LMS Route: Birmingham New Street to Nuneaton

Stockingford Station: mrs424b

Close up of image 'mrs424' showing Stockingford Shed and Stockingford Signal Box seen shortly after opening. The brickwork on the boiler room building is still very clean which would indicate that the photograph was taken just a few years after the shed opened in 1903. The smoke from one of the shed's chimneys would indicate that there is at least one locomotive being prepared for its next trip. The corrugated huts next to the signal box were used by Permanent Way gangs for storing their tools and even having their breaks. The single slimmer shed may have been used by a fogman. Fogmen, normally Permanent Way men, were deployed during the foggy nights when visibility was so poor that crews could not see the signals. Fogmen were located at critical signals to place detonators on the line to act as an audio warning as to whether the signal was set to danger etc.

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