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location of token instruments in service
Before preservation, the original signal box was a mirror image of the still-extant signal box at Highley, and had a 14-lever frame with no switching out facility. Other minor changes include two stacked disc signals at the toe of the yard points as per normal GWR practice, and a bracket for entry to the yard at the up home signal. A diagram is available [http://www.signalbox.org/diagrams.php?id=669 on the signalbox.org website].
A major factor in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abermule_train_collision collision at Abermule in 1921] was that the tablet instruments which controlled the single line working were installed in the station building rather than the signal box, a practice condemned by the inspecting officer Colonel Pringle.<ref>Red for Danger, L.T.C. Rolt</ref> Despite this, the token instruments at Arley were installed in the station booking office, only being moved to the signal box by the SVR in preservation.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books | Marshall (1989), pp. 135-135.]]</ref>
Arley signal box closed under BR ownership on Sunday 28 June 1964. The Train Register recording the closure is on display in [[The Engine House]] at Highley.
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Following closure, parts of the lever frame and much of the other equipment was used to reinstate [[Bridgnorth signal box]] in 1969<ref>[[Bibliography#Books | Marshall (1989), p200p. 200.]]</ref>. An element of these parts' removal by SVR volunteers was, ironically, the demolition of the Box, meaning an entire new Box and frame had to be sourced when the SVR extended southwards (which seemed extremely unlikely in 1969 when demolition occurred). A fragment of the original interlocking is in the care of [[Kidderminster Railway Museum]] and provides an interesting demonstration on the operation of tappet interlocking.
After preservation, Arley became the first SVR signal box with worked distant signals.
