Signal box in my bedroom?.

[StevieG]

Micky,
Although it might be considered surprising, although the Up access to Barford sidings was from St. Neots, I think RP's diagram says that the ground frame was released from Tempsford box.

TV Plays :
Can't say I recall the first.

The second sounds like, if I am remembering all the following anything like correctly, "The Signalman's Apprentice" ; Peter Vaughn and Dennis Waterman;
I have feelings that the story also went that they had no more trains and had been 'forgotten' by 'the management' but were still on company books and being paid; and did they have a model railway in the box? (-perhaps to make up for lack of real trains?)

The third sounds like what I believe was titled "The Inquiry", and I thought I remembered the young and older men were father and son, working in adjacent boxes, fictitiously called called Newtown and Oldcastle, which I recall looking very GWR inside and appearing so accurate that I felt sure it had been filmed in real boxes (I had started seeing inside a couple of GW boxes from about 1963). I do recall there was some sort of crash or accident; hence the title I guess.

Last time I tried Goggling for these last two, very little came back as results, especially that last one.

Actually, just tried again; and a site about Gordon Jackson, quotes him as having been in 'Apprentice' :
October 1969 ............... The Signalman's Apprentice (Oxford Playhouse) ............... Alfred

[Mickey]

Yes you are correct with those two plays Stevie. The Signalman's Apprentice with Peter Vaughan was one of them, i think the s/box was situated in a Southern region goods/marshalling yard and yes there was a 'model of the layout' in the box. I remember the 'booking boy' saying that "You can work the box in the fog by this layout." I remember also after the booking boy kills the Signalman there is a 'rush of activity' when the block bells start to ring and the booking boy starts pulling levers and throwing other levers back in the frame but i think it all gets to much for him in the end.
The other play sounds correct as well and may have pre-dated the previous play by a couple of years because i think they actually had the use of a Britannia loco (i think it was a Britannia?) which may have been around 1967 but this date is only a guess?.

Stevie, i don't know if you ever saw on the telly around about 1967/68 a 'profile' of a married couple who were both in signalling as a Signalman and a Signalwoman?. She LOVED the job and the s/box that she was working at when they went outside with the camera there was a Britannia loco 'in steam' sitting around the back of the box. The husband DIDN'T like the job and there was several film shots of him 'banging away' on the lever frame which i vaguely remember was a Midland lever frame maybe somewhere like Syston north Junction or Wigston south Junction but i am only guessing. I remember him saying that he DIDN'T like the job and after a minute or so of him pulling and throwing levers back in the frame and working on the block bells he turned to the camera and said "If you think this is busy you want to be here a three in the morning!."

There was a time on the telly about 40 yrs ago when you could get some really 'interesting material turn up on prime time' tv if you was into railways?. I remember watching a BBC programme on 'railway accidents' and they reconstructed the accidents in a fair bit of detail. The two accidents that i remember them concentrating on was HAWES JUNCTION in 1910 (later known as GARSDALE ROAD) Midland railway and QUINTINSHILL in 1915 Caledonian railway. Because both accidents were mainly caused by Signalmen's errors there was plenty of interior colour film footage of the s/boxes. Can you believe actual colour film footage of the interior of QUINTINSHILL box shot during the making of this programme very interesting indeed!. This programme must have been shown around 1968/69?.

[61070]

a Midland lever frame maybe somewhere like Syston north Junction

I hope you don't mind if I drop in here Micky. Syston was just up the road from where we used to live. I regularly inhabited the platforms there and on one occasion - just one - we visited Syston South Junction signal box (on 6th March 1966). Here are two photos which might be useful if ever a recording of the play surfaces and there's an opportunity to try to identify the location. In the second picture, taken from the top of the 'box steps, 48100 is on the down slow waiting for the road to Melton Mowbray (the diverging route). Buses to Melton and Grantham passed over the bridge in the far background, beyond the station buildings, which is partly obscured by steam drifting from the safety valves.

[Mickey]

[52D]

re Glenn Miller i think you are correct Mr Pike i think Tempsford was the SOE base and old age lunacy is creeping in.

[Mickey]

[R. pike]

re Glenn Miller i think you are correct Mr Pike i think Tempsford was the SOE base and old age lunacy is creeping in.

It did send me off on a quick search of the net just in case new information had come to light.

The comings and goings that must have been witnessed from Tempsford and Everton boxes would make an interesting story i'm sure. I wonder if there were any special instructions to the signalmen at these locations? From what i've read on SOE they were a fairly ruthless bunch when it came to protecting secrets etc.

[Mickey]

Deleted

[52D]

Micky he had a better chance of turning up in your bedroom than any of the other places he was supposed to have been seen.

[StevieG]

Still looking at this thread Micky?

(Discussing TV plays with a railway subject) If I am remembering all the following anything like correctly, "The Signalman's Apprentice" ; Peter Vaughn and Dennis Waterman;
I have feelings that the story also went that they had no more trains and had been 'forgotten' by 'the management' but were still on company books and being paid; and did they have a model railway in the box? (-perhaps to make up for lack of real trains?)

The third sounds like what I believe was titled "The Inquiry", and I thought I remembered the young and older men were father and son, working in adjacent boxes, fictitiously called called Newtown and Oldcastle, which I recall looking very GWR inside and appearing so accurate that I felt sure it had been filmed in real boxes (I had started seeing inside a couple of GW boxes from about 1963). I do recall there was some sort of crash or accident; hence the title I guess.

Last time I tried Goggling for these last two, very little came back as results, especially that last one.

Just the other day, tried on Goggle again, and, after all, found these :
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly, RE: 'The Signalman's Apprentice' :

In http://www.imdb.com (search ‘ITV Sunday night theatre’)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1073948/.
"127 of 199 episodes
Original Air Date—28 November 1971" ;

(I didn't remember that Victor Maddern was also in the cast.)

And in the British Film Institute's webpages http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/347008

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Then, secondly, RE the play featuring GWR/BR(W) signalmen who were related :

" The Wednesday Play (BBC)

http://www.imdb.com (search ‘the wednesday play’)

Season 1, Episode 86: Public Inquiry ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0496376/ )

Original Air Date—15 March 1967 " ;

and (BFI) : http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/323108
-----------------------------------------------------------------

" .... Stevie, i don't know if you ever saw on the telly around about 1967/68 a 'profile' of a married couple who were both in signalling as a Signalman and a Signalwoman?. She LOVED the job and the s/box that she was working at when they went outside with the camera there was a Britannia loco 'in steam' sitting around the back of the box. The husband DIDN'T like the job and there was several film shots of him 'banging away' on the lever frame which i vaguely remember was a Midland lever frame maybe somewhere like Syston north Junction or Wigston south Junction but i am only guessing. I remember him saying that he DIDN'T like the job and after a minute or so of him pulling and throwing levers back in the frame and working on the block bells he turned to the camera and said "If you think this is busy you want to be here a three in the morning!."

I was sure I'd responded to this bit of yours at the time, but now see that it looks like I never got 'a round tuit'.

I had meant to reply that I clearly remember a programme sounding very much as you describe, except for the possible locations, which I'm sure were in the Manchester area.
The wife was shown at work at Crumpsall box, while he was at, I'm pretty sure, a box named Smedley Viaduct.
I think Crumpsall was a brick-built, flat-roofed affair, possibly of 1950s vintage, which would explain why you thought of a Midland Railway style lever frame, as it would thus have very probably been equipped with a similar-looking 'REC'/BR (LM)-standard type frame. I think the frame in Mr. signalman's (much older-looking) box was of a different type, and being, I believe, on an ex L&YR route, that would not be surprising.

Also, on railways in 1960s-ish television, exploring www.imdb.com for another vague memory of mine (of some children's rural exploits centreing, 'Railway Children'-like, around the local country station [including occasionally in the signal box], but in then-'modern' times [which I was surprised to find were as long ago as 1960] ), I found confirmation of a children's-time short series - six episodes of "The Old Pull 'n Push" (incorrectly listed there as 'The Old Bull 'n Push'), and a follow-up six programmes ('The Return of....' ), the following year, all said (again, in the British Film Institute's webpages http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/series/27670) to have been filmed on the SR's Paddock Wood-Hawkhurst branch.

[Mickey]

Thats very interesting Stevie i'm going to keep a lookout for that Signalman's Apprentice on dvd.

Yes the husband & wife signalman & signalwoman telly programme was very interesting they use to show stuff like that on the telly back then (1960s).

As for the signal box in my bedroom thats going way back to around 1968/69 and i kept that for several years into the early 1970s, that was a GREAT SUCCESS with a x3 lever frame, block-shelf with (Midland Railway) block instruments and a 'changeable' s/box track diagram that i would draw any s/box layout that took my fancy?.

The model semaphore signals that i made at the sametime around 1970 and i kept had in our back garden for a couple of years in the early 1970s were also a GREAT SUCCESS especially the 'slotting arrangement' (drawings copied from the British Railways signalling hand book Vol.2 1968) on my 'home & distant' signals worked from a x2 lever frame in the back garden. I would 'pull off' the home signal from one lever then 'pull off' the distant signal from the 2nd lever then 'put back' the home signal lever and BOTH the home & distant signals would return to the ON position just like the real thing!.

* * *That home & distant signal mounted on the same post was situated at the 'top end' of the garden and was a pull of about 20 yards maybe from the x2 lever frame. Also it use to look pretty neat at night when i would light both signal lamps you would just see both signal arms illuminated in the darkness that looked really good. Very happy days indeed... * * *

[StevieG]

" .... Also, on railways in 1960s-ish television...

...(a last one), ... Remember Huff Puff Junction?
[ 1964; Glove puppet series for real little-ies, set at a single line branch station, with working train and level crossing, and a signal box : Mr. Potts the station master (dog), excitable Charlie the porter (squirrel), a grumpy signalman, and the train driver (don't remember their species) ].
Making allowances for the target audience, the era, and filming & puppetry technologies available (& that these were glove puppets, not stringed ones), the set was remarkably detailed, effective and railway-atmospheric.

http://homepages.tesco.net/~space.patro ... sZero2.htm


Respect to you Micky for taking that much trouble to create your home signal box world.

[Mickey]

Respect to you Micky for taking that much troubled to create your home signal box world.

Yeah thanks Stevie high praise indeed.

Yes that old set up in my bedroom and back garden 40-45 years ago set me up for what was to come straight after leaving school in 1972 (telegraph lad at Welwyn Garden City s/box) and later on until present day.

Happy days...