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London North Western
Railway:
Midland
Railway:
Stratford
Midland Junction Railway
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LMS Route: The Shakespeare Route
Kineton Station: smjk210
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Signalman Charles Neal poses for the camera at the window of
his neat and well kept signal box at Kineton station. The wooden extensions at
either end were added to accommodate the electric train staff instruments
fitted after the signal box had been built. Signalman kept their box very
clean, each man sweeping out at the end of his eight hour shift, tilling the
coal bunker and the linoleum covered floor was regularly mopped and windows
cleaned. There was no lavatory for the signalmen and they had to walk fifty
yards along the up platform to the Gentlemens Urinals. The request to 'Wash
your hands before leaving' was never seen in those days and there was not one
wash-basin for the railway staff anywhere on the station. It is not always
appreciated how demanding a signalman's job could be in a manual box, for in
addition to the physical effort involved in pulling over and throwing back the
levers, there were the block instruments to operate, receiving bell signals
from and sending signals to neighbouring signal boxes, together with the
handling of telephone calls, particularly from Control, and the entry of each
train movement in the train register. Electric train staffs had to be extracted
from and inserted into the instruments, with the signalman running up and down
the cabin steps to hand the staffs to the drivers. For some train movements
there were no appropriate signals, in which case the signalman would make use
of large red or green flags.
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