GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Bentley Heath Crossing: gwrbh24

The original signal box at Bentley Heath seen here prior to work starting on the quadrupling of the line circa 1930. The signal box is believed to have been constructed around 1877 which is when the Great Western Railway decided to generally adopt the absolute block system of signalling and the interlocking of signals with switches. As well as providing an additional block section between Widney Manor and Knowle, the signal box also controlled the level crossing gates. The level crossing can just be seen on the left of the photograph. The space-interval or absolute block system was eventually made compulsory on passenger lines by the Regulation of Railways Act (1889) following a series of fatal accidents. It refers to a system of signalling, which is designed to prevent more than one train being in any block section between two adjacent signal boxes at the same time. It relies on communication between signal boxes by telegraph wires; enabling signalling messages to be sent by bell codes and indications about the block status to be sent and displayed in the adjacent signal boxes. In 1930 most telegraph circuits were still overhead and a stayed leading-in pole can be seen prominently next to the signal box.

The Bentley Heath Crossing signal box is a McKenzie & Holland type 3 signal box of which 92 were constructed for the Great Western Railway or its constituents. Like its successor it had horizontal weatherboarding and a gabled roof, but it also had a two pane by three pane sliding window arrangement and roof finals. On these type of signal boxes the bargeboards were normally plain with rounded feet. In February 1901, the up and down refuge sidings were extended from Knowle station to the level crossing at Bentley Heath and converted in to goods loops by the addition of switches at Bentley Heath. This required a new 15 lever frame to be installed in the existing signal box at Bentley Heath. These goods loops could originally hold 105 wagons plus the brake van and engine. Following the quadrupling in 1933 the goods loops had to be cut back and from then on had a reduced capacity of 89 wagons on the down side and 80 wagons on the up side.

Robert Ferris

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