LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton

Canley Halt: lnwrchg546

Looking towards Tile Hill with the signal box on the down side with the booking office just beyond the level crossing. Whilst the station was called Canley Halt the name on the signal box retained the original description of Canley Gates. The station is the other side of the gates, which because the road crossed the line at an angle, were very long and required greater effort on behalf of the signalman in opening and closing them. The steel footbridge was dismantled as part of the electrification programme and replaced with a higher structure. Unlike Tile Hill station, the next station to Birmingham, the signal box remained until Coventry Power Box was upgraded to control a longer stretch of the Birmingham to Coventry line. There was an occasion in the early 1980s when the signalman having been on duty for over 12 hours and his relief having failed to arrive, closed the gates to road traffic and went home. Suffice to say that the chaos caused ensured that his bosses ensured the situation didn't reoccur!!!

Photographer John Hyde © Steam Archive

back