Nunthorpe Signal Box

Railway signal box, 1903, by and for the North Eastern Railway. Type C2b design of 1899.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in English Garden Wall bond with timber porch and steps to the upper operating floor; Welsh slate roof.

EXTERIOR: two-storey, two-bay signal box orientated parallel to the tracks to the north eastern side. The roof is hipped with small gablets fitted with ventilation louvers. The upper, operating room was continuously glazed to the front and gable ends; however two sections to the front were boarded over when the windows were replaced with double glazed units in circa 2011. The modern windows replicate the glazing pattern of the originals and appear to replicate the horizontal sliding sashes to the front and gables. The space between the top of these windows and the open eaves is filled by diagonally set timber boarding. This boarding and the principal timber framing to the windows (which is chamfered) is considered to be original. The rear of the signal box is completely brick built and has one (replacement) window giving a view of the road approaching the crossing. The operating room is accessed via a timber porch to the south-eastern gable and is an original part of the structure rather than a later addition. This has a hipped roof extending from the main roof and is reached by a dog-legged flight of timber steps. Below the porch is the door to the ground-floor locking room. The two windows to the locking room (which used to overlook the tracks) have been bricked up. The signal box retains its external balconies designed to facilitate the cleaning of the operating room windows. These are in the form of simple planked walkways supported on iron brackets which extend upwards to support iron handrails.

INTERIOR: the signal box retains a Westinghouse frame of 16 levers in addition to a ship's wheel style mechanism for opening the level crossing gates by hand. It also retains a Tyer and Co electrical mechanical block instrument.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 17 March 2022 to update text