Railway Signal Box

SJ 42 SW BASCHURCH STATION ROAD, B4397 (South East side) 1585/15/10008 Railway Signal Box 20.04.1999

GV II

Signal box and adjacent signal. 1880 for the Great Western Railway, contractors Mackenzie and Holland (type 3) refitted 1911. Red brick, timber frame and weatherboard, Welsh slate roof. Brick locking room with two arched windows with small paned cast iron frames. Horizontal boarding above with continuous glazing to the front with seven windows, each with six panes, two windows slide. One gable end has a timber stair (the lower flight removed) with a gabled porch, beside this are three windows, one of which slides; the other gable has four windows with two sliding. Bargeboards to the gables, the entrance one retains its spike finial. The rear wall is part brick where the chimney was and one window. The interior no longer contains the 25 lever locking frame which dated from 1911 or the large gate wheel. Baschurch signal box stands on the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway which opened in 1848. The line was taken over by the Great Western Railway in 1854 and it was this company which ordered the present signal box, which is a Mackenzie and Holland type 3. This type was current from the 1870's until they were taken over by Westinghouse in 1921 and was supplied to more than twenty railway companies. Adjacent to the box is the level crossing with automatic gates. Opposite is the old crossing keeper's house while the listed former station and pumphouse are also closely adjacent and the signal box has strong group value with them. Reference: The Signalling Study Group, the Signal Box A Pictorial History and Guide to Designs, OPC, 1986, pps 91-3, plate 127. Michael A. Vanns, Signalboxes, Ian Allen, 1997, p 18, plate 23.

Listing NGR: SJ4294622705