Trains are great, however those trains would not move anywhere if it were not for the signalling which controls them. Signalling is vital and has been constantly developing since the inception of the railways. When we think of heritage railways, many of us will think of mechanical semaphore signalling which was typical for the steam era. The next evolution from this was the jump into the electrical era but there was still a reliance on typical signal boxes and their ground frames to combine the mechanical and electrical worlds together. As the electrical era and infrastructure continued to evolve, typical lever controlled signal boxes changed and instead you may find signalling panels such as the one you will see below.
The Swindon Panel is a preserved example of the original western region ‘turn push’ type panel and is owned by the Swindon Panel Society who are based at Didcot Railway Centre. This was absolutely fascinating to visit and the volunteers actively encourage you to ask questions and ‘have a go’ at signalling trains which are controlled by their back end simulator. The panel can perform all the typical things you would expect a mechanical signal-box to achieve such as signal changes, point changes, fail-safes in terms of electrical interlocking, point locking, train positioning etc.
The whole simulator can be programmed to add additional trains but there are also a host of other ‘fun’ features which are possible to be simulated which generally can’t be done on days open to the public, such as track circuit failures, remote control failures and use of overrides.
If you have an interest in signalling, I can’t recommend a visit highly enough. The volunteers are very friendly and only too happy to be grilled and share their knowledge and expertise. A couple of them worked careers as signalmen so I can’t think of better qualified teachers.
