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Bewdley North signal box

1,295 bytes added, 17:57, 29 December 2015
ad info on S and T plates
The publication of [[Bibliography#Books | The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway]] by Keith Beddoes and William H. Smith in 1995 provided the information that [[List of signal boxes# Tenbury and Bewdley Railway (at Bewdley) | earlier signal boxes]] were built at both the north and south ends of Bewdley in 1864. This resulted in a further letter from Michael Dunn in SVR News 118 again suggesting the plinth as the possible site of the north box. The following issue brought a response from Keith Beddoes, noting that the itemised cost for the north end “one signal box at the junction £8-10-0” did not refer either to foundation work or indeed a ground frame, making it likely that it was just a small wooden hut to cover an existing ground frame.
 
==Signal Box S and T Plates==
[[File: Bewdley_North_20151228.jpg |thumb|300px|right| Signal Box displaying 'S' and 'T' plates]]
The front of Bewdley North box has two plates showing the letters ‘S’ and ‘T’. These were used in early times to indicate that the signals and telegraph were functioning correctly, indicated by white letters on a black background. In the event of a failure which the signalman could not rectify himself, reversing a plate to display a red letter on a white background would act as a visual request to the guard of a passing train to notify the appropriate maintenance staff at the nearest station<ref Name ="Marshall116">SVR News 116, letter from John Marshall citing “The Signal Box”, Oxford Publishing Co 1986</ref>.
 
The introduction of telephones, first minuted by the GWR on the SVR in 1906, would have rendered this process unnecessary. However plates survived on some boxes on branch lines as late as the 1960s<ref>SVR News 118, letter from Michael V.E. Dunn citing British Railway Journal, October 1983</ref>, therefore their inclusion on a box in the era represented by the SVR is not wholly inappropriate.
 
The plates on Bewdley North Box were installed in September 1995, but were hung on existing mountings<ref Name = "Marshall116" />.
==References==
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