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Banbury North

Banbury North Signal Box was a Great Western type 7 building constructed in 1899 to house an 88 lever frame. As an indication of expansion of facilities at Banbury at that time, its predecessor had just 17 levers! The lever frame seen in the videos, however, is a Great Western VT5 example with 95 levers that was commissioned on 12 October 1956. The signal box was decommissioned on 30 July 2016 and demolished on 26 March 2017 after a series of public visits had taken place.

Two films have been made available courtesy of both Derek Young (who produced them) and Network Rail who facilitated the making of the videos and granted access for the visits.

The first video records the normal working of the signal box just three days before it closed as an operational signal box and the second was recorded during one of the public visits. If no signaller or retiring signaller was available for one of the public visits, this second video was shown instead.

Scroll down as necessary to view both videos.

The geographic location of the signal box can be seen on a current OS Map. The map will place this location at the centre of the map panel, roll the mouse over the icon(s) to reveal what they represent. Increase the scale using the scale selector on the left to separate closely positioned icons.

These videos are intended for viewing at a maximum screen resolution of 1920 pixels wide by 1080 pixels high. Please be aware that viewing at a larger size may result in a loss of clarity and a 'grainy' appearance.

1. Normal Operation Before Closure

2. Learning How It Worked

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Video Credits (Part 1)

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2. Public Visits After Closure

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Video Credits

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Key Chronology

1850	Great Western Railway opened a broad gauge line from Oxford including Banbury station.
1850	Buckinghamshire Railway opened a standard gauge line from Bletchley to Oxford Road (just north of Oxford) with a branch to Banbury. The line was worked by the London & North Western Railway.
1852	Great Western Railway extended northwards to Birmingham.
1864	Jointly owned connection between the two lines opened for goods traffic transfer.
1869	Great Western line converted from broad to standard gauge.
1879	Buckinghamshire Railway absorbed by the London & North Western Railway.
1880	First Banbury 'A' (at north end of station) and 'B' (at south end) signal boxes opened.
1886/1887	Station renamed Banbury Bridge Street.
1899	Second set of Banbury signal boxes opened as replacements to handle the much expanding facilities.
1900	Great Central Railway opened a branch to Banbury from their London extension line.
1908	Banbury South signal box replaced.
1923	Banbury remained a frontier town, now between the Great Western, London & North Eastern and London Midland & Scottish Railway companies.
1950	Station renamed Banbury General.
1961	Station renamed Banbury.
1963	London & North Western route to Banbury closed but Merton Street remained in use for goods traffic.
1966	Merton Street and connecting line closed.
1966	Great Central route to Banbury closed.
2016	Banbury North & South signal boxes closed. New signalling provided, controlled from West Midlands Signalling Control Centre in Birmingham.
2017	Banbury North signal box demolished.

 

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Can you help?

The project would love to hear from you, especially if you worked or still work in a signal box, and you are willing to provide reminiscences and / or pictures. Please contact the webmaster in the first instance.

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