Micky wrote: " .... All my posts regarding the signalling of the G.N. line are done from past observation and memory only from about 40-45 years ago mainly between the years 1968-1974 the years that i was active on the southern end of the route out of Kings Cross to Hitchin and sometimes as far north as Peterborough, i don't really have anything written down (it's all still in my memory most of it is ............ except for about a dozen hand drawn track diagrams i drew myself back around the 1970-74 period so therefore some of my posts may not always be totally 100% accurate all the time but most are maybe between 96/97% accurate most of the time. "
I do have quite a lot of hand-scratched - sorry, sketched - and writted notes of those times, but I'm that disorganised that most of the time I don't know exactly where a specific one is, or do know but can't reach it, so I mostly run on the memories as well, which I think are pretty good (interest and enthusiasm was particularly strong in those days!
Well Micky, although this diagram is the 'Holl.N.Up box gone / Down Slow No.2 gone, Holl.South Down-N.Down'(as well as the earlier DS2-DG1 crossover just left of the box) version, it looks like that Banner Distant probably worked for all roads except the Down Goods, which is fairly logical, as I see that, on checking the lever numbering on the diagram, unlike all the GN boxes, presumably because this HND was an LNER installation, there was no Down Goods Distant lever at all.
Do any of you good people on here have any pictures of the interior of High Dyke signal box?
Can anybody also confirm whether Burton Lane would have had a box diagram or not. It appears it was not a block post so may have just been a cabin to control Burton Lane crossing gates. There was a lever frame outside which may have controlled the BSC exchange siding outlet road but I'm not quite sure about this. The crossing consisted of the BR single track and also the BSC entry in and out of Easton Mine.
The names of some of the signalmen on the branch would be quite helpful as well.
Brush53Falcon wrote:Do any of you good people on here have any pictures of the interior of High Dyke signal box?
Can anybody also confirm whether Burton Lane would have had a box diagram or not. It appears it was not a block post so may have just been a cabin to control Burton Lane crossing gates. There was a lever frame outside which may have controlled the BSC exchange siding outlet road but I'm not quite sure about this. The crossing consisted of the BR single track and also the BSC entry in and out of Easton Mine.
The names of some of the signalmen on the branch would be quite helpful as well.
Many Thanks
Hi,
I will have a chat with a couple of retired staff from Grantham who may be able to come up with a few names of people that worked the High Dyke branch.
As far as i have already ascertained Burton Lane was just a crossing cabin.
I will have a chat with a couple of retired staff from Grantham who may be able to come up with a few names of people that worked the High Dyke branch.
As far as i have already ascertained Burton Lane was just a crossing cabin.
Brush53Falcon wrote:Do any of you good people on here have any pictures of the interior of High Dyke signal box?
Can anybody also confirm whether Burton Lane would have had a box diagram or not. It appears it was not a block post so may have just been a cabin to control Burton Lane crossing gates. There was a lever frame outside which may have controlled the BSC exchange siding outlet road but I'm not quite sure about this. The crossing consisted of the BR single track and also the BSC entry in and out of Easton Mine.
The names of some of the signalmen on the branch would be quite helpful as well.
Many Thanks
In 1939, the High Dyke box staff were - (apologies for any spelling mistakes, the handwriting is not very clear)
Walter Hugh Dale b1898
Harry Stour b1893
Wilfred Arthur Ogden b1903
Skillington Road box staff were -
Charles William Borell b1918
Charles Eric Thorold b1919
Edwin Lewis Southgate b1919
Burton Lane Crossing and Siding
Harry Barlow b1890
Colsterworth Crossing and Siding
Joseph Huckerby b1884
Edited: Just to add that both staff members at Burton Lane and Colsterworth Crossings were listed as "Goods Porter" and not signalmen, but received an extra 7s 6d on top of their standard wages.
This suggests that neither place had a 'proper' staffed signalbox.
Last edited by strang steel on Mon Sep 16, 2013 11:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Brush53Falcon wrote:Do any of you good people on here have any pictures of the interior of High Dyke signal box?
Can anybody also confirm whether Burton Lane would have had a box diagram or not. It appears it was not a block post so may have just been a cabin to control Burton Lane crossing gates. There was a lever frame outside which may have controlled the BSC exchange siding outlet road but I'm not quite sure about this. The crossing consisted of the BR single track and also the BSC entry in and out of Easton Mine.
The names of some of the signalmen on the branch would be quite helpful as well.
Many Thanks
In 1939, the High Dyke box staff were - (apologies for any spelling mistakes, the handwriting is not very clear)
Walter Hugh Dale b1898
Harry Stour b1893
Wilfred Arthur Ogden b1903
Skillington Road box staff were -
Charles William Borell b1918
Charles Eric Thorold b1919
Edwin Lewis Southgate b1919
Burton Lane Crossing and Siding
Harry Barlow b1890
Colsterworth Crossing and Siding
Joseph Huckerby b1884
Edited: Just to add that both staff members at Burton Lane and Colsterworth Crossings were listed as "Goods Porter" and not signalmen, but received an extra 7s 6d on top of their standard wages.
This suggests that neither place had a 'proper' staffed signalbox.
Thanks for your efforts John, very much appreciated.
Micky wrote:I visited the box briefly one Saturday afternoon around Jan/Feb 1973 a few months before it closed and it contained a nice 60 levers Dutton & Co lever frame i recall, a nice job and an attractive wooden structure shame it was bulldozed after it was closed and finished up as a big pile of timber on a bonfire although i did manage to rescue the north end nameboard before it was burnt although i havn't got it anymore and was 'lost' in 1979. Frank Brandon was the only and last regular signalman at the box for the last few years before it closed in June 1973 the other shifts being covered by relief signalmen.
Hatfield No1 had a Tyer & Co frame which had similar-looking catch-handles to a Dutton frame but other features were more conventional.
Given the earlier discussion about Holloway North Down and the "Long Road" I thought I'd pop this one in:
Micky wrote:I visited the box briefly one Saturday afternoon around Jan/Feb 1973 a few months before it closed and it contained a nice 60 levers Dutton & Co lever frame i recall, a nice job and an attractive wooden structure shame it was bulldozed after it was closed and finished up as a big pile of timber on a bonfire although i did manage to rescue the north end nameboard before it was burnt although i havn't got it anymore and was 'lost' in 1979. Frank Brandon was the only and last regular signalman at the box for the last few years before it closed in June 1973 the other shifts being covered by relief signalmen.
Hatfield No1 had a Tyer & Co frame which had similar-looking catch-handles to a Dutton frame but other features were more conventional.
Thanks for correcting my posting regarding the type of lever frame in Hatfield no.1 John.
Also a correction of the date of closure for Hatfield no.1. Hatfield no.1 closed in late May 1973 and not in June 1973 as i previously posted.
