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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Hatton Station: gwrhj1939

A low resolution version of the Signalling Diagram for Hatton South Signal Box, showing the post 2nd July 1939 track layout

A low resolution version of the Signalling Diagram for Hatton South Signal Box, showing the post 2nd July 1939 track layout, when the branch line to Bearley had been doubled. This Signalling diagram has been reproduced courtesy of the Signalling Record Society (S.R.S.). Details of how to purchase their full resolution content is available here.

On 8th January 1937, the original Hatton South Box and Hatton Middle Box were both closed and replaced with a new Hatton South Signal Box located on the station’s island platform. The order (No 319) for two cast iron nameplates was placed on 30th December 1935 and a second repeat order (No 320) was placed on 2nd February 1936, but this second order was subsequently cancelled.

The new Hatton South Signal Box was a platform version of the standard GW11 design, which had been introduced a few years earlier. It was virtually identical to the earlier brick built GW7D design, but there were no elaborate carved eaves brackets under the hipped roof and no blue bricks on the window cills. The Signal Box had three torpedo vents on the ridge of the tiled roof and a stove pipe chimney. The windows were the conventional three-up, two-down panes characteristic of the Great Western Railway. Unlike other GW11 designs the short staircase from the platform up to the operating floor was external, while another external staircase at the other end of the signal box descended to the locking room. A petrol air gas lighting plant was housed in a hut near the turntable siding to provide gas to light both the North and South Signal Boxes. Here a one and a half gallon drum of petrol was kept and the gas pressure was regulated by weights. This system proved to be very reliable and was only replaced on 14th June 1949, when electric lighting was installed in both the Signal Boxes. Hatton South Signal Box was 38 feet, 2 inches long, by 11 feet, 2 inches wide, with an operating floor seven foot above the track level. This low height was necessary to allow visibility under the adjacent footbridge and the road-bridge at the north end of the station. Hatton South Signal Box housed a five bar vertical tappet frame with 84 levers at four inch centres. Of these, 74 were working levers and 10 spares. The table below gives the opening hours for Hatton South Signal Box for a selection of years:

Service Time Table Signal Box Opened Signal Box Closed
  Weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays
Summer 1938 Open continuously
Summer 1939 Open continuously
Winter 1945 Open continuously

The Signal Box here controlled the block sections on the main double line and the up and down goods running loops, which ran parallel to the main lines and both terminated immediately before Hatton station. The Signal Box also controlled the short block section on the Bearley branch South curve. The Signalman sent messages to the preceding Signal Box to give permission for trains to enter the relevant block section on their line and used signals to indicate to train drivers when they were allowed to proceed. Distant Signals, distinguished by their forked tails and yellow colour (post September 1927) gave train drivers advance warning of the status of the next ‘Stop’ Signal. In addition to the Branch Junction the Signal Box also controlled train movements associated with the station yard and sidings. The Signalman could set a route with the point switch levers. These were interlocked with various types of signals (including ground signals), operation of which informed the locomotive driver of the selected route and when to proceed. This interlocking with signals ensured that these indicated to other trains, when they could no longer proceed safely and had to stop. Positioning Signal Boxes to give good visibility of the most complex trackwork was important to ensure safe operations, especially during shunting and the detaching and return of assistant banking engines. All the main lines and the south curve of the Bearley branch line had track circuits powered by batteries. These gave the signalman a ‘Vehicle on Line’ indication when a train, locomotive or rolling stock was occupying a particular section of track.

Hatton South Signal Box closed on 1st September 1969, following the replacement of the mechanical signalling, rationalisation of the trackwork and closure of the goods yard.

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