Maidstone West Signal Box

DATE: the signal box was opened in 1899 for the Maidstone to Paddock Wood Branch line of the South Eastern Railway which had opened on 25 September 1844. It was built to the design of the contractors Evans, O'Donnell & Company.

MATERIALS: the locking floor and operating floor are of timber construction, clad in weatherboarding but are raised over a narrower base of yellow brick and are supported on iron brackets. The gabled roof is clad in corrugated asbestos (this covering is not of special interest).

PLAN: 10-bay operating room over locking room, both storeys oversailing a tall but narrower plinth, with a 3-flight staircase at the north-east end.

EXTERIOR: the north-west side facing the track has 10 horizontal-sliding sash windows (with one vertical glazing bar and one horizontal glazing bar) to the operating room, an iron access balcony supported on iron brackets and the locking room has two pairs of 8-pane windows. The north-east end has carved bargeboards with a scalloped pattern with circular cutouts and pendants, a small window in the gables and three sliding sash windows to the operating room. Access into the signal box is by three flights of steel steps (not of special interest) at the north-east end with two intermediate landings on an X -braced steel framework. The south-west end has plainer bargeboards with a pendant, a small window in the gable and three sliding sash windows. The south-east elevation has two paired windows with vertical glazing bars and single horizontal bars to the operating room and two paired shorter eight-pane windows to the locking room.

INTERIOR: the operating room retains the original 1899 Evans, O'Donnell and Company 115 lever frame and block instruments including commutators and bells. There is a C20 suspended ceiling and a toilet has been inserted into the north-western bay (neither are of special interest). The locking room retains the lower mechanism of the lever frame.