Yesterday, Tuesday, 23 April, the Medstead and Four Marks Signal Box on the Watercress Line in Hampshire was officially opened by Lord Kamall.
From 17 September 2021 until 20 September 2022, Lord Kamall was the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Technology, Innovation and Life Sciences at the Department of Health and Social, and from then until 28 October 2022 he was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
The new signal box includes a control panel that meets modern standards without compromising the station's heritage look.
The signalling system was designed and installed by qualified railway signal engineers who are all volunteers on the Watercress Line and was afterwards checked and tested to ensure it complies with Network Rail standards.
During his visit, Lord Kamall was greeted by Rebecca Dalley, the CEO of The Watercress Line and introduced to members of the railway's Signal and Telegraph (S&T) team, who demonstrated the new system.
Lord Kamall also unveiled a plaque commemorating the occasion and congratulated the team for their excellent work and dedication.
The previous box was originally in use at Wilton South, but after being declared redundant, it was moved to Medstead, where it was commissioned on 24 November 1985.
After 40 years of use on the Watercress Line, it had reached the end of its serviceable life and was decommissioned on 5 November 2023.
The new signal box incorporates over 200 relays and approximately 5,000 metres of cables, some of which came from refurbished Network Rail equipment. Testing of the new box was carried out by qualified signalling engineers.
The Watercress Line is always on the lookout for volunteers, and opportunities available can be found by clicking here.
This coming weekend, from Friday, 26 to Sunday, 28 April, the line is holding its Spring Steam Gala where it will be welcoming three guest locomotives, and in May children's favourite Thomas the Tank Engine will be in action.
I was so impressed by the achievement of the highly skilled volunteers working in their spare time. Their passion and dedication to The Watercress Line shone through in the warm welcome I received.
It was fascinating to compare the new electronic signalling with the old lever frame system, and I was privileged to see it in action on board a heritage diesel loco.
Lord Kamall
We were delighted to welcome Lord Kamall to our railway to officially launch the Medstead and Four Marks Signal Box. He was interested to learn about the challenges and the successes of the project.
We are extremely fortunate to have a team of professional signalling engineers working here as volunteers and we value their resourceful skills and expertise on this project.
All the work has been carried out to the railway industry's safety and standards. We sought assistance from Network Rail engineers to ensure a high quality, safe and fully compliant product and everybody is delighted with the result.
Rebecca Dalley, CEO The Watercress Line
Hmm….looking closely at the pictures it seems that this new signal box is actually in a Portakabin. This seems to me to be a real shame, especially when there was already a genuine old signal box on the site that, reportedly, “had reached the end of its useful life”.
It would have been good if the reporter had found out why this old signal box could not have been modernised with new signalling equipment inside it, but retaining all its outside features.
Placing a Portakabin on a heritage railway is really not a good look at all!