GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Olton Station: gwro2696

Olton Signal Box in 1906 when the Station was awarded the Birmingham Division best garden prize. The photograph shows the original timber signal box at the southern end of the up platform. When the station opened in 1869 there was no signal box at Olton and it is thought that this Signal Box was constructed in 1875. It is a McKenzie & Holland (MK&H) type 3 signal box design, a type which the company introduced that year, but it has some features, such as the 2 by 2 window panes in the operating room's windows, an arrangement that is normally associated with previous MK&H signal box designs. These windows were a sliding sash design. The MK&H type 3 was the first of their designs to have a tiled gable roof with a secondary lower roof over the porch and toilet (adjacent to the external staircase). The lower locking rooms of MK&H type 3 signal boxes were constructed from a variety of materials, but in this case horizontal timber weatherboarding has been used.

This original Signal Box was built with a 10 lever frame, which from May 1879 controlled a trailing crossover in addition to the block section signals on the up and down main lines. Prior to 1906 the box was only open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday. When constructed Olton's first signal box had a wooden nameplate, but a cast iron nameplate was ordered on 18th July 1899 (order 210). This box was replaced in 15th June 1913, when the quadrupled track which terminated just north of the station was remodelled from the main with relief loop arrangement to two pairs of running lines (Main and Relief) and a larger replacement box was built at the northern end of the station to oversee the junction.

Robert Ferris

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