The trigger point for this collection is the 1921 Railways Act. That may surprise you but, faced with the inevitable, many railway companies began to prepare for transition from independence to a new life as part of one of the “Big Four” railway companies. The preparations included setting out the current state of the operational railway with drawings and, in many cases, updated operating publications. Among the preparations made by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) were numbered layout sketches for every signal box.

A number of railway managers and staff kept copies of these and referred to them during the course of their working life. One set kept by Mr. J. Bridger certainly survived. A copy of this set is held in our archives and John Wagstaff redrew them in a larger form. John’s versions are the basis of volumes 1 to 4 of this series. John added some additional drawings from the Southern Railway period and made a few corrections as well.

The precise validity date of the drawings is uncertain but are believed to be generally correct to 1920 to 1922 period.

A fifth volume covering the Isle of Wight has been added to the series. The drawings in this volume were collected by John over a thirty year period, many from visiting the signal boxes concerned, and the entire island is covered. The drawings in this volume are variously dated from 1922 to the 1960s and quite a few include locking tables as well.

A combined index of all the locations in the series can be downloaded from our main web site entirely free of charge.