Wokingham station - improvements, resignalling and siding - merged posts

[whole diary]

[Oxonhutch]

Always something disturbing about signal box demolition photos...

Indeed, and those exposed, and soon to be scrapped levers, especially sad for this amateur signalman.

[stuving]

And there it was - gone. And all rather brutal, of course - but that's demolition.

This is the best picture I could get of the interlocking in situ, which suggests it was still doing something. But it was not to last much longer before it was dumped in a heap awaiting its booked Uber skip. And then it's all gone, near enough. You can see what scaffolding was put in - there's a protective cover around some cabinets that are staying. The others around the front of the box have all gone.

Someone was sweeping the concrete base of the shed, so I guess that's being kept. For what? I suppose it will make an extra patio - for ceremonial purposes? But we are not even 20 hours into the promised 48 hours of work, so what will they do with the rest of the time? Dunno - now, having sent the last tipper home unused, they are taking up the top layer of baulks - with some scrap still to shift. Oh well, we'll see ...

[Oxonhutch]

The locking trays look empty so I think that S&T^▸ (Signalling and Telegraph) might have recovered these increasingly rare and valuable interlocking nibs, etc.

[Mark A]

Surprised the lever handles were so... corrosion-free in those photos, if the box has been out of use since February 2024. Perhaps there were a variety of different metals used for signal lever handles though.

Mark

[Oxonhutch]

I think rather a high level of spit and polish right up to the end. Quite traditional, and I noted that too from the photos.

[bobm]

Can’t beat the traditional signaller’s duster/tea towel.

[stuving]

I missed out my final report, from Sunday afternoon, showing the results of all that cleaning up. First, the final bits of work including refitting the last bits removed from the track (the trespass guards), and in the distance you can see that they hacked off a few bits of tree while the line was closed.  And the final fettle was to spread some aggregate on the box foundations. Not from the box itself - that was red brick, so a different colour. So they  must have brought in some other spoil to replace it.

And then they reopened the road over the crossing ... and the next day South-East Water closed the road 200 m away (again - it's one of their favourite hole sites). That means putting cones out and a "road ahead closed" sign for the level crossing, to try to stop HGVs coming across and having to turn round. But they still did (a car transporter was doing that as I went out shopping yesterday), so apparently the sign was change to a "road closed" and there have been complaints that access by residents was being prevented. Due to open tomorrow, they say.