Westinghouse miniature power lever frame

Streatham Junction signal box with its Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd. Style 'L' Power Lever Frame was opened by British Railways on 12th October 1952 fitted with a 79 lever Westinghouse 'L' frame. It replaced the following boxes, Balham Intermediate, a LBSCR box opened in 1893 fitted with a 16 lever frame; Streatham Common, a LBSCR box opened in 1885 fitted with a 50 lever frame; Streatham North Junction, a LBSCR box opened in 1903 fitted with a 43 lever frame; Streatham Station, a LBSCR box opened in 1885 fitted with a 34 lever frame; and Streatham South Junction, a LBSCR box opened in 1930 fitted with 60 levers.

A panel was installed on 13th April 1969 to control the Tulse Hill area, the frame was taken out of use on 28th June 1981 and the box was closed on 9th August 1981 after 29 years when Victoria Signalling Centre took over the signalling.

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.

Streatham Junction Westinghouse lever frame was closed on 28th June 1981 when a local NX Panel took control, the signalbox was closed on 9th August 1981 when Victoria Signalling Centre became the adjacent box.

Signalbox exterior picture here when available

The 'Odeon' style box is seen here with an apparent all round clear view of the surrounding tracks despite the use of illuminated diagrams and magazine type train describers. The frame is a Westinghouse Style 'L' Power Frame which is all electrically locked. The frame was formed of 6 x 12 way and 1 x 8 way section which making a total of 79 levers, {6x12}+8}-1 = 79 levers, as the last “lever” space is unavailable.20 of these levers worked the points, 43 signal levers operated the coloured light signals, there were 4 special levers and 12 spare levers when the frame was supplied and installed. This made the working lever total of 67.

Streatham Junction looking north before opening in 1955, with its Westinghouse miniature power lever frame.

The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co. Ltd lever frame, with its indicators behind the levers, looking 'North'. 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 each side of the signalling diagram. Emergency bell plungers are provided next to adjacent signal boxes, again mounted on the block shelf. 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 by kind permission of Graham Floyd, © Graham Floyd

Streatham Junction looking south before opening in 1955, with its Westinghouse miniature power lever frame.

This time we are looking South from lever No1, Note the telephone concentrators at each end of the frame at 45 degrees. Also apparent is the BR stand 3 position block instrument working to Tooting signalbox, and adjacent to the diagram at this end is the round Walkers rotary block instrument that worked from Eardley Siding signalbox. Picture by kind permission of Graham Floyd, © Graham Floyd

Tulse Hill NX Panel "Fringed" with Norwood Junction, where there was also an NX panel controlling the Crystal Palace area

Diagrams
Attached is British Railways signal instruction No2 of 1952 notice and signal instruction No2 of 1952 track diagram1 and signal instruction No2 of 1952 track diagram2 and signal instruction No2 of 1952 track diagram3 this can be downloaded in PDF format, this covers the opening of Clapham Junction 'B', Balham & Streatham Junction 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
London Victoria to Victoria (up and down Thro and Local Lines ) Northbound & Southbound
Balham signal box, 1m 843yds to the North, and Thornton Heath box, 2m 322yds to the South, were the adjacent boxes. Streatham Common Shunting Box remained as a ground frame/non block post released by Streatham Junction box.

Balham box was closed on 07/06/1981 when Victoria Signalling Centre became the adjacent box. Thornton Heath box was closed on 19/12/1976 when Gloucester Road Junction box (3m 537yds away) became the adjacent box.

Sutton Line (up and down Portsmouth Lines)
Mitcham Common box, 1m 268yds away, was the adjacent box. Mitcham Common box was closed on 30/09/1962 when Mitcham Junction box (2m 665yds away) became the adjacent box.
When Mitcham Common Level Crossing - block post was closed the new box was to become Eastfield Road Level crossing - a non block post with an NX Panel using Track circuit block working.

Wimbledon Line (up and down Wimbledon Lines)
Tooting box, 1m 210yds, was the adjacent box. Tooting box was closed on 27/11/1966 and Haydons Road box (2m 513yds away) became the adjacent box. Haydons Road box was closed on 29/03/1967 and Wimbledon "A" box (3m 100yds away) became the adjacent box.

London Bridge Line (up and down Tulse Hill Lines)
Tulse Hill box, 0m 1175yds away, was the adjacent box. Tulse Hill box was closed on 13/04/1969 when a panel was installed in Streatham Junction box and Bricklayers Arms Junction became the adjacent box.

Boxes Replaced
The Streatham Junction power signalling scheme displaced ? mechanical signalboxes and this was typical of the power installation of the times.

Mechanical Signalbox displaced		Power signalbox
Balham Intermediate	16 levers
Streatham North Junction	43 levers	69 working levers
Streatham Common	50 levers
Streatham Station	34 levers
Streatham South Junction	60 levers
Total	203 Levers	79 Levers

The serial number of this frame was L123 and was ordered in October 1949..