Farewell Billingshurst Signal Box 1876-2014

A completely different subject today! A rather sad day really with a much liked colleague in the department leaving and a lot of tears and then Unravelled told me that today our Signal Box is being removed tonight for road widening and modernisation of the signalling at our station. The box will be preserved (I think it is Grade II listed).

The railway through our village was opened in October 1859 from Horsham to Petworth via Pulborough. This Signal Box was one of the oldest in operation on the UK non-preserved railway network. For the railway minded, it was built for the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway by their Signal Engineers, Saxby & Farmer and is referred to as a Saxby & Farmer Type 1b. The lever frame which operated the semaphore signals, the points and shunting signals had 19 levers. It also once contained a gate wheel to open and close the level crossing gates. In 1978, when I was 12 (showing my age!!), a pair of co-acting signals on the down platform were replaced by a single 3 aspect colour light (BT2) and full lifting barriers were installed operated from the box. The box remained in use for so long to operate these barriers which will now be replaced by longer ones as the road is widened and all signalling controlled from elsewhere. A new colour light has been installed and it's number is prefixed by a T which I think means that it is controlled from Three Bridges Signalling Centre well over 20 miles away. Back in 1978 I actually had the chance to turn the gatewheel and to pull off one of the signals and that has remained a special memory to this day.

Hopefully this fine box will enjoy a long and happy retirement.