Annan: Why did the box stay?

[MadMac]

I thought we had covered this some time back, but I can’t find any reference to it.

When Annan-Gretna Junction was redoubled, a new panel went into Dumfries box to control both that section and the existing Dumfries area (I think Dumfries South may have closed at the same time). However, Annan box survived in between two sections controlled from Dumfries. What was the reason?

 

[Railsigns]

The re-doubling scheme was originally designed with the new signalling controlled from Carlisle through a new relay room at Eastriggs. Annan would remain as the fringe box to Carlisle panel, and the NR route boundary was to be relocated several miles further from Gretna Junction to coincide with the proposed signalling control boundary (as on the WCML). It was later decided that the Eastriggs interlocking would be controlled from a new panel in Dumfries Station box, but apart from a few minor alterations to accommodate this change (mainly a renumbering exercise), the scheme would otherwise be implemented as already designed.

No doubt there was a view that Annan box would close in due course and the two separate areas controlled from Dumfries would be united, but fifteen years on this still hasn't happened.

Dumfries South signal box closed in 1997, about ten years before the re-doubling. I designed the scheme plans for both projects.