Weekday Cross Junction Signal Box Track Diagram
I visited this box on 30 August 1966. I visited 3 boxes that day, see my "boxes visited" log.
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/51603033999/in/album-...
A drawing of the 1949 layout is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52622957241/in/album-...
There are some pencilled additions to my diagram - not quite sure where they came from !!
The pencilled Down Starter gantry was removed before 1936 - the Down Starter would logically have been lever 8 but Ken Grainger's book shows it as 5 which might be wrong as 5 could have been the Down GN distant. Also 5, as a Down Starter, would have caused an out of sequence lever pulling order from GN line. HOWEVER we are entering into the unknown because when the GN's London Road High Level signal box closed circa 1930 it's possible that previously the Down GN Distant was 1, Down GN home 2 with Down GC Distant and Home 3 & 4 as later, which would mean that Down Starter as 5 would be correct ???
The full block section TC "T1" was installed after a slow speed rear end collision in foggy weather into the rear stationary portion of a divided train on 20 January 1955 - this would suggest that the other low number TCs were installed at the same time - higher numbered TCs are GC & GN numbers.
A Ministry of Transport report into that accident can be seen here www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=989.
Paragraph 41 of the report suggests that a TC should be provided on the Down Line between Arkwright Street & Weekday Cross.
Paragraph 42 of the report highlights the benefit of colour light signals, which can be seen very much better than semaphore signals in fog. I don't know the date when the Down Distant no. 3 was changed out for a colour light but a 1957 photo shows the Arkwright Street Down Starter still as a semaphore (with WCJ distant below), it was on right hand side of line.
The report does also highlight the importance of checking the tail lamp as the train passes - particularly when loose coupled trains were running, as was the case on the GC with the Annesley to Woodford "Runners". In this case the train went past six signal boxes before it was reported as incomplete!
Another interesting aspect of WCJ box is one where we might speculate - a 1960s photo by Alan Bullimore shows a "Distant Indicator" positioned behind the distant lever no 3, seen here
www.flickr.com/photos/llangollen_signalman/30044694671/in....
I believe that the Indicator was for Nottingham Vic South's Down Distant (under WCJ no. 4) and that, under fog and falling snow conditions, the Signalman at WCJ was instructed not to pull his distant no. 3 until the Distant Indicator showed that NVS's distant was off. In the accident report there is no mention of this Indicator so I believe the Indicator was fitted sometime after the accident.
A 1950s diagram for Arkwright Street box is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52623391425/in/album-...
The Up Homes 27/30 became colour light during the late 1950s.
15 March 1899 - Box opened (GC line had opened earlier I believe - 26 July 1898).
London Road High Level box closed circa 1930 - this probably resulted in some renumbering of signals on the Down GN line (see above).
5 September 1966 - the Great Central London Extension closed south of Rugby, leaving a minimal DMU service between Nottingham Victoria and Rugby Central.
2 September 1967 - after the last train Nottingham Victoria station and boxes closed, Arkwright Street station reopened as a terminus for the Rugby trains. All trains used the Up platform only. Arkwright Street Signal Box had previously been closed/permanently switched out sometime in 1965. It reopened in August 1967 with a new layout. A 1967 diagram of Weekday Cross is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52619054703/in/album-...
26 May 1968 - All lines north of the north portal of Victoria Street tunnel closed - Down Main became a reversing line, Up GC slewed and connected to Down GN - see diagram here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52618056892/in/album-...
and another here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52619054708/in/album-...
Stanton Works traffic diverted via the Midland line.
3 May 1969, last day of the Rugby Central DMUs.
4 January 1970 - Box closed, 9 became hand points and whole line singled both ways using Down GN and Down GC - OTW staff from Nottingham Goods Yard to East Leake. This served the sidings at Ruddington MOD depot, Hotchley Hill and East Leake.
A drawing of the 1970 layout for Arkwright Street box at closure on 4 January 1970 is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52620749326/in/album-...
8 April 1974 - Line closed. A new chord line opened at Loughborough for the remaining freight traffic and the Great Central north of Ruddington was taken out of use.
My photo taken inside the box is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52618075882/in/album-...
There are photos courtesy of the Charles Weightman and Alan Bullimore Collection, part of the excellent "Tillyweb" website. tillyweb.biz/index.htm The photos can be seen here:
1) External view tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjunc1.jpg
2) External view tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjunc2.jpg
3) Signal Box Frame tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjuncfrm.jpg
4) Signal Box Track Diagram tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjuncdiag.jpg
Other photo links are here:
1) A colour view inside the box, certainly what I would have seen in 1966 www.flickr.com/photos/90214143@N04/52089502053/in/datepos...
2) 1967 - View of box with GN/GC junction www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/30570258403/in/photol...
3) 1967 - View of box with Lace Market area behind www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/31738195267/in/photol...
4) 1967 - View of box from underneath, showing the GC & GN www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/30570257733/in/photol...
5) 1967 - View of box from Middle Hill steps www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/31233614722/in/photol...
6) 1969 view of box & junction, nameboard gone, signal 7 removed www.flickr.com/photos/70023venus2009/8132190198
7) 1976 view, box gone, track lifted www.flickr.com/photos/davidhayes/11628889665
8) 2006 view looking towards Victoria Street tunnel www.flickr.com/photos/gwoodward/3264946024
9) 2010 view looking towards where the Victoria Street tunnel was seen in photo 8) www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/4430820985
10) 2016 view towards the Lace Market area with tram - compare with photo 2) www.flickr.com/photos/66202473@N04/24990890391/
There's a Nottingham Evening Post article "13 pictures of Weekday Cross in the days when steam trains thundered through Nottingham"
www.nottinghampost.com/news/history/gallery/13-pictures-w...
The Sectional Appendix pages are here
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52138265901/in/photos...
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/51646413973/in/datepo...
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52556345335/in/album-...
The quite accurate location of the box was 457489 (Easting) 339555 (Northing), seen here on the NLS maps maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.0&lat=5...
A more detailed 25 inch to the mile map is here maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.0&lat=5...
Weekday Cross Junction Signal Box Track Diagram
I visited this box on 30 August 1966. I visited 3 boxes that day, see my "boxes visited" log.
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/51603033999/in/album-...
A drawing of the 1949 layout is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52622957241/in/album-...
There are some pencilled additions to my diagram - not quite sure where they came from !!
The pencilled Down Starter gantry was removed before 1936 - the Down Starter would logically have been lever 8 but Ken Grainger's book shows it as 5 which might be wrong as 5 could have been the Down GN distant. Also 5, as a Down Starter, would have caused an out of sequence lever pulling order from GN line. HOWEVER we are entering into the unknown because when the GN's London Road High Level signal box closed circa 1930 it's possible that previously the Down GN Distant was 1, Down GN home 2 with Down GC Distant and Home 3 & 4 as later, which would mean that Down Starter as 5 would be correct ???
The full block section TC "T1" was installed after a slow speed rear end collision in foggy weather into the rear stationary portion of a divided train on 20 January 1955 - this would suggest that the other low number TCs were installed at the same time - higher numbered TCs are GC & GN numbers.
A Ministry of Transport report into that accident can be seen here www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=989.
Paragraph 41 of the report suggests that a TC should be provided on the Down Line between Arkwright Street & Weekday Cross.
Paragraph 42 of the report highlights the benefit of colour light signals, which can be seen very much better than semaphore signals in fog. I don't know the date when the Down Distant no. 3 was changed out for a colour light but a 1957 photo shows the Arkwright Street Down Starter still as a semaphore (with WCJ distant below), it was on right hand side of line.
The report does also highlight the importance of checking the tail lamp as the train passes - particularly when loose coupled trains were running, as was the case on the GC with the Annesley to Woodford "Runners". In this case the train went past six signal boxes before it was reported as incomplete!
Another interesting aspect of WCJ box is one where we might speculate - a 1960s photo by Alan Bullimore shows a "Distant Indicator" positioned behind the distant lever no 3, seen here
www.flickr.com/photos/llangollen_signalman/30044694671/in....
I believe that the Indicator was for Nottingham Vic South's Down Distant (under WCJ no. 4) and that, under fog and falling snow conditions, the Signalman at WCJ was instructed not to pull his distant no. 3 until the Distant Indicator showed that NVS's distant was off. In the accident report there is no mention of this Indicator so I believe the Indicator was fitted sometime after the accident.
A 1950s diagram for Arkwright Street box is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52623391425/in/album-...
The Up Homes 27/30 became colour light during the late 1950s.
15 March 1899 - Box opened (GC line had opened earlier I believe - 26 July 1898).
London Road High Level box closed circa 1930 - this probably resulted in some renumbering of signals on the Down GN line (see above).
5 September 1966 - the Great Central London Extension closed south of Rugby, leaving a minimal DMU service between Nottingham Victoria and Rugby Central.
2 September 1967 - after the last train Nottingham Victoria station and boxes closed, Arkwright Street station reopened as a terminus for the Rugby trains. All trains used the Up platform only. Arkwright Street Signal Box had previously been closed/permanently switched out sometime in 1965. It reopened in August 1967 with a new layout. A 1967 diagram of Weekday Cross is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52619054703/in/album-...
26 May 1968 - All lines north of the north portal of Victoria Street tunnel closed - Down Main became a reversing line, Up GC slewed and connected to Down GN - see diagram here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52618056892/in/album-...
and another here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52619054708/in/album-...
Stanton Works traffic diverted via the Midland line.
3 May 1969, last day of the Rugby Central DMUs.
4 January 1970 - Box closed, 9 became hand points and whole line singled both ways using Down GN and Down GC - OTW staff from Nottingham Goods Yard to East Leake. This served the sidings at Ruddington MOD depot, Hotchley Hill and East Leake.
A drawing of the 1970 layout for Arkwright Street box at closure on 4 January 1970 is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52620749326/in/album-...
8 April 1974 - Line closed. A new chord line opened at Loughborough for the remaining freight traffic and the Great Central north of Ruddington was taken out of use.
My photo taken inside the box is here www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52618075882/in/album-...
There are photos courtesy of the Charles Weightman and Alan Bullimore Collection, part of the excellent "Tillyweb" website. tillyweb.biz/index.htm The photos can be seen here:
1) External view tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjunc1.jpg
2) External view tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjunc2.jpg
3) Signal Box Frame tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjuncfrm.jpg
4) Signal Box Track Diagram tillyweb.biz/abcw/weekdaycrossjuncdiag.jpg
Other photo links are here:
1) A colour view inside the box, certainly what I would have seen in 1966 www.flickr.com/photos/90214143@N04/52089502053/in/datepos...
2) 1967 - View of box with GN/GC junction www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/30570258403/in/photol...
3) 1967 - View of box with Lace Market area behind www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/31738195267/in/photol...
4) 1967 - View of box from underneath, showing the GC & GN www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/30570257733/in/photol...
5) 1967 - View of box from Middle Hill steps www.flickr.com/photos/108977492@N02/31233614722/in/photol...
6) 1969 view of box & junction, nameboard gone, signal 7 removed www.flickr.com/photos/70023venus2009/8132190198
7) 1976 view, box gone, track lifted www.flickr.com/photos/davidhayes/11628889665
8) 2006 view looking towards Victoria Street tunnel www.flickr.com/photos/gwoodward/3264946024
9) 2010 view looking towards where the Victoria Street tunnel was seen in photo 8) www.flickr.com/photos/loose_grip_99/4430820985
10) 2016 view towards the Lace Market area with tram - compare with photo 2) www.flickr.com/photos/66202473@N04/24990890391/
There's a Nottingham Evening Post article "13 pictures of Weekday Cross in the days when steam trains thundered through Nottingham"
www.nottinghampost.com/news/history/gallery/13-pictures-w...
The Sectional Appendix pages are here
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52138265901/in/photos...
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/51646413973/in/datepo...
www.flickr.com/photos/192151030@N08/52556345335/in/album-...
The quite accurate location of the box was 457489 (Easting) 339555 (Northing), seen here on the NLS maps maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.0&lat=5...
A more detailed 25 inch to the mile map is here maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=16.0&lat=5...