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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Handsworth & Smethwick: h&w-signal-diag
A low resolution version of the Signalling Diagram for
Handsworth and Smethwick South Signal Box produced courtesy of the Signalling
Record Society (S.R.S.). Details of how to purchase their full resolution
content is available here. This diagram relates to the Handsworth and
Smethwick South Signal Box, which opened on 19th December 1909. This was the
second Signal Box on this site, built after the line was quadrupelled. The
Signal Box was a standard Great Western Railway brick built design with a
hipped roof (type 7D). It housed a sixty-one lever frame. The Signal Box here
controlled the block sections on the main and relief double lines. The
Signalman sent messages to the preceding Signal Box to give permission for
trains to enter the block section on their line and used signals to indicate to
train drivers when they were allowed to proceed.
Distant Signals, distinguished by their forked tails and
yellow colour (post September 1927) gave train drivers advance warning of the
status of the next Stop Signal. The Signal Box also controlled
train movements associated with the station yard and sidings. The Signalman
could set a route with the point switch levers. These were interlocked with
various types of signals (including ground signals and route indicators),
operation of which informed the locomotive driver of the selected route and
when to proceed. This interlocking with signals ensured that these indicated to
other trains, when they could no longer proceed safely and had to stop.
Visibility was important in the days before track circuits and the Signal Box
was positioned where it could oversee the most complex trackwork.
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