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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line

Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1669

A rear view of the new Siemens electro-mechanical locking frame at Birmingham North Signal Box in 1910

A rear view of the new Siemens electro-mechanical locking frame at Birmingham North Signal Box in 1910. The frame contained 224 levers at 2.5 inch centres and was thirty seven feet, six inches long. A standard mechanical lever frame would have been over twice this length and considerably wider. This rear view of the frame shows the tappets and complex mechanical locking arrangements associated with the levers. Birmingham North Signal Box was fifty feet long by ten feet wide with the operating floor sixteen feet, three inches above rail level. At this date, track circuit supervision was unavailable, but the signal box’s position gave it a commanding view of the station’s northern approaches. The only switches not visible from the signal box were those of the scissors crossover in the centre of the station. In case these switches were fouled by a train, a ‘gantry signalman’ was located there and he was contacted from the signal box by telephone, to confirm that the crossover was clear, before these crossover switches were operated.

Robert Ferris

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