This is the eighth of a small series of articles in which I will discuss items that I have either purchased or just seen when visiting antique establishments in Hungerford and elsewhere.
Aldermaston Signal Box
Apart from the actual trains themselves what has also appeared to have vanished from our railway network in the last few years?
Signal Boxes
Indeed, there is only one in operation on the Berks & Hants line between Reading and Taunton, or so I am led to believe. They were very common place up to a few years ago, but as the signalling became automated the need for signal boxes decreased dramatically. We used to have one or two here at Hungerford but they are all gone (one of these boxes was actually demolished during a derailment in 1971). I rather like signal boxes as there is something timeless about them. A kettle always on the stove and the hollow sound of the bells warning of trains and the window boxes full of flowers. Small gardens could also be found. These boxes would be manned by railwaymen who had been on the railways for over twenty-five years and knew the line like the rooms of their house. But whilst I have painted a nostalgic rose tinted picture of signal boxes and the signalmen their job was vitally important.
If an error was made in the box then this could have serious consequences and because of this the shelves in these signal boxes were full of small books noting the companies rules and regulations and working practices as well as other railway related publications. Ignore them at your peril. One has only to read about the Quintinshill disaster in 1915 and the Radstock crash in 1876 (to name but two) to see that sloppy working practices and the general ignorance of company instructions could lead to a significant loss of life.
Why am I writing about signal boxes you might ask? Well, the answer is that I recently picked up a copy of the British Railways Regulations for Train Signalling and Signalmen’s General Instructionsdating from October 1972. As you can imagine it is full of the general working practices associated with signalling from the details of Bell Signals on page 4 to the disciplines required for Royal Trains on page 166. It was the signalman’s bible and as you would expect, has extra inserts for practices such as single line working added. I have read some of the detail in my small soft back copy and I can assure you that it is rather heavy going even if you are interested in the railways. Apart from a general interest in railway ephemera, another reason why I picked the book up was that it at some time belonged to the signal box in nearby Aldermaston. It was nice to think that this small piece of railway history would have sat in the box whilst trains to and from the West Country roared by.
The book would have been a witness to the general life in the signal box which I find very interesting as it has all but disappeared. I rather like Aldermaston and the station itself. It is located not far from the A4 and only a stones throw from the wharf.
As was the practice in Victorian times, it’s location is some distance from the actual village but it would have been very busy at the time of the CND marches some fifty years ago (and I would imagine might have shown up on some of the newsreels at the time). The station which was opened in 1847 had for many years rather attractive chalet style buildings (similar to those that have been retained at Mortimer on the Basingstoke line). Like most stations, it had a goods yard (which closed in 1965) and unlike other local stations, traces of this facility can still be seen. The actual station buildings were demolished without any thought probably during the 1960s/1970s and the result is the rather scruffy station that can be seen today. Quite why British Railways engaged in this wanton destruction on this line is open to question, but in a short space of time, we lost some really lovely buildings between Reading and Bedwyn.
As I have noted, the now rare buildings at nearby Mortimer have thankfully survived and the next station towards Basingstoke (Bramley) has also retained its railway buildings. Recently, there has been some activity at Aldermaston with the replacement of the weakened A340 road bridge taking place at the Reading end of the station. The construction of this new bridge has actually truncated the goods siding on the Newbury platform which is still prominent today.
As far as I can see, the signal box at Aldermaston where my little book lived, would have been the replacement box of 1920. But, I cannot say with any certainty when the box was removed but I would imagine that it was roughly at the same time as the nearby Midgham signal box. It was obviously there in 1972 but for how long it survived after this is unclear.
This said there are a number of excellent railway books on the market and the dates of the Aldermaston box should be easy to find. The station is a little spartan but has an agreeable atmosphere and the Kennet & Avon is nearby. I was there last summer waiting for Caron and found the experience quite rewarding especially as the temperature was in the eighties. Little did I know then that I would soon own a small piece of history from Aldermaston’s long lost signal box which had once proudly served this quiet little station.
Whilst researching this short article, I came across some interesting information about Midgham Railway Station and its signal box as I found out that this station had appeared in a WW2 training film for American soldiers called How to Behave in Britain. It was shot in 1943 and can be found on You Tube with the station making its short debut some twenty-two minutes in. I have watched the whole thing and apart from being quite haunting, (the past is anothercountry) it is a valuable social record of the wartime years.
If you have the opportunity to visit either of these stations then do so and I can assure that there are some decent pubs nearby.
If an error was made in the box then this could have serious consequences and because of this the shelves in these signal boxes were full of small books noting the companies rules and regulations and working practices as well as other railway related publications. Ignore them at your peril. One has only to read about the Quintinshill disaster in 1915 and the Radstock crash in 1876 (to name but two) to see that sloppy working practices and the general ignorance of company instructions could lead to a significant loss of life.
As I have noted, the now rare buildings at nearby Mortimer have thankfully survived and the next station towards Basingstoke (Bramley) has also retained its railway buildings. Recently, there has been some activity at Aldermaston with the replacement of the weakened A340 road bridge taking place at the Reading end of the station. The construction of this new bridge has actually truncated the goods siding on the Newbury platform which is still prominent today.