre of towns because the good people of the time felt the railway was an intrusion.  Indeed in some cases whole towns were bypassed.  Abingdon, now in Oxfordshire, but then in Berkshire is a case in point.  By the time the town realised what it was missing the railway had gone further south through Didcot and the best that could be offered was a branch line - which has now closed.

The Head of Eton College was another opponent - so Windsor & Eton Riverside and Windsor & Eton Central was the best they got.

[smokey]

Even when the Railways were built to the towns that the Station served, in many cases the Railway was built to only serve the side of the Town, to save the Cost of buying up buildings.

The location of the Railway in many cases caused the town to GROW around the Station area.

Paddington Euston Kings Cross etc were built on the edge of what was then London.

The late on the scene (1890's) Great Central London Extension was a line built through cities like Leicester and Nottingham but at great cost, Nottingham Victoria station itself cost over ^1,000,000 in the 19thC, with over 1300 houses and buildings demolishied to clear the site.

Coming back to Signal boxes it's a shame to see the end of signal boxes,
When a Signal Box is taken out off use it's the end of an ERA, that building may well have been staffed 24/7 for over 100 years, the whole of a Man's working life might have been in that one box!

[TonyK]

I wanna push the plunger! 

Which one? The one that sends out the 'EMERGENCY. ALL STOP' message, or the one that blows Bristol Panel to smithereens, clearing the path for trains to once again use the Brunel train shed? 

Whichever makes the biggest bang, bignosemac. Whilst I'm sure that slab of iron curtain austerity is beloved by its mother, and whilst I pay tribute to the hard work done therein, it can't have much by way of sentimental value, and none at all in the artistic stakes. Seeing the new electric trains running over its shadow and into the Digby Wyatt shed will be a massive indication of progress, one the stovepipe-hatted cigar chomper himself would surely applaud.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Get it out with Optrex. (S Milligan)

[TonyK]

Even when the Railways were built to the towns that the Station served, in many cases the Railway was built to only serve the side of the Town, to save the Cost of buying up buildings.

The location of the Railway in many cases caused the town to GROW around the Station area.

A small-scale example perhaps is Severn Beach, which was only a farm when the railway was built to link Avonmouth to Pilning in 1900. With its exotic location and tropical climate*, it gave the railway the idea of building a resort, which opened in 1922. The rest is history, with some geography and economics.

(*Alright, it was the opening times for the pubs, longer than Bristol's, that really made it viable).

[JayMac]

Get it out with Optrex. (S Milligan)

Probably good that you didn't quote the full "Values '67" poem by Spike.