Westinghouse miniature power lever frame

East Croydon signal box was used as a relay room from 20-21th April 1954 and was opened as a signal box by British Railways on 8th May 1955. It was built to the British Railways Southern Region Type 15 design and was fitted with a 103 lever Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. Style 'L' Power Lever Frame number 139.

Southern Region Resignalling of the London to Brighton Line which occurred between 1950 to 1955 which aimed to abolish all the semaphore signalling from the south end of the London Bridge scheme and also from just outside of Victoria which met at Windmill Bridge Junction (latterly known as Gloucester Road Junction) north of Croydon, and continued to Coulsdon. The objective was to removing the Sykes Lock and Block working and replacing it with track circuiting and colour light signalling. The whole scheme cost £2 million pounds and involved 11 new signalboxes having a combined total of 841 levers, replacing 32 manual signalboxes with a total of 1,515 full sized levers.

Phase four (the final phase) of this scheme commissioned East Croydon signalbox on the 8th May 1955 at the same time as South Croydon and Purley. East Croydon continued in use for 28 years until its operation was take over the Three Bridges Signalling scheme on April 7th 1984. The box was usually double manned by two signalmen.

East Croydon signal box taken arond 1990's, with its Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame photograph.

Here is a picture of East Croydon taken on 23rd June 1990 while in use as an office. Note some of the windows have been bricked up. East Croydon's was not of the an 'Odeon' style used in adjacent installations. The left hand end single story was the Signal & Telegraph depot, centre section downstairs was the relay room, right hand end single story was the S&T stores and Battery Room. Picture above by kind permission of David Ingham, © David A Ingham

The frame is a Westinghouse Style 'L' Power Frame which is all electrically locked. The frame was formed of 8 x 12 way and 1 x 8 way section which making a total of 103 levers, {8x12}+8}-1 = 103 levers, as the last “lever” space is unavailable. 27 of these levers worked the points, 65 signal levers operated the coloured light signals, and 11 spare levers when the frame was supplied and installed. This made the working lever total of 92.

East Croydon signal box internior taken in 1950's, with its Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame county end

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. Emergency bell plungers are provided next to adjacent signal boxes, again mounted on the block shelf. Telephone concentrators are provided at each end of the frame at 45 degrees. The desk for train recording is situated in the immediate front area.

East Croydon signal box internior taken in 1950's, with its Westinghouse Brake and Signal Co. Ltd miniature power lever frame London end.

Picture above by kind permission of Patrick Payne, © P K Payne. Patrick once rejoiced in the grand title of "Relief Box-Boy Central Section", based at Three Bridges. He spent most of his time between Redhill B and Keymer Junction but was sent in slack times to other boxes to learn, like Horsham and East Croydon. Patrick can't remember exactly when this was taken, but it is around 1967-8 In this view the Booking desk is also visible. The staircase is at the far end of the picture behind lever 1.

Gloucester Road Junction, Norwood Junction & East Croydon basic track diagram

The complex track layout is shown above, with Norwood Junction, Selhurst & East Croydon clearly visible. East Croydon signalbox was located at the London End of the station adjacent the 'East' {Croydon Station) word on the map. Picture from the Railway Magazine, reproduced by kind permission of Middleton Press, from their Victoria to East Croydon book in the Southern mainlines series published in 1987 ISBN 0906520401

Reversible Line
From the 1st June 1958, the down relief line. between Windmill Bridge junction at Gloucester Road and South Croydon was signalled as 'Reversible' line, any down train could travel over the line as before. However Up direction Oxted line trains only could now run in the UP direction. This was done to reduce the number of Up direction train movements onto the up main line, which in effect cut the two main line tracks for the duration of the movement. East Croydon had overall control of the Reversible line and its signals, East Croydon releasing the signals at both Gloucester Road Junction and South Croydon. Trains could also enter or leave the Reversible line at East Croydon if so desired.

Diagrams
Attached is British Railways signal instruction No1 of 1955 notice and signal instruction No1 of 1955 track diagram1, this can be downloaded in PDF format, this covers the opening of Norwood Junction, and Gloucester Road signal boxes. 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
Brighton Line to London Victoria & London Bridge (Main, Local & Relief Lines ) Northbound
To the North, Gloucester Road Junction signal box (1353yds away) was the adjacent signal box.

Brighton Line to London Victoria & London Bridge (Main, Local & Relief Lines ) Southbound
To the South, South Croydon signal box (1207yds away on the Through lines, and 1236yds away on the Local lines) was the adjacent box.

There were 5 line south and north of the station, the Up Local, Down Local, Up Main, Down Main & Relief line which became the 'Reversible' line in 1958

Boxes Replaced
This signal box replaced the following former London, Brighton & South Coast Railway signal boxes. East Croydon North, a Saxby & Farmer Limited Type 5 design opened in 1896 fitted with a 84 lever frame. And East Croydon South, a Saxby & Farmer Limited Type 5 design opened in 1897 fitted with a 84 lever frame.

Mechanical Signalbox displaced		Power signalbox	It can be seen that there is a decrease in lever numbers by around 25%, which amounted to a saving in manpower, operational and hardware costs.
North signal box	84 levers	92 working levers
South signal box	84 levers

Total	168 Levers	92 Levers

The serial number of this frame was L139 and was ordered in May 1953