GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Lapworth Station: gwrl3174

A nighttime interior view of Lapworth Signal Box showing the lever frame and instrument below the display panel circa 1956. The original date was thought to be 1966 but as a result of the following information this has now been revised to that shown. Peter Jordan writes in the Signal Box Forum, 'A friend recently drew my attention to the above photograph. I am pretty sure that the date is incorrect, as Tony Cooke's track plans show some sidings and connections removed in 1964 so, if the picture was 1966. one would expect to see some spare levers, and there aren't any. So I think the picture may be 1956. What particularly intrigues me is the fact that the box is equipped with single-deck Spagnoletti instruments, which I would not have expected to see given the date of the box's construction. This was 1932 when it was opened (along with new boxes at Knowle & Dorridge and Solihull) in connection with the quadrupling of the GWR line south of Birmingham. Lapworth was, in fact, the point at which the four tracks became two once more'.

In response to Peter and writing under the pseudonym 'Fosse Road', the following was recorded. 'I would say you're pretty near the mark with 1956. Several clues to suggest that:

1. Rowington Junction box closed in October 1957 and was replaced by I.B. signals controlled by Lapworth (Up Main) and Hatton North (Down Main) The Up line signals (colour lights, worked by lever No 12) were shown on an addition to the bottom right-hand corner of the box diagram. This is missing on the diagram in the photo.

2. Originally there was a ladder crossing that ran right across the layout from the Down Goods Loop to the Up Sidings, which included the facing connection from the Up Main to the Bay platform. Part of this was removed in the mid-1960s (1964 sounds about right) leaving only the facility to access the Down Main from the Down Goods loop and the Bay platform. I have a photo taken in 1967 showing the following spare levers in the frame: 6,9,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,41,46,47,52,63,68. These spares correspond with the connections and signals that were taken out and my photo shows the altered layout on the box diagram. I've also got the original box diagram that shows the layout at it's fullest extent after the addition of Rowington IBS but before the alterations to the track layout.

3. My 1967 photo also shows that by then all the Block Instruments had been replaced by the standard GWR 1947 type. I suspect that Lapworth must have been unique with it's single-tiered Spagnoletti blocks because I've got photographic evidence of some of the other boxes in the area (Hatton South, North and West, Bentley Heath Crossing and Solihull) having the later double-tiered type. By the time of the Saltley Resignalling scheme in September 1969 that saw the closure of all the boxes between Birmingham Moor Street and Warwick the only remaining Spagnoletti Blocks in use were to be found in Hatton South (to West Box only) Hatton West, Hatton North and Solihull.

Incidentally, prior to it's closure in September 1969 Lapworth box spent much of that year permanently switched out as there weren't enough signalmen left on the area to keep it manned!

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