From Planes to Trains and Signal Box Names

Arthur Hague

One day last year a dilapidated signal box sign appeared in one of our containers, you know the ones, long, slim, black lettering on a white background. Not seen much nowadays as the signals are usually controlled from a control centre and signal boxes are few and far between. It appeared to me that no one wanted the job of recovering it so yours truly decided to give it a go. The sign read PARKGATE JUNCTION (a junction a couple of miles away) and the letters P C O were painted on and one of the A's had the bottom of it's leg missing. There was splits in the wood and in parts no wood at all.

The first job was to remove the letters. Surprisingly easy once you found the screw holes under layers and layers of paint, but the surprise was that they were all made of cast iron. The only way to remove the paint was by mechanical de scaling it was so thick. Mechanical being a cross pane hammer wielded hard enough to chip the paint off but gentle enough not to break the metal. Awkward corners were reached with a triangular file and finally a sand blasting cabinet got them nice and ready for painting.

Next, how to replace the missing letters. I decided on using medium density fibre board (MDF for short). Let's face it, no one was likely to know the difference once they were painted and in position. So the A became the template for another A, the R minus it's front lag became a P and the G became a C and an O. Being as all the letters were chamfered (presumably so once cast removal from the mould was easier) I drew the required shapes out on a scrap piece of MDF, set the required angle on my jig saw and cut away. OK, OK some of you bright sparks reading this will be having a laugh. The method only works if the letters are rotatable about their horizontal or vertical axis and P is not one of them. It came out AAF. No, that's not the Australian Air Force or Aircraft Apprentice Fitter, it ends in about face. Know what I mean? Start again and this time cut it straight and put the chamfer on afterwards. I did have the honesty to take the first P up to the park to show the lads and give them a laugh.

The next task was the board itself but word had got round and Ian No1 (I'll tell you all about names in another issue) kindly brought in his book on railway signs and signals which on page 45 stated all the requirements and specifications of signal box name boards.

The board should be made of red deal 9? wide by 1½? thick painted black with a beading 2? x ¾? painted white. Letters made of cast iron 6?x 3¾? x 13/32? deep painted white. Length of board to be such that the name begins 4? from one end of the board and ends 4? from the other. This meant that that my board should be 94? long, allowing 1½? between letters. Guess what? It measured 108?.As the saying goes, there's something cock-eyed somewhere.

Nil Desperandum, get the heat lamp, a scraper, and the cross pane hammer in action and clean up the board. And guess what? The cock-eyed revealed itself. This was not the original board for Parkgate Junction but was what was left of a much longer board because one could make out the letters RTING SIDINGS NORTH. OK, answers on a postcard please, where did this board originate? I'll give you a clue; I estimate that originally this board was between 12 and 13 foot long (no, if you want it in metric work it out yourself) Metric hadn't been heard of when this board was made. It was about 1927 when these boards were standardised.

From here it was a case of filling in all the holes and cracks on it with plastic wood and getting it in a fit state to accept primer and paint. Letters were also primed and painted and the whole lot put together using 1¼? csk No 12 wood screws as per specification. Spacing between the letters was increased so as to make the whole thing look OK. Next problem was where and how do we display it. We don't have a signal box and it was quite heavy so brackets screwed into the back was not an option, as the screws would soon pull out. Problem solved by shaping a couple of brackets to fit the railings of our station, the brackets having extended feet so that they took the weight of the board.
Hopefully the board will be appearing on our web site shortly (www. rdmes.co.uk) Give it a try and in the meantime take care.

Oh, and I was serious about the postcards. We don't have a clue where it originated.

.