Here are a few photos from an operational signal box with a traditional lever frame. Ketton signal box is on the Birmingham to Peterborough line, next to a level crossing, which it controls together with a crossover and a track into a cement factory:
Ketton signal box, August 2013
Ketton signal box, August 2013
Ketton signal box, August 2013
The most interesting feature of the Ketton signal box is a lower quadrant semaphore in a tight curve. Because of that curve, it is placed on the wrong side of the track, namely next to the right track, although of course it controls train movements on the left track!
Semaphore, Ketton, August 2013
Here is a train coming from the west. One can see that the signal is high enough so that it can be seen from a train on the left track even if there is another train on the right track:
Semaphore, Ketton, August 2013
Ketton signal box, August 2013
A short time later, another train is going in the opposite direction—unfortunately, I did not catch it at the signal:
Semaphore, Ketton, August 2013
Level crossing, Ketton, August 2013
Ketton, August 2013
And here are a few photos of the frame in the signal box. Almost all operational levers (but not the white spares) have shortened handles to indicate that they work electrically controlled devices. The one exception is the lever for the semaphore which can be seen right after the row of spares:
Ketton signal box, August 2013
This is, as far as I know, the control stand for the barriers:
Ketton signal box, August 2013
The blue lever that is reversed here unlocks a ground frame for points leading into the large Ketton cement works—obviously, a train is shunting there, but I had forgotten to take a photo when it had rumbled by a few minutes earlier:
Ketton signal box, August 2013
Here is the block shelf with the track diagram:
Ketton signal box, August 2013
And here is a final shot of the tranquil surroundings of the level crossing:
Ketton level crossing, August 2013
My father Sydney Ernest Chappell (dec) was the signalman in control of this box for most of the 50s and 60s.
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