Cuckoo Junction, Spalding

[strang steel]

I was the successful bidder for a signal box register for Cuckoo Junction 1954/55 recently, and have now received my 'treasure'.

The temptation to purchase this item came from the fact that certain entries have loco numbers in the notes, giving a guide to what was in service at the time. I now have a 1953 WTT from the WTTReprint site which gives an idea of the schedules, but the 54/5 examples are not available, except if one comes up in a second hand bookshop or on Ebay.

One thing which surprised me was that after a few pages a couple of WD 2-8-0s appeared in the comments, and then a week or so later still an O2 2-8-0. All of these were given the 'light engine' bell code, which made me wonder what use they would be on the line to Bourne, which I understood to be a lower RA than the locos in question.

It then occurred to me that Spalding might have been using the avoider between Cuckoo and Welland Bank Junctions as a turning triangle for locos which were too big for the turntable? I have never considered this before, but I'm hoping to find out any information that others may have - hence this post.

[WTTReprinter]

That sounds like a good possibility.
If that's the case, you should see them accepted and arrive from Spalding on one side, then offered forward and depart to the other leg of the triangle on the opposite page after crossing over.
Anything that shows as a 'through' move would not apply. The loco would arrive on one line (up from Spalding?) with no 'offered forward' details, then on the opposite page should be an engine 'offered forward' details with no accepted entry, assuming they were booking it the way I was always shown how to book!

[strang steel]

Thanks Brian.

The quality of your reprint is excellent, and I must peruse the site again to see if there are any more which take my fancy.

I can't quite fathom out the abbreviations in my register. There seem to be a lot of to/from SO or LO entries which I have yet to decode. I wondered if LO was for loco, but SO is a mystery.

I have found a few March K1s doing the light engine manoeuvre, and I cannot see why they would need to visit Bourne. A J6 usually sufficed on local goods trains. Therefore the turning triangle idea is gaining more ground in my thoughts.

[Mickey]

Here is CUCKOO JUNCTION signal box in October 1958 about four months before closure in February 1959.

https://www.southhollandlife.com/wp-con ... al-box.jpg

CUCKOO JUNCTION looking towards the Spalding direction probably shortly after the signal box had closed in February 1959, note the signal arms having been removed.

https://www.southhollandlife.com/wp-con ... alding.jpg

[strang steel]

Thanks Mickey.

[thesignalman]

I can't quite fathom out the abbreviations in my register. There seem to be a lot of to/from SO or LO entries which I have yet to decode. I wondered if LO was for loco, but SO is a mystery.

Those will almost certainly be the two-letter single-needle telagraph codes for particular boxes (or telegraph offices), which were popularly used for general reference by signalmen on ex-GNR lines. Whilst they sometimes used letters that related to the box concerned, this wasn't always the case, particularly at locations where there were boxes with similar names. The codes chosen were usually distinct ones in morse code for ease of recognition.

Alas, my own telegraph codes lists do not cover that area, but hopefully somebody can help.

John

[Mickey]

Maybe several block sections along the line from Cuckoo Junction was Clay Lake s/box & level crossing and shown here was Clay Lake's colour home signal which appeared to be a rather unusual signal?.

The signal above reminds me of a similar looking colour light signal that was at Eastern Junction (Dalston) on the 'Poplar lines' east of Western Junction on the North London lines before Eastern Junction s/box was closed and abolished around 1976/77.

Also almost invisible in the picture and standing to the left of the colour light signal is a miniature signal arm mounted on a concrete post coming off a Goods road.

https//www.southhollandlife.com/wp-content/upl ... 722439.jpg

[WTTReprinter]

Nice image Mickey.

That's a colour light home signal with a splitting distant below.
Clay Lake was the next box from Welland Junction (only 31 chains away) and start of the single line section to Sutton Bridge. When Clay Lake cleared, the top head would show green, but the distant signals below would both light up & show yellow. When Welland Junction cleared, the distant signal for the route to the right or left would clear to a green.
There were a few of these on the Liverpool Street division when I worked around there. I expect they've gone now. They were at Lower Edmonton and Clapton.

[Mickey]

That's a colour light home signal with a splitting distant below.

Thanks for clarification WTT and for the extra information regarding the route anyway believe it or not I did actually suspect it was a 'splitting distant signal' BUT I wasn't totally sure about it so I thought I better not say anything.

[Mickey]

Cunningham Drove Gatehouse in 1960.

What is the explanation for having a semaphore stop signal located almost immediately beyond the level crossing gates as shown in the picture and not located on the approach side to the level crossing although I presume that there is a stop signal protecting the gates on the approach side to this level crossing as there are several signal wires running along the side of the railway along the cess. Also at first glance the semaphore signal that is standing just beyond the gates could be mistaken for a 'distant signal arm' but on magnifying the image it's still a bit hard to say for certain if it is a stop signal and not a distant signal??.

https//www.southhollandlife.com/wp-content/upl ... 797866.jpg

[WTTReprinter]

It may well be that there is a home signal on approach (behind the photographer). Looking at it, there is a siding to the right and that will connect further back.

The level crossing looks like it is worked from a keeper's hut, rather than a signal box. In which case it might be released by the controlling box, or the crossing may 'slot' the protecting signals. The crossing cabin seems to have a wheel to work the gates.

[Mickey]

You could well be right on all counts WTT.

The stop signal on the opposite road has a 'sighting board' behind it and is mounted on a short to medium post.

[StevieG]

Nice image Mickey.

That's a colour light home signal with a splitting distant below.
Clay Lake was the next box from Welland Junction (only 31 chains away) and start of the single line section to Sutton Bridge. When Clay Lake cleared, the top head would show green, but the distant signals below would both light up & show yellow. When Welland Junction cleared, the distant signal for the route to the right or left would clear to a green.
There were a few of these on the Liverpool Street division when I worked around there. I expect they've gone now. They were at Lower Edmonton and Clapton.

Those last two, WTTReprinter, were combined stop / splitting distants alright, and disappeared under, or not long before, the WARM resignalling around 17 years ago.
But they were, more conventionally, only two-headed, not three like the Clay Lake example.
They had 'searchlight' heads, of which the one nearest the line showed the red, and when cleared both showed, as appropriate to the signal ahead's aspect and (if 'Off') route indication, either twin yellows or one went green with the other remaining yellow. But there was one variation to this, in that the left-hand head of the H15 Clapton signal had two lenses as it also had to be capable of showing double-yellow for that route from Clapton Junction towards Copper Mill Jn.

The LNER did have other instances more similar to the Clay Lake configuration.
Pre - the 1959-completed Greenwood-Potters Bar quadrupling, there were examples on both of the previous TCB-worked two-tracks after leaving PB Tunnel, one each way, for going Main to Slow at the box ahead, although those lower heads were smaller than standard, one of which was directly below the main head with the other lower and offset to the left.

Another, probably once identical example, was on the Down, former GC, from Marylebone for the junction ahead at Neasden South, indicating clear for straight ahead towards Harrow-On-The-Hill and Aylesbury, or left towards Wembley Hill, Sudbury Hill and Northolt Junction.
But by c.1970 at least, this one's lower heads were of full-size 2-aspect type.

[Mickey]

Clay Lake s/box below

https://www.southhollandlife.com/wp-con ... y-Lake.jpg