Petersfield Signal Box

Petersfield Signal Box

This is a London & South Western Railway Type 3a signal box dating to around 1885. Modern alterations and additions from the 1970s onwards are not of special interest.

The building is a rectangular two-storey structure with a hipped Welsh slate roof decorated with a fretted timber valance. The ground floor is constructed of red brick piers and panels in Flemish bond, built on a brick plinth. The operating floor above is timber-framed. The main and rear elevations have two brick panels each, while the end walls have single panels. The rear elevation above the locking room is clad with uPVC weather boarding, as are sections of timber panelling and a modern extension containing a signalman's closet, which is finished in white uPVC.

Access to the upper operating room is via timber stairs and a landing on the north-east elevation, both supported by timber posts. The stairs are protected by a steel security gate. The landing has handrails supported by posts with cruciform rails and is sheltered by a glazed timber porch with uPVC weather boarding and a mono-pitch Welsh slate roof.

The operating room oversails the south-east wall of the locking room, supported on a row of timber brackets. Nine 3 by 4-pane uPVC windows divided by timber uprights occupy the main elevation, with three identical windows in the south-west elevation and two 3 by 3-pane windows in the north-east elevation, with plain uPVC panels below. A 3-pane toplight sits above each window, though these are partially obscured by the fretted timber valances. Late 20th-century Petersfield name boards are mounted on the south-east and south-west elevations. The roof has leaded ridges and original cast-iron rainwater goods. The section over the south-east elevation is clad with roofing felt and breaks slope to accommodate the oversailing structure.

Inside, the operating room is entered through an uPVC three-panel door with glazed upper panels from the porch. The room contains a ten-lever Stevens (Railway Signalling Co.) frame dating from the 1880s, positioned beneath a blockshelf with block instruments, repeaters, closed-circuit television screens and a 1974 track circuit diagram. This is supplemented by a modern computer display on a desk against the rear wall. A modern control box for the adjacent level crossing's lifting barriers is situated at the south-western end of the operating room. The timber frame and rear timber wall are painted, and a suspended ceiling with fluorescent lighting has been inserted.

The locking room houses the mechanical locking frame, carried on a raised timber beam running the full length of the room. Late 20th-century electrical equipment is attached to the rear and south-west walls. Two blocked window spaces with segmental brick arches are visible internally in the south-east wall, though they do not appear externally.