Railway signal boxes granted Grade II listed

[Still Waters]

Twenty-six of the "rarest" signal boxes in England have been granted Grade II listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey said interest in trains and railways was one of the country's "most endearing and enduring national preoccupations".

The joint venture, between English Heritage and Network Rail, is part of a 30-year plan to modernise the railways.

http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-23451290

[stevewinn]

great idea.

[Walter White]

Brilliant idea, when I were a lad young working in a signal box was my dream job, still is to be fair.

Some of them are beautiful.

One of my favourite jokes...

Tom is applying for a job as a signalman for the local railroad, and is told to meet the inspector at the signal box.

The inspector decides to give Tom a pop quiz, asking, "What would you do if you realized that two trains were heading towards each other on the same track?"

Tom says, "I would switch one train to another track."

"What if the lever broke?" asks the inspector.

"I'd run down to the tracks and use the manual lever," answers Tom.

"What if that had been struck by lightning?" challenges the inspector.

"Then," Tom continues, "I'd run back up here and use the phone to call the next signal box."

"What if the phone was busy?"

"In that case," Tom argues, "I'd run to the street level and use the public phone near the station".

"What if that had been vandalized?"

"Oh, well," says Tom, "in that case I'd run into town and get my Uncle Leo."

This puzzles the inspector, so he asks, "Why would you do that?"

"Because he's never seen a train crash."

[MyInnerShadow]

I'm glad of this, some of them are very nice looking, and even quaint. When more and more of our country is being covered by shoebox housing estates, and retail parks it's important to preserve what we can of our heritage, and the steam railways and so on played a very big role in our industrial past.