The Signalman/1895 Wellington Bank - Help Sought

[mudlark_c]

Hi all,

I'm producing a dramatisation of Charles Dickens' The Signalman this Christmas, extended to a full 2-act play. As a 25-year railwayman myself (signalling for 16 years) I want the railway ops elements to be as accurate as possible (I'm even taking my actor for a training day on a heritage railway). In staying as true to the original as possible, a number of unspecified details have had to be filled in, and the signal box has been 'plonked' into a fictional "lost" location at the North West portal of Whiteball Tunnel on the former Bristol & Exeter Railway. A document giving a flavour of the lost box is attached.

I'm looking to fill in as much of the railway detail as possible with a full pack of documents which will be tweaked to fit the "lost" signalbox. And so the first thing I'm after any possible help with is the location or sharing of any documents from 1895 or thereabouts relating to the Bristol to Exeter railway. Things like Working Timetables (although I have to try to visit the National Archives at Kew as they reportedly have just that), signalbox instructions, sample train formations, photos of staff of the time - literally anything that will help me build an authentic picture.

I'm also hoping/praying I might be able to purchase, hire or borrow any of the following...

- A four-lever ground frame, or parts to help make one - the levers particularly. (The signalbox is a knee frame due to theatre constraints, so full-size levers with more below than above won't help).
- 2x double-track Block instruments (I think I have access to bells)
- A GWR centre-pivot signal or dimensions for them (my props team could make one if they had the drawings!)

For those interested, the play is at https://www.thedraytonarmstheatre.co.uk/the-signalman.

My huge thanks in hope for any help anyone can give!

James Denny
Signaller Wimbledon & Theatre Chameleon.

 

[John Webb]

The biggest problem I have with this particular story is Dicken's reference to a red light at the tunnel mouth. This seems to be fixed and never changing which to my mind is rather untypical practice!
The well-known TV adaption from the 1970s was filmed on a single line section of the Seven Valley railway with the exterior shots of a mocked-up box and the interior shots in, I recall, Highley box on the same railway.
For your information there is a national tour about to take place - see http://www.middlegroundtheatre.co.uk/Wordpress/the-signalman/

 

[mudlark_c]

The biggest problem I have with this particular story is Dicken's reference to a red light at the tunnel mouth. This seems to be fixed and never changing which to my mind is rather untypical practice!
The well-known TV adaption from the 1970s was filmed on a single line section of the Seven Valley railway with the exterior shots of a mocked-up box and the interior shots in, I recall, Highley box on the same railway.
For your information there is a national tour about to take place - see http://www.middlegroundtheatre.co.uk/Wordpress/the-signalman/

Thanks John. I have replaced the danger light with a worked home signal.

The national tour was unknown to us so that is a useful heads-up.

 

[WesternLancer]

I can’t help with your questions but am impressed by the ambition of this. Good luck with it!

 

[John Webb]

Thanks John. I have replaced the danger light with a worked home signal.

Glad to hear it! Regret we've no spare levers we can lend you as we've started to restore them to work a couple of new signals recently acquired.

 

[mudlark_c]

I can’t help with your questions but am impressed by the ambition of this. Good luck with it!

Thanks!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Aug 2025 ==

Glad to hear it! Regret we've no spare levers we can lend you as we've started to restore them to work a couple of new signals recently acquired.

Thanks for the thought anyway John!

 

[Taunton]

There was a significant accident in 1890 at Norton Fitzwarren, at the foot of the bank. The official report here may give you a range of cues about how the railway there was operated at the time, and even some quaint contemporary expressions, such as locomotives running "funnel in front", or signals being at "all right", apart from the Broad Gauge element, which was abandoned between then and your timeline of 1895.

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_NortonFitzwarren1890.pdf

 

[mudlark_c]

There was a significant accident in 1890 at Norton Fitzwarren, at the foot of the bank. The official report here may give you a range of cues about how the railway there was operated at the time, and even some quaint contemporary expressions, such as locomotives running "funnel in front", or signals being at "all right", apart from the Broad Gauge element, which was abandoned between then and your timeline of 1895.

https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_NortonFitzwarren1890.pdf

Hugely valuable thank you so much

 

[Rescars]

Just a thought, but given your timeline, I wonder if there is any detailed information to be found regarding the working of the B&E either immediately before or after the gauge conversion in May 1892. Did the conversion result in any associated changes to signalling infrastructure or to operating practices I wonder? Details may have been preserved for posterity somewhere to mark the end of the BG era. Didn't the Rev A H Malan take a large number of photos during the period immediately before the conversion? These may show some interesting period details.

 

[Taunton]

One item is that it was long noted that working of vehicles of different gauges together in the same train was prohibited, especially given that the position of the narrow relative to the broad could vary from side to side. Yet here in the report (uncommented) is that a broad gauge pilot loco was assisting a narrow gauge loco and freight train. Which at minimum shows the rules were laxly supervised. In fact one of the significant report conclusions was that the goods train should have been put in a siding instead of across onto the opposite running line. There's no comment, again, on whether the sidings were maybe still broad gauge only. The pilot loco had been sent to a different position to the main train, again no comment on whether this had to be done due to different gauges available.