Birmingham New Street Signal Box closure - suggestions for new use?

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Birmingham New Street Signal Box closed on Christmas Eve (well - that was the plan; I have not seen confirmation of the completion of transfer to the West Midlands signalling centre).     Although of modern construction and not to everyone's taste, the building is Grade II listed.  See entry (here) at Historic England.

Birmingham New Street Signal Box BRUNEL STREET. Railway signal box. 1964. Architects Bicknell and Hamilton in collaboration with R L Moorcraft the Regional Architect, London Midland Region. Horizontal pre-cast concrete cladding units of a bold triangular profile, hung from a reinforced concrete frame. The boundary parapet wall in Navigation Street is constructed from facetted vertical pre-cast concrete units. Continuous metal windows; walls on either side of the entrance doors are finished in vertical glazed tiling. Flat roof. Contains staff and equipment rooms. Five storeys high above railway track level and four storeys above street level with single storey wing at track level. Various floor to floor heights. The signalling control room at top level is surrounded by a projecting flat roof with a deep down-standing fascia to provide shading for the control console. The building is very much a 'one off' constructed on a very difficult and congested site. A dramatic building of exceptional architectural quality with a strongly sculptural form

See also https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/gallery/pictures-new-street-station-signal-25811552

What do members feel should become of the building?

[IndustryInsider]

This article is a very good one explaining what has been done to make New Street’s signalling better as a result of the PSB^▸ (Power Signal Box) closure:

https://www.modernrailways.com/article/birmingham-new-street-resignalling

I hope the raise in the station area speed limit from 10mph to 15mph was indeed possible?

Presumably all of the mapping sites like Opentraintimes, Traksy, and Railcam etc., will show the new signalling shortly with much more detail being outputted that with the previous signalling system.

[ChrisB]

My understanding is that it is likely to be used for training

[IndustryInsider]

Presumably all of the mapping sites like Opentraintimes, Traksy, and Railcam etc., will show the new signalling shortly with much more detail being outputted that with the previous signalling system.

Signalmaps now has a Birmingham New Street map (which is completely new) at: https://signalmaps.co.uk/#newstreet:946

Traksy's new map is at: https://traksy.uk/live/M+10+BHAMNWS

Railcam (subscriber only) is here: https://railcam.uk/diagrams/x_anydiag.php?di=Birmingham

Opentraintimes is yet to join the party, but has tweeted to say it's working on the new map, along with London Victoria which also had updated signalling over the Christmas period.