The Locking Room Floor & Lead-Out Bench – Part 1

To provide suitable support for the locking room floor and lead-out bench, our signalling engineers required three pairs of rails, suitably spaced across the width of the ‘box, to be cemented into sockets cut into the rear wall and to project forward across the locking room floor, through a prepared aperture in the front wall, to the trackside. These rails will provide a rigid base for the heavy floor timbers required to take the weight of the various rods, cranks etc.. emanating from the lever frame on the floor above.


As the internal walls will be plastered, we have chosen to build the locking room using concrete blocks which will not be visible in the finished ‘box. These will be faced with stone externally using material which has been sourced locally and carefully matched to the original building. Additional solid block pillars either side will carry the steel beams that will, in turn, support the lever frame. With the floor supports described above in place, construction of the walls and pillars has just commenced. In addition, rails to act as lintels have been fitted in the front wall to form the access slot for the lead-out bench.


Finally, as an aside, whilst studying the signal box site, two of the team members, Tim & Matt, noticed that the ground in front of the ‘box sounded slightly ‘hollow’ underfoot. A test dig revealed wood a couple of inches below the surface. This would seem to be the original lead-out bench, or at least a wooden bench in the position of the lead-out bench!


The level of this is significantly lower than the track, but the more recent concrete benches still in situ that the team keep coming across suggest that the track was at a similar level to the present. It must also be remembered, of course, that when the site was acquired for preservation in 1997, the area concerned was covered with some approx. 7,500 tons of contaminated waste, so we cannot be absolutely sure that we are back at the previous track level.


It will be very interesting to see what other clues are uncovered as work progresses.

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