Chance to visit Banbury North Signal Box

[whole diary]

[grahame]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BanburyNorthSignalBox/

Chance to visit Banbury North Signal Box through to 2nd October

Banbury's two Edwardian signal boxes are being made redundant by the Banbury Area Upgrade scheme. South box has already gone. Despite efforts to save the North Signal Box, the date for its demolition has been set for the 8th October 2016.

When Project Crossover first started, never did we imagine that over 2,000 people would have booked from up and down the country to come and see Banbury North Signal Box - wow! thank you!
With a steady stream of people booking on a daily basis, you can still reserve your place on a free tour here > https://banburynorth.youcanbook.me/

We are currently unable to access the interlocking room as whilst the authorised safe walking route allows us to enter the box, there is currently no secure fence round to the rear door. This is hopefully going to be rectified in the coming days.

Our first visits commence tomorrow and we are asking people to head through the main station entrance and you'll see our meeting point poster on a door to the left hand side, just before the free cash withdrawal machine. Please aim to meet here at least 10 minutes before the tour start time.

There is no free car parking available, so we are suggesting you use the pay and display car parks/multi storey at the train station or the Cherwell District Council Car Parks at The Mill Arts Centre (Sat Nav: OX16 5QE) then walk across to the station.

As ever, if you have any questions please post here on Facebook or email banburynorth@gmail.com.
On behalf of Project Crossover and all its volunteers, I thoroughly hope you enjoy your experience of visiting what will be from October, a memory in history.

[ChrisB]

Booked for August 27th

[Ralph Ayres]

"There is no free car parking available, so we are suggesting you use the pay and display car parks/multi storey...". Or just arrive by train or bus?!

[ChrisB]

I think it was addressing the locals?....They weren't expecting much interest from far & wide (heathens, not railway enthusiasts, but Civic Society)

[IndustryInsider]

Worth a visit.  I was fortunate enough to pay a visit when it was still in operation.

[bobm]

I would certainly second that II after going on one of the arranged visits this week.

A lot of thought has gone into organising them.  Over an hour in the 'box, a souvenir ticket and booklet, a video showing the 'box in use, a temporary set up to show the bell codes being sent to and from Banbury South and CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) rigged up from the locking room so you can see the interlocking in action as the levers are pulled - and all at no charge.







The demonstration was given by one of the signallers who had worked the 'box until last month.  He gave a very good talk and admitted it was strange seeing trains passing the 'box but having no control of them.




It was also possible to get a look at the new layout north of the station.



Apparently over 2,000 people have expressed an interest so extra dates are being added.  A really fascinating morning, and I would thoroughly recommend a visit if you can.

[Billhere]

The number if up to 3000 now with names on the list to visit. I was visitor 1351 last Wednesday.

Gave me a chance for one last visit to Banbury North and to finally meet a Signaller who was only a voice on the phone when I was at Oxford Panel.

Well organised and planned, and the whole thing was professionally run throughout from the safety fences alongside the line, to rigging up the bells and blocks so they could be seen (and heard) as they should be.

Nice souvenir booklet as well.

A lot of thought gone into this, and those in charge deserve a pat on the back for what they have produced. I think there are plans afoot now to recover some of the kit to Prices Risborough box and the plan is, for now, to board Banbury North up rather than demolish it straight away.

Go if you get the chance, there are a few spaces left apparently.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting that update on the Coffee Shop forum, Billhere. 

I found this to be absolutely astonishing:

Gave me a chance for one last visit to Banbury North and to finally meet a Signaller who was only a voice on the phone when I was at Oxford Panel.

Had you really never actually met him before?  When you had been working so geographically close to each other?? 

[ChrisB]

Probably not...two different rsgions of Network Rail.

Bit like working for two different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company). I'd think

[Oxonhutch]

Probably not...two different rsgions of Network Rail.

Bit like working for two different TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company). I'd think

Banbury North (whose electric locking I helped release for the current display period) is just in the Midland Region - the road bridge behind (in the penultimate photo above) is the actual boundary. Banbury South - to whom it communicated by bells - was in the Western Region!

There is a funny mixture of instruments in the box that reflects its varied heritage.

[ChrisB]

Interesting - when the rail boundary, I thought, was in the Tackley area, that Banbury South wasn't also in the Midlands region too.

[Billhere]

The boundary signalling wise is between Heyford and Tackley, and is also the 'county boundary' between the Midland and Western Zones.

The railway is a funny industry, a relatively small number of men covering the country, working on their own and with little need to deal with anybody else. I dealt with Banbury North, or vice versa, if either of us had freights that were running early and wanted to keep them moving and a phone call got the ok or not as to whether they could be handled at the other end or not. You built up a relationship with that voice on the phone because you may speak to them a couple of times a day, and then not again for a week, but because you worked the same shifts you knew who was going to be at the other end.

In the days of lots of signal boxes many knew each other both workwise and socially. In these days of boxes long distances apart you are never going to get that. The day I retired from Oxford Panel I put a note on the train desciber boxes ' I RETIRE IN 2 HRS BYE BYE' and got a message from Swindon B with 'GOOD LUCK' on their describers from people I had never met but spoken to. A bit like a big family really.

[Oxonhutch]

The boundary signalling wise is between Heyford and Tackley, and is also the 'county boundary' between the Midland and Western Zones.

Thanks Bill, I stand corrected over what I was told in there - not by NR^» (Network Rail - home page) staff, but my own S+T people. There are a number of 'Midland' additions to the standard GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)/Western Region equipment. The catch-handle worked electric lock releases being one such feature I believe.  Again, I may stand corrected on that. I certainly encourage all who haven't visited yet to do so.  A lovely 'box.

[IndustryInsider]

The last of the tours has been completed, with over 3000 people visiting which is a remarkable number.

[ChrisB]

I think it's due to be demolished this weekend? There are AM service blocks I think.