GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Handsworth & Smethwick: h&w-signal-diag

A low resolution version of the Signalling Diagram for Handsworth and Smethwick South Signal Box produced courtesy of the Signalling Record Society (S.R.S.). Details of how to purchase their full resolution content is available here. This diagram relates to the Handsworth and Smethwick South Signal Box, which opened on 19th December 1909. This was the second Signal Box on this site, built after the line was quadrupelled. The Signal Box was a standard Great Western Railway brick built design with a hipped roof (type 7D). It housed a sixty-one lever frame. The Signal Box here controlled the block sections on the main and relief double lines. The Signalman sent messages to the preceding Signal Box to give permission for trains to enter the 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. 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 and route indicators), 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. Visibility was important in the days before track circuits and the Signal Box was positioned where it could oversee the most complex trackwork.

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