Signalling at Hampton Court Junction
Pictures are all taken during 2016.
Hampton Court Junction signal box allows us to see the whole railway on the track diagram above the 96 levers, and we control the layout in conjunction with Angel Road and Willowbank signal boxes.
There is only one spare lever in the frame which is lever 96, currently we have a few white quadrants at the start of the frame as these have yet to be re-painted.
Signal box diagram - Double click on diagram above get a detailed zoom able diagram in a new window.
The signal box is was commissioned on Sunday 6th April 2014. There are still a few additions to be progress this year to make the signaling communication with adjacent signal boxes easier to manage. A vote of thanks to Graham Floyd who was our Professional independent signal system tester .
This HCJ signalling project has taken just under 6 years to complete (excluding the building) and is a major piece of work in its own right, and relies totally on volunteer labour.
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge help from several different railways for spare parts, Bluebell Railway, Beckenscot Model Village Acton Miniature Railway, London Transport Museum, Isle of Wight Steam Railway and the Royal Victoria Railway as well as other numerous individuals. Thank you to everybody for help to make this project happen.
Historical
North Kent East signal box was installed in 1929. This pictures shows the frame in the early years. The track diagram is clearly seen behind the lever frame. Behind the miniature levers are the point and signal indications and above them are the Walkers rotary train describers for each route. The sending units are on top of the frame the receiving units are located each side of the track diagram. At this time the signals lenses from the bottom up, were originally Y, R, YY, G. Picture from the Railway Engineer, reproduced by kind permission of Middleton Press
White City lever frame is pictured on the left courtesy of John Cottrell, this show the signal box in its last years of use, this was a 48 lever frame, we now have 36 levers, the other 12 levers were retained by London Transport for their use either at a museum or training schoolThe track diagram is clearly seen above the lever frame.
North Kent East A more detailed view of the lever frame taken in later years, maybe around the 1960's of North Kent East when the more modern electric light style train describers have replaced the majority of the walkers rotary train describers above the levers. The illuminated 'N' and 'R' indicate the points as either being Normal or Reverse, the 4 glass roundels showed the signal aspect, being Red, Yellow, Green & 2nd Yellow. The train describers are fitted on top of the frame box, with the Sykes Block instrument and its bell plungers followed by the Walkers Rotary Train describer to Bricklayers Arms Junction.