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LMS Route: The Shakespeare Route

Kineton Station: smjk210

Signalman Charles Neal poses for the camera at the window of his neat and well kept signal box at Kineton station

Signalman Charles Neal poses for the camera at the window of his neat and well kept signal box at Kineton station. The wooden extensions at either end were added to accommodate the electric train staff instruments fitted after the signal box had been built. Signalman kept their box very clean, each man sweeping out at the end of his eight hour shift, tilling the coal bunker and the linoleum covered floor was regularly mopped and windows cleaned. There was no lavatory for the signalmen and they had to walk fifty yards along the up platform to the Gentlemens Urinals. The request to 'Wash your hands before leaving' was never seen in those days and there was not one wash-basin for the railway staff anywhere on the station. It is not always appreciated how demanding a signalman's job could be in a manual box, for in addition to the physical effort involved in pulling over and throwing back the levers, there were the block instruments to operate, receiving bell signals from and sending signals to neighbouring signal boxes, together with the handling of telephone calls, particularly from Control, and the entry of each train movement in the train register. Electric train staffs had to be extracted from and inserted into the instruments, with the signalman running up and down the cabin steps to hand the staffs to the drivers. For some train movements there were no appropriate signals, in which case the signalman would make use of large red or green flags.

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