Crosfields Crossing 4
Crosfields Crossing box viewed from the pipe bridge above the crossing.
A LNW type 4 box built early in the last century it has survived in excess of one hundred years but has now signalled it’s last train.
Here the signaller was busying himself tidying the box.
The roof of Bank Quay station can be spotted in the distance but the foreground is dominated by the Crosfields plant after which the box is named, now owned by Lever Brothers I’m lead to believe the ageing and sprawling industrial site produces soap powder but I stand to be corrected.
Times are a changing at Warrington.
Over a distance of just 68 chains (0.85 of a mile) from Arpley Junction to Monks Sidings four signal boxes controlled trains on the Low Level line from Arpley Junction to Ditton East Junction.
Four absolute block boxes, Arpley Junction, Crosfields Crossing, Littons Mill and Monks Siding provided a taste of railways of old. Leaving Arpley Junction the line passes under the WCML and Warrington Bank Quay station before emerging surrounded by industry in the midst of Lever Brothers massive soap powder works. Crosfields Crossing is just 726 yards from Arpley but then only a further 220 yards, an eighth of a mile no less, is Littons Mill, another crossing box, a further 550 yards beyond that is Monks Crossing, again a crossing box and once access to a former British Steel works site.
This short section of track is to be re-signalled and this is actually happening this week. The new signalling will utilise track circuit block between Arpley Junction and Littons Mill using axle counters.
This is a series of photos aimed at recording the signalling of this section of track which has now passed into history.
Crosfields Crossing 4
Crosfields Crossing box viewed from the pipe bridge above the crossing.
A LNW type 4 box built early in the last century it has survived in excess of one hundred years but has now signalled it’s last train.
Here the signaller was busying himself tidying the box.
The roof of Bank Quay station can be spotted in the distance but the foreground is dominated by the Crosfields plant after which the box is named, now owned by Lever Brothers I’m lead to believe the ageing and sprawling industrial site produces soap powder but I stand to be corrected.
Times are a changing at Warrington.
Over a distance of just 68 chains (0.85 of a mile) from Arpley Junction to Monks Sidings four signal boxes controlled trains on the Low Level line from Arpley Junction to Ditton East Junction.
Four absolute block boxes, Arpley Junction, Crosfields Crossing, Littons Mill and Monks Siding provided a taste of railways of old. Leaving Arpley Junction the line passes under the WCML and Warrington Bank Quay station before emerging surrounded by industry in the midst of Lever Brothers massive soap powder works. Crosfields Crossing is just 726 yards from Arpley but then only a further 220 yards, an eighth of a mile no less, is Littons Mill, another crossing box, a further 550 yards beyond that is Monks Crossing, again a crossing box and once access to a former British Steel works site.
This short section of track is to be re-signalled and this is actually happening this week. The new signalling will utilise track circuit block between Arpley Junction and Littons Mill using axle counters.
This is a series of photos aimed at recording the signalling of this section of track which has now passed into history.