GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Budbrook and Warwick Cold Store: gwrw2840

A sketch of a typical GWR ARP Signal Box as built at Warwick North to control the connection to the Cold Storage sidings. The sketch shows the front and each side elevation plus a cross section. Forty-three of these signal boxes were built between 1939 and 1945. Each of the railway companies were required to submit their proposed Air Raid Precaution Signal Box designs to the Railway Executive for approval. The signal boxes were not designed to withstand a direct hit from a bomb, but needed to minimise the effect of a close blast or shrapnel.

The GW type 13 Signal Box had 14 inch thick walls constructed from common red facing bricks with precast reinforced concrete lintels over the doors, windows and rod opening, while the flat roof was 12 inch thick, constructed from precast reinforced concrete beams and waterproofed with a layer of bitumen. The walls extended above the roof level where they were capped with concrete coping stones. Drainage for rainwater was provided on both sides. The operating room windows were the conventional side operating wooden sash type arranged in pairs with three up/two down glass panes. A steel staircase was provided internally, but no toilet facilities. The staircase shortened the ground floor locking room resulting in the lower windows being noticeably offset. A brick chimney was provided to a stove on the operating floor. Warwick North Signal Box was 24 foot, 2 inches long by 12 foot, 1 inch wide and the operating floor height was eight feet above rail level.

Robert Ferris

back