It is now possible to order your tickets for the Family Day at the South Devon Railway, including signalling tour and signal box visits, online!

Visit the Ticket Page on HOPS to book yours now!

Full details of the event – here.

Have you got your ticket yet….?

The ‘expressions of interest’ period for the Society Family Day at the South Devon Railway has now ended. Demand has not outstripped supply (there are over 60 seats on the train!), so everyone who has expressed interest may have a place. Details of how to confirm your place are on their way to you by email from Natalie and Mark, and also on this website here.

Tickets will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis from now on. If the performance of our other events is anything to go by, they may well sell out relatively quickly! See the above link for how to book.

The Society Family Day is open to everyone – all SPS members, families, friends, followers, and complete strangers. We have exclusive use of the SDR Bubble Car for the day, and will be visiting all the signal boxes on the line. There is also an evening fish and chips add-on.

Full details on the website.

Saturday 5th July saw another excellent visit to a WR signalling panel – this time at Bristol. Like Swindon Panel, Bristol is a Western Region “turn-push” type panel.

Two groups enjoyed an informative and well-organised session in the panel building.

After the necessary safety briefing, the first hour was spent on the operating floor, where we were taken through the whole area covered by the panels – starting at Bridgwater, through Weston-super-Mare, Bristol Temple Meads and Bath on the main panel, then Filton, Bristol Parkway and finishing in Charfield and Badminton on the Stoke panel, which is physically separate. The various features of the locations were explained, what traffic was involved and which moves were possible. We had ample opportunity to photograph the installation and to talk to several of the duty staff who shared there excellent local knowledge about their routines and daily moves, including “tricks of the trade”; where, and where not, to regulate freight trains for example.

While we were in the operating room a late running FGW local service was routed onto the reversible line Up Charfield between Yate and Westerleigh to allow a CrossCountry fast service to pass on the Down Charfield. This is a fairly unusual move and it was a great bonus to see something of this nature while in the box. We also saw a track machine being authorised to pass a signal at danger to enter a possession. It was a really enjoyable morning gaining a close-up view of this panel and its functions.

We then adjourned to the relay room, where we were treated to Tony Cotterell’s excellent explanations of the complicated world of interlocking. We were taken through the four stages of interlocking operation – Selection, Locking, Aspect and Release – and showing us the various relays which carried out these functions. This gave us a comprehensive insight into the 1970’s interlocking technology and of the more recent updates and fault analysis systems.

Our third session was held in the room housing the training simulator. The simulator is of a fictional area designed to put signallers through their paces, and is of a different, more modern design to the panels at Bristol and Swindon. It was great fun to operate! We were able to learn how to set up and cancel routes and carry out safety procedures. Danny kept us on our toes with useful hints on how best to plan the various moves. We ended up spending over an hour comprehensively mucking everything up, all for the purposes of signalling education, of course!

All in all this was a fantastic day out with some great people – we learnt a lot, and had a huge amount of fun at the same time!

Thanks from all of us to Network Rail and the signallers on duty for accommodating our visit.

(Merged from two reports by John Hill and Tim Squires)

Thank you to everyone who came to Didcot Railway Centre today, it was great to see so many people there.

We enjoyed a visit to the two signal boxes of the Railway Centre – Frome Mineral Junction and Radstock North, followed by the Society AGM.

Tom, Roger, Brian and Danny all gave their speeches about the various aspects of the project and progress so far, and a discussion session was held after the meeting where many people suggested and developed ideas, particularly on the theme of the presentation and interpretation of the the interlocking aspects of MAS.

We had a meeting at Didcot on Friday (11 April) to discuss the many arrangements required to be made for our forthcoming move.
Final agreements have been reached on access arrangements to the site, provision of services, insurance arrangements etc. We are very grateful to Didcot Railway Centre for the help and support they have given us and we look forward to working together in future in the setting-up and running of the Panel.

We then hosted a visit to Banbury North and South boxes on Saturday (12 April). 20 members enjoyed a very informative tour of the signal boxes, both of which are due to close in the next few years.

Several members have posted their photos of the day:

Photographs by “Llangollen Signalman”:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/llangollen_signalman/sets/72157643853412823/

As well as on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/swindonpanel

Thank you very much to all who attended and if you would like to put up any photos of the day on Facebook or email them to us then please feel free to do so. Thanks also to the signallers in the boxes for putting up with us!

We attended the “Once in a Blue Moon” event at Didcot Railway Centre this weekend with our stand. The event was well-attended and we were particularly pleased to have a presence at our future home site.

The event was hosted to celebrate the coming-together of three steam locomotives in BR express passenger blue livery – King Edward II, Tornado and Sir Nigel Gresley.

Lots of visitors, both from within the Great Western Society and outside were very interested in what we were doing, which is very encouraging. We hope to build some stronger links between our organisation and the GWS volunteers in the near future; watch this space!

Thanks to everyone who came from far and wide on 15 March to our talk and visit to Swindon Panel.

We managed to Squeeze in 31 visitors in two groups during the day with much photographing and talking and seemingly a good time was had by all.

Additionally thanks to the NR staff in the panel for putting up with us and also to all who signed up and/ or donated. The non-stop loco hauled special was a nice little bonus too.

If you have any photos you would like to share of the day then please feel free to post them on our FB page.

We will displaying at MODRAIL in Swindon this coming Saturday 8th March. This is in Swindon STEAM Museum between 10am and 4.30pm.

http://www.modrail.org.uk/modrail-2014

If you’re in the area, why not come and visit us? Be sure to introduce yourself so we can put a face to a name. Visitors to the model show can also get a discounted ticked to visit the Steam Museum which well worth a walk round. The Steam Museum is easy to find driving to Swindon by following the brown tourist road signs, or is an easy walk from Swindon station (approx 10 minutes) (link to route below).

Or if you have an hour or two to spare why not come and help us on the stand? There are no special skills required, we just chat to visitors and give them Swindon Panel leaflets to take away. It’s amazing some of the stories of involvement with signalling in the Swindon area people seem to have, which we are especially looking forward to as this event is in Swindon itself. Let us know if you can help 🙂

We look forward to seeing you there!!

Walking route from Swindon Station

We displayed our stand at Newbury Model Railway show this weekend. Thank you to everyone who came and chatted to us.

Lots of leaflets and information was given out, which we hope will spread the word a bit more.