Preston and Manchester Piccadilly Train Describers

[MadMac]

Something sticks in my mind that a while back, there was mention on here that there was a signal box which basically only continued to exist because the train describers at Preston and MP couldn’t actually communicate with one another and the box only passed descriptions between the two. Anyone recall this?

 

[Elecman]

That’s was Blackrod Box.may also apply to Bromley Cross

 

[MadMac]

That’s was Blackrod Box.may also apply to Bromley Cross

Thanks! I evidently didn’t imagine it

 

[takno]

Something sticks in my mind that a while back, there was mention on here that there was a signal box which basically only continued to exist because the train describers at Preston and MP couldn’t actually communicate with one another and the box only passed descriptions between the two. Anyone recall this?

https://old.signalbox.org/gallery/lm/bromleycross.php suggests that this is the case for Bromley Cross. Looking at the feed data from there it does look like it's still there, with the respective signals being reported in the feeds from Preston and Piccadilly in the typical format you see for manual boxes in the North-West.

 

[Lucy1501]

https://old.signalbox.org/gallery/lm/bromleycross.php suggests that this is the case for Bromley Cross. Looking at the feed data from there it does look like it's still there, with the respective signals being reported in the feeds from Preston and Piccadilly in the typical format you see for manual boxes in the North-West.

Bromley Cross is now a gate box supervising the foot crossing as it is deemed high risk. It holds slots over the signals protecting the crossing. The train describer issue was fixed quite a few years ago - modern technology easily resolves the issue.

 

[takno]

Bromley Cross is now a gate box supervising the foot crossing as it is deemed high risk. It holds slots over the signals protecting the crossing. The train describer issue was fixed quite a few years ago - modern technology easily resolves the issue.

Not surprised the issue doesn't exist anymore - presumably it should have been easily resolvable by the 80s. While the Northern part of LNW region seems to have largely resisted the onset of post 1970's, technology you'd assume it would have been sorted at some point.

None of the describer data at any of Piccadilly's fringes is particularly clean - it all looks like a hotch-potch of different ad-hoc solutions, so I can see how it would at one point have been easier to leave a manual signal box in the middle at some of them.

 

[driver9000]

Fixed in March 2013 and Blackrod Junction box was demolished on 2 June that year.