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GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
GWR Route: North Warwickshire Line
Birmingham Snow Hill Station: gwrbsh1669
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A rear view of the new Siemens electro-mechanical locking
frame at Birmingham North Signal Box in 1910. The frame contained 224 levers at
2.5 inch centres and was thirty seven feet, six inches long. A standard
mechanical lever frame would have been over twice this length and considerably
wider. This rear view of the frame shows the tappets and complex mechanical
locking arrangements associated with the levers. Birmingham North Signal Box
was fifty feet long by ten feet wide with the operating floor sixteen feet,
three inches above rail level. At this date, track circuit supervision was
unavailable, but the signal boxs position gave it a commanding view of
the stations northern approaches. The only switches not visible from the
signal box were those of the scissors crossover in the centre of the station.
In case these switches were fouled by a train, a gantry signalman
was located there and he was contacted from the signal box by telephone, to
confirm that the crossover was clear, before these crossover switches were
operated.
Robert Ferris
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