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On an episode of A Time To Remember recently shown on Talking Pictures TV the 1926 general strike was featured. A soldier is shown protecting the railway on what appears to be the approaches to Paddington. In the background is what looks like an elevated signal box,clearly an early closure I was wondering if anyone can identify it? Could Lords Hill Bridge box be a candidate? Below is a screenshot showing the box described above.
According to Alan Jackson's "London Termini" (David & Charles, 2nd Ed, 1985) there was a 53-lever cabin by Westbourne Bridge. It was retained in the 1929-32 resignalling with electrical equipment and was fitted with an 88-slide all-electric locking frame. It was damaged by an (electrical) fire in December 1938! Jackson's book does not give a closure date - it may have lasted until the 1968 N-X panel at Old Oak Common?
According to Alan Jackson's "London Termini" (David & Charles, 2nd Ed, 1985) there was a 53-lever cabin by Westbourne Bridge. It was retained in the 1929-32 resignalling with electrical equipment and was fitted with an 88-slide all-electric locking frame. It was damaged by an (electrical) fire in December 1938! Jackson's book does not give a closure date - it may have lasted until the 1968 N-X panel at Old Oak Common?
A bit stumped on this one: NLS maps don’t show much suitable. My only thought is that could we looking out from the station past Bishop’s Road Bridge and that is the old Paddington Departure?
I think that view is from the country side of Westbourne Bridge, with the steelwork in the background being the largely open sides of the goods station. The track and that signal then match the 1914 25" OS map. But that map still has no gantry signal box ...
I was wondering that. There is some detail in the projecting cross-beams that does not match what's there now, and the "gantry" - could it be under the bridge? But there is something with a pitched roof that would need some kind of support. Or so it looks!
Having looked at https://maps.nls.uk/view/103313279 the 25":1mile revised 1914 but not published until 1932, there is a signal box (S.B.) marked towards the south side of the railway lines and slightly closer to Ranalagh Bridge than Westbourne Bridge. There are two small buildings between the tracks on the country side of the latter bridge close to the photo location, but nothing over the tracks.
An earlier map https://maps.nls.uk/view/103313018 published 1869 shows a box close to the south side of Westbourne bridge, but again between the tracks, not over them.
Looking again at the picture, there is a fairly lightweight pair of legs holding up the left-hand end of this building and possibly a staircase going up on the far side? (The support for the right-hand side is hidden by the sentry.) Not enough windows visible either for a signal box on the side facing us, perhaps? The archives of the Great Western Railway Society might hold the answer?
Looking at the SRS Signal Box Register (the original paper one) it seems that most of the boxes open in 1926 were to GWR standard designs. So it could be a decommissioned box, possibility in use for another purpose (Paddington Arrival and Westbourne Bridge fall into this category). Or it was never a box, but it is difficult to see what purpose would justify building and maintaining a structure over the tracks.
Looking again at the photo, the sentry is close to Ranelagh Bridge - our old friend foreshortening strikes again! The signal post behind him is shown in the 1914/32 map, as is the one in front of him which in 1914 was next to a signal box, or at least a cabin. The 1926 and 1932 aerial photos show the box in question on its gantry a bit in front of the bridge, which not apparent in the photo due to foreshortening. And in 1938 it's shrunk to a signal gantry, as shown on the 1954 1:1250 map. The track layout is of course changing all the time, at least in its details (and in ca. 1930 rather more).
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The 1938 fires got a lot of coverage - the December one at Westbourne Bridge SB followed one in November that destroyed the arrivals SB under Bishops Bridge. In both cases traffic was maintained at near normal by hand signalling, and for several weeks, using a team of "groundmen" and what was described as "interlocking by loudspeakers". (See the Bayswater Chronicle 17 February 1939 for what is obviously a piece largely written by GWR.)
The initial reports described the Westbourne Bridge SB as "facing" or "opposite" Royal Oak Station, which was of course in the middle of the formation just east of Lords Bridge. That could fit the site in the photo, though sounds odd when you remember that Ranelagh Bridge was in between. Of course that wording was from GWR's supplied report.
That article says "the Westbourne Bridge box controls the working on the down main line, No. 1 carriage line, and No. 2 carriage line and Ranelagh Bridge (Portchester Road) turn-table depot and the parcels depot."
I found this diagram in the Middleton Press book covering the area. The map shows the layout in use from 1915 to 1929. The building is in the centre and the track layout concurs with the photo.
As usual the forum is a fount of knowledge,thanks for all your replies so far. AH
I found this diagram in the Middleton Press book covering the area. The map shows the layout in use from 1915 to 1929. The building is in the centre and the track layout concurs with the photo.
View attachment 140103
As usual the forum is a fount of knowledge,thanks for all your replies so far. AH
There were five Westbourne Bridge boxes, one being temporary: it was the first box out from Paddington Arrival and Departure boxes. The last of the five was actually opened in January 1939 to replace a box destroyed by fire: it was the same design as Arrival and Departure and very similar to, but not exactly the same as, the ARP boxes. Westbourne Park was, I think, on the Hammersmith & City.
The press descriptions of the emergency signalling after the two fires includes the following:
Losing Westbourne Bridge SB placed extra load on Royal Oak SB, which I presume was the next one outward on the departures side. Loco moves into Ranelagh Bridge depot were also about halved to help out.
Losing Bishops Bridge Road Bridge SB led to hand signalling between Paddington and Subway Junction SB "near Westbourne Park". If this is the next one outward on the arrivals side, that makes it sound much further out, further than the 61 chains marked by Track Maps for the closed Subway Junction SB. (I'm guessing, but was the "subway" the H&C underpass?)
Further marrying up of the box register, signalling diagrams and large scale maps make me think that, if this was a signal box, it was one of the earlier Westbourne Bridge boxes, probably the 1874 one. The next box west on the mainlines was Subway Junction as Royal Oak (on the west end of the station’s island platform, I think) only controlled the Hammersmith & City. Correction to above: there were six Westbourne Bridge boxes.
I found this diagram in the Middleton Press book covering the area. The map shows the layout in use from 1915 to 1929. The building is in the centre and the track layout concurs with the photo.
View attachment 140103
As usual the forum is a fount of knowledge,thanks for all your replies so far. AH
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