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Arley signal box

961 bytes added, 10:59, 24 April 2023
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A signal box situated at [[Arley]] station, working to [[Bewdley North signal box|Bewdley North]] and [[Highley signal box|Highley]] using [[Single line working using tokens|ETT regulations]] in both directions. It can be switched out if trains are not required to cross.
  == Description == The current signal box was reconstructed from 1974 to 1976 approximately on the site of the original signal box, which had been demolished by SVR volunteers at a time when extension southwards from [[Hampton Loade ]] seemed unlikely. The frame, which has 30 levers, is originally from [[Kidderminster_Station_signal_box_(c.18821873-1973) | Kidderminster Station signal box]] (not to be confused with the post-preservation [[Kidderminster_Station_signal_box_(1987_onwards) | Kidderminster Station signal box]]), supplemented by specialist parts from Severn Beach and Gelli Las (Mid Glamorgan)<ref>SVR News 100, "Twenty years of Severn Valley signalling", John Phillips</ref>. The box superstructure was moved by road from Yorton, on the LNWR route between [[Shrewsbury ]] and Crewe, to [[Hay Bridge]], from where it was moved by rail to Arley. The signal box was fully commissioned on 10 April 10th 1976.
At present 23 levers are in use, with 6 spaces and one spare lever. The repeater for signal number 6, the only stop signal not visible from the box, originates from the Didcot Newbury & Southampton branch of the GWR.
== Operational Features features== Arley is one of two signal boxes on the SVR that can be switched out, the other being [[Hampton Loade signal box|Hampton Loade]]. When the box is switched out the Down Loop cannot be used. Arley and Hampton Loade are also the only signal boxes on the SVR that are 'crossing places' as per the ETT regulations.
Unusually, when the box is switched out the yard can still be accessed, by operating the signal box lever frame as a ground frame. An intermediate token instrument is provided inside the P.Way hut to enable trains to be locked into the yard. One side effect of this operation is that whilst the yard is being shunted, the Highley and Bewdley North signalmen are unable to communicate by bell signal.
== History ==
 
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.<ref>1960 Sectional Appendix for the WR Birmingham Traffic District</ref> 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. 134-135.]]</ref>
Arley signal box closed under BR ownership on Sunday 28 June 1964. The Train Register recording the closure was formerly on display in [[The Engine House]] at Highley.
<gallery>
File: Train_Register_Arley_20090626.jpg | Arley Train Register
[[File:Arley box diagram.gif|800px]]
== List of levers Levers and Lever Leads ==<gallery>File:Arley levers 1 to 6.jpg | Levers 1 to 6File:Arley levers 10 to 15.jpg | Levers 10 to 15File:Arley levers 14 to 19.jpg | Levers 14 to 19File:Arley levers 23 to 27.jpg | Levers 23 to 27</gallery>
{| class="wikitable"
==Signalling controlled from the box==
The Down Home signals post, bracket and assemblies were originally the Up From Shrewsbury Inner Home signals at Bewdley North. It was originally located at the south end of [[Wribbenhall Viaduct]], somewhat further south than its modern replacement, but was removed from there on 4 January 1976 due to rot in the lower part of the post.<ref>\SVR News 40</ref> These are wooden post GWR design signals as is the Up distant. The Up distant (signal 25 on the diagram above) is the only signal on the SVR included in the [[Wyre Forest District Council Local Heritage List]].<ref>[http://www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/planning-and-buildings/conservation-areas-and-listed-buildings/listed-buildings/local-heritage-list/local-heritage-list-for-the-severn-valley-railway.aspx WFDC Local heritage list]</ref>
The Down Home signals post, bracket and assemblies were originally the Up From Shrewsbury Inner Home signals at Bewdley North. It was originally located at the south end of [[Wribbenhall Viaduct]], somewhat further south than its modern replacement, but was removed from there on 4 January 1976 due to rot in the lower part of the post.<ref>\SVR News 40</ref> These are wooden post GWR design signals as is the Up distant. The Up distant (signal 25 on the diagram above) is the only signal on the SVR included in the [[Wyre Forest District Council Local Heritage List]].<ref>[http://www.wyreforestdc.gov.uk/planning-and-buildings/conservation-areas-and-listed-buildings/listed-buildings/local-heritage-list/local-heritage-list-for-the-severn-valley-railway.aspx WFDC Local heritage list]</ref><br>
All other signals at Arley are of late GWR/BR(W) steel tubular post and enamel metal arm type. Signal 23, on the up platform, was originally the up starting signal at Llangollen, and removed by SVR volunteers before preservation efforts commenced there. Signal 1, the Down Distant, is motor worked.
==Adderbury Signal Box==
As noted above, the original Arley Signal Box was demolished. The somewhat larger signal box from Adderbury, on the former GWR to Kingham branch, was donated to the SVR in early 1973 as a potential replacement.<ref>SVR News 26</ref><ref>[http://www.arleystation.org.uk/ashistory2.html Arley Station website history page]</ref>It was a GW type 27C box, built in about December 1905. <ref>[https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gws/S2803.htm Adderbury, The Signalling Record Society] (Retrieved 24 April 2023)</ref> It was dismantled at Adderbury in April 1973, and transported to Arley where it was unloaded as a 'kit of parts'<ref>SVR News 28</ref>. However by It was carefully stacked in the following year station yard adjacent to the process of installing original signal box base and close to the former Yorton box had begunboundary. The fate stack consisted of the wooden sectional panels and a roof. The roofing slates had been removed at Adderbury box is unknownbefore transfer and were stacked close by.
== See Also ==However by the following year the process of installing the former Yorton box had begun. Adderbury Signal box never left Arley Station. It remained there, untouched, until it was time to relay the sidings, when it was found to be in the way of the back road. By then much of it had already been cannibalised for other SVR projects. The sad remains of Adderbury Signal Box, by now starting to rot, were scrunched-up with the Drott and burned.
==See also==
* [[List of signal boxes]]
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