Westinghouse miniature power lever frame

Battersea Park Junction signal box with its Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. Style 'L' Power Lever Frame was opened by the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1906. It was built to the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway Type 3b design and opened fitted with 23 lever Sykes Electro mechanical frame (numbered 1-23) and 51 power slides (numbered 24-74). Battersea Pier Jc was renamed Battersea Pier 'A' in February 1925. The Sykes frame was replaced by a 31 lever Westinghouse 'L' frame (frame number 83) on 16th October 1938, when the Southern Railways decided to resignalling London Victoria station and its surrounding area. 8th March 1959 was the date that automatic colour light signalling was implemented on the South London lines.

This signalbox continued in use for 41 years until its operation was take over the Victoria Signalling scheme on 7th October 1979. The signalbox controlled the divergence of the South London Line to London Bridge just ½ mile south of Grovesnor Bridge over the River Thames.

Battersea Park Junction exterior view of County side of the signal box on its gantry over the main railway track, this signal box contained a Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame.

The signal box is seen here looking towards Victoria on the 4th May 1961. Picture copyright © British Rail, reproduced by kind permission of Middleton Press, from their Victoria to East Croydon book in the Southern Mainlines series published in 1987 ISBN 0906520401

Battersea Park Junction exterior view of the London side of the signal box on its raised gantry over the main railway track, this signal box contained a Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame.

The other side of the signalbox looking towards Clapham Junction. The branch line know locally as the South London line is on the far left towards Factory Junction. By 1960 automatic signalling was in place between Battersea Park Junction and adjacent box at Denmark Hill The Local line runs under the signalbox and the Main lines is on the far right of the picture. Picture copyright © www.transport-of-delight.com, reproduced by kind permission of Transport of Delight owner John Bradhshaw.

The frame is a Westinghouse Style 'L' Power Frame which is all electrically locked. The frame was formed of 2 x 12 way and 1 x 8 way section which making a total of 31 levers, {{2x12}+8}-1 = 31 as the last “lever” space is unavailable. 7 of these levers worked the points, 21 signal levers operated the coloured light signals, and 3 spare levers when the frame was supplied and installed. This made the working lever total of 27. The 3 spare levers became four spare levers as soon as Victoria Central opened because when the frame opened there was two slots one for the carriage line (16) and one a slot on Battersea Pier Junctions home on the down local line (31) it was this which subsequently became spare.

Battersea Park Junction signal box internior taken in 1970's, with its Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame.

The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd lever frame, with its indicators behind the levers, the 4 glass roundels showed the signal aspect, being Red, Yellow, Green & 2nd Yellow reading from bottom to top. The train describers sending boxes are fitted on top of the frame box whilst the receiving train describer units are housed between the signalling diagrams. The top indicator behind the signal lever is the "F" light and this became lit when the lever was normal, all points in the route correctly detected and all relevant track circuits clear. You could pull the lever at any time provided that the locking was correct but the signal would not clear unless the "F" light was lit before the lever was pulled. Picture above by kind permission of © Graham Floyd

track diagram picture here

Apart from the train describer to and from London Bridge which is the modern thing on top of the frame, the signal box only had one train describer transmitter and that was for the up Local line to Victoria so that the South London traffic could be described to Victoria Central signalbox..

Diagrams
Attached is Southern Railway signal instruction 45 notice and signal instruction 45 track diagram this can be downloaded in PDF format, this covers the opening of Battersea Park signal box. These diagram(s) are taken from the website of the Signalling Record Society Research Note37. These images are copyright of the Signalling Record Society, and reproduced by permission.

Please be aware that these files are large and can take a while to download depending on your internet providers line speed. typically file sizes between 300-500K each

You will need a PDF viewer to read PDF file, if you don't have it its free to download

Adjacent boxes
Local and Through lines (southwards)
Pouparts Junction, 1468yds away, was the adjacent box. Pouparts Junction box was closed on 12/10/1952 when the new Clapham Junction "B" box (1m 599yds) became the adjacent box. This lasted until Battersea Park Junction was closed.

Local and Through lines (northwards)
Battersea Pier Junction, 534yds away, was the adjacent box. Battersea Pier "A" (re-named from Battersea Pier Junction by 03/1928) box was closed on 04/06/1939 when the new Victoria Central box (1670yds) became the adjacent box. This lasted until Battersea Park Junction was closed.

South London line
Factory Junction, 999yds away, was the adjacent box. Factory Junction box was closed on 25/01/1953 and replaced by a new structure (943yds away from Battersea Park Junction). By 1960 automatic signalling was in place between Battersea Park Junction and adjacent box was at Denmark Hill (3m 260yds away) (the alteration may have taken place on 08/03/1959 when colour light signalling installed between Factory Junction and Herne Hill).
Denmark Hill box was closed on 16/12/1962 and Peckham Rye "C" (3m 1354yds away) became the adjacent box. Peckham Rye "C" box was closed on 13/04/1969 when the box was replaced by a panel installed in Bricklayers Arms Junction. Bricklayers Arms Junction box was closed on 20/07/1975 and the signalling was taken over by London Bridge PSB.

Boxes Replaced
The Battersea Park power signalling scheme displaced 2 mechanical signalboxes and this was typical of the power installation of the times.

Mechanical Signalbox displaced		Power signalbox
Grosvenor Road 'A'	(34 levers+slides)	31 working levers
Total	34 + Levers	31 Levers

The serial number of this frame was L83 and was ordered in December 1937

Battersea Park Lever Frame is now preserved at the privately operated Stevington and Turvey Light Railway in Bedfordshire, the signalbox is called Needham - please note that this line is NOT open to the public.