Jumpstart the Junction!

Kirkby Stephen East is a unique and atmospheric heritage railway station, steeped in the rich history of northern England’s railways. Once a vital junction on the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway, the station is now being lovingly restored by a dedicated team of volunteers and enthusiasts. Central to this restoration is the revival of its historic signalling infrastructure - an ambitious project that brings the past to life and ensures the station can once again function as an operational hub for heritage trains. 

This multi-phase endeavour begins with the faithful reconstruction of an extraordinary survivor from the early days of railway signalling...

Phase 1 – Rebuilding the S&DR Signal Box

Kirkby Stephen East had no fewer than three signal boxes throughout its working life! Since taking over the site and redeveloping the trackwork, the need for signalling has become a priority - even going so far as to reinstate the two tall timbers needed for the iconic signal gantry back in 2018.

We're now rebuilding the entire signalling system from the ground up. At the centre of it all is the rebuilding of the original Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) signal box, dating from 1861.

Supported by a grant of £213,108 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), volunteers and contractors have been delivering ‘West Side Story – the forgotten history of the S&DR in Cumberland, Westmorland & Furness’. A key part of this has been recreating the 1861 S&DR signal box. As far as we can establish, this will be the oldest working signal box in the world.

Phase 2 – The Next Stage: Rebuilding the Junction Signal Box

As we expected, the remarkable progress on the 1861 signal box and the wider signalling project has prompted many people to ask about our plans for the Junction signal box. Its reconstruction would superbly finish the station layout and complement the fantastic 1861 signal box.

However, unlike the 1861 structure, no grant funding is available for this phase, so we need to fund it ourselves. Thankfully, its brick construction should make for a simpler project than the complex stone build of the S&DR signal box. Nonetheless, fundraising must begin now to make this a reality.

We envisage a two-stage project:

  1. Construction of the box itself, which will restore the pre-1962 look to the station.

  2. Fitting out, including installation of the lever frame to return it to full operation.

Due to other commitments, construction won’t begin until the second half of 2026, but we hope a successful 2025 fundraising year will enable us to start stage one.

As with the S&DR signal box and the NER signals, we will continue with our very successful signalling blog, allowing supporters to follow progress regularly.

After the Junction signal box?
We propose to recreate the signal gantry and complete the appropriate mix of NER Central & Northern Division signalling. Together, both signal boxes will then control all operational movements within the confines of the station.

Please Join Our 'Jumpstart the Junction' Appeal

Help Rebuild the Junction Signal Box

KIRKBY STEPHEN EAST

'Jumpstart the Junction' Appeal

How Can I Help?

We need to raise:

  • £90,000 for Stage One: Rebuild the box

  • £30,000 for Stage Two: Fit out the box and return it to operation

Our ‘Jumpstart the Junction’ fundraising appeal invites you to donate via several supporter tiers:

GOLD – £1,000

  • Personalised brick in the box

  • “I’m Backing the Box” mug

  • Certificate

  • Roll of Honour

  • Invite to the signal box opening

SILVER – £500

  • “I’m Backing the Box” mug

  • Certificate

  • Roll of Honour

  • Invite to the signal box opening

BRONZE – £250

  • “I’m Backing the Box” mug

  • Certificate

  • Roll of Honour

Ways to Donate

BY DONATION FORM
Please print and enclose a donation with the form below.


BY BANK TRANSFER (BACS)
Account Name: Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust

Sort Code: 51-70-15
Account Number: 78581257
Reference: JTJ / [Your Surname]

Please complete and return the donation form for Gift Aid.

BY STANDING ORDER
Download the form below:
👉 Standing Order Form Download
Return it to the Trust. We’ll forward it to your bank. This method helps ensure regular income and enables us to plan ahead.

Please also return the donation form for Gift Aid.

BY CHEQUE
Make payable to:
Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust
Send with completed donation form to:
c/o Manor Cottage, 1 West End, Sedgefield, Stockton-on-Tees, TS21 2BW

Subject to your consent, Gift Aid will be claimed through the Locomotive Conservation & Learning Trust, enhancing your donation by 25%. All project labour is provided by volunteers free of charge.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Big One

Image
We’ve just had a very busy 4 days, in conjunction with track modifications and with great support from Lampitt Rail Services. In that time, we have successfully planted 5 signal posts, dismantled a crossover and moved the components to their new locations, ready for reinstatement. Lots more has gone on at the same time, in the background, that will appear in future posts. This entry looks at the signal post planting… Teamwork with the spoons: making adjustments to the hole for No.4 signal Still more to dig out ... Battling the ground foe the fixed stop signal Trying to get the last bits out of the bottom Swallowed by the ground, or the mole returning home? (Don't worry - this was posed!) Well, you can’t plant a post without preparing the ground for it first. So the Moles of Kirkby Stephen were at it again! The locations for the posts and the depths of the holes depended upon a fair few factors, such as visibility of the signals, distances from the track and pointwork they are prote...
Read more

Fitting The NER Lever Frame

Image
Hello all! Today we're going to show how the unique North Eastern Railway Central Division level frame recovered from Pesspool Junction will be fitted into the S&DR signal box.  The 1861 box at the end of it's life. Note the additional window to the locking room, seen on the left hand wall in this picture. This is the operating floor plan showing aperture for frame and *indicative* joist locations to accommodate this. Dimensions: Apologies: all dimensions used here are imperial as the equipment and building itself looks to have been designed and built using these. They also work out very nicely! Front to back, the surviving box structure measures 10’ inside the walls. This has been used in this plan, and is assumed to be correct. The aperture for the frame to sit is drawn here as being 6” from the front wall. This is our datum, from which the other measurements are derived. This can be adjusted plus or minus 2”, but will then shuffle the rest of the aperture across. If it...
Read more

Welsh Slate

Image
We have at last managed to get 4 coats of paint onto the fascia boarding of the signalbox and the attendant woodwork, leaving us free to commence slating the roof at last. We were keen to create a period look and therefore opted to use reclaimed welsh slates some of which I would guess have already seen many years of service, but were still good for many more. In the past as you will recall that rain has, on many occasions, brought work to a frustrating standstill and created havoc with work we thought was complete. That being said, slating is one job you can carry on with rain or not and so we did on Tuesday, ignoring the showers, getting wet, and revelling at being able to stick two fingers up at the weather. It is not going to improve much at this time of year so I suppose we will get several more soakings before the roof is watertight but I will tell you about them in due course.   
Read more