Warmley station used to be a small station on the Mangotsfield and Bath branch line. The station closed in 1966 due to the Beeching cuts but the station survives to this day as a café, serving refreshments to those who travel along the old railway route. The route has been converted to a cycle trail which goes all the way from Bath to Bristol and is very popular in the warmer weather with cyclists. Just across the road, you will find Warmley Signal Box. The box opened in 1918 to control a level crossing where the railway crossed the London Road (A420). After Warmley station was closed in 1966, the signal box remained in operation for just one shift a day to signal goods trains to and from Bath Midland Bridge goods depot. In 1968, the box was no longer used to signal trains but was simply used as a crossing box to operate the level crossing gates. In December of that year however, the line was singled and the signal box was closed for the last time.
The box passed into preservation after this point and it is through the work of this small group of volunteers, the signal box has been carefully restored with a working lever frame.
The volunteers in the box are only too happy to give talks and demonstrations of how the box would operate. They have recently refreshed their instrument shelf as well which looks fantastic.
Somewhere you don’t particularly get to see at these preserved sites is inside the main ground frame section of the signal box, but the volunteers today were more than happy to take us down and give a lecture on mechanical interlocking in real-time which was fascinating. The box itself is only open on select weekends so I recommend checking in advance before heading down there but it’s well worth a visit if you have an interest in signalling.
