I wonder if someone can explain to me some of the advancements on WCML signalling. Is it still 4 aspect in the original sense? Are there any changes since the 80s?
The 1980s were little changed from the 1960s, when the WCML was resignalled south-to-north until the budget was cut, at which point many LNWR and early BR signal boxes remained.
So from Euston it was:
- Euston
- Willesden Junction
- Watford Junction
- Bletchley
- Banbury Lane crossing
- Rugby
- Nuneaton
with the "new" stuff, but with 4 signal boxes in the Northampton area.
Then you had (to Manchester via Crewe) existing signal boxes repurposed with 4-aspect colour light signals but sometimes retaining mechanical points and ground signals:
- Atherstone
- Polesworth
- Tamworth
- Coton Crossing
- Hademore Crossing
- Lichfield
- Colwich Junction
- Stafford No. 4
- Stafford No. 5
- Norton Bridge (new signal box in the 1960s)
- Madeley
- Betley Road
- Basford Hall Junction
- Crewe South Junction
- Crewe Station A (some platforms only)
- Crewe North Junction
- Sandbach (new)
- Wilmslow (new)
- Cheadle Hulme
- Adswood Road Junction
- Edgeley Junction No. 1
- Edgeley Junction No. 2
- Stockport No. 1
- Stockport No. 2
- Heaton Norris Junction
- Manchester London Road (new)
via Stoke you had after Colwich Junction
- Meaford Crossing
- Stoke-on-Trent (new)
- Grange Junction
- Bradwell Sidings
- Kidsgrove
- Mow Cop
- Macclesfield
I may have missed one or two, but it's from when I used to use the line a lot, and it included a number of very small boxes such as Bradwell Sidings and Adswood Road.
Some gradual improvements abolished a number of these boxes - Atherstone, Adswood Road went quite early and Crewe was remodelled, for example.
It was all 4-aspect, including the Styal Line which has since - unfortunately - been resignalled as 3-aspect.
Now I lose track of which "regional operating centre" or whatnot controls which area, but the five Stockport boxes remain, following an aborted attempt to replace them a number of years ago. Manchester South replaces most others in my area, including Macclesfield most recently. Crewe remains as resignalled in the mid-1980s. But the WCML modernisation prior to the introduction of Pendolinos essentially swept away a lot of the old stuff, which had been only changed gradually and piecemeal prior to then.
The two Stafford signal boxes survived this, which is why the earlier post refers to their replacement as pretty much the most recent change.
Basford Hall Junction is the first “traditional” signal box you’ll see today on the route from London.
