Signals at Droitwich Spa

August 84

Droitwich Spa is the junction north of Worcester where a branch to Stoke Works Junction south of Bromsgrove on the main Birmingham-Bristol line diverges (right) from the former Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton line (left). Nowadays, both routes lead principally to Birmingham, the latter via Kidderminster and Stourbridge Junction.
The sidings on the extreme left and to the right of the main lines have since been removed (the down goods loop still remains).
I have now added some recent photos plus a hyperlinked track diagram which enables you to navigate quickly to photos of particular signals.

The view towards the junction from the next overbridge on the Kidderminster line.

This superb splitting centre-pivot signal still survives at the end of the down platform. The left-hand arm leads to the down goods loop.

In the opposite direction, towards Worcester, is the up advanced starter. The original down outerhome is just visible in the distance here. That one was abolished in the 1980s to remove the need to check trains at it when the road wasn't clear ahead. It didn't offer any advantage in letting the signaller clear the rear section any sooner because that can't be done under Absolute Block regulations until the tail lamp of the arriving train has been seen.

A face-on view of the signalbox.

Further along the Kidderminster line, the down advanced starter and the entrance to the up goods loop can be seen...

... and even further out are the up main homes.

The up main distant is also a semaphore.

21-24/8/07

23 years later, very little had changed apart from the removal of the sidings and the down outerhome mentioned above.

The signals have been numberplated, but the centre-pivot bracket looks as well maintained as ever.
The disc on the right would have been further back towards the station platform when the up sidings were still there.

The up advanced starter, and the view towards Worcester.

The nameplate from the front of the signal box has gone missing, and it's had its windows modernised.

A closer view of the junction signal.

The up starter is another signal positioned to the right of the running lines - this dates from steam days, when GWR engines were driven from the right. As a result, the ground discs in front of it both apply to lines to the right of the one the main signal controls.
In the background a train can be seen in the platform, awaiting line clear from Worcester Tunnel Junction.

The down starter on the Bromsgrove branch is a colour light, because the single line to Stoke Works is worked by Track Circuit Block to Gloucester SC.

The rear view of the signalbox - at least the nameplate on this side is still there.

The up branch innerhome, with the signalbox in the background.

The exit from the up goods loop. Note the crossing has been temporarily plain-lined - this is normally done as an interim repair if a problem or incident that affects the points occurs.
The main signal here is the intermediate home - this is the second of five stop signals Droitwich has on the up main (see diagram).

Exit from down loop, and down main starter

The exit from the down goods loop. The down main starter can be seen shortly beyond, and in the background are the two signals shown in the photo above.

The up main innerhome - this is the signal immediately preceding the junction.

View through junction towards Kidderminster

A closer view through the junction towards Kidderminster. The rear of the signal photographed above can be seen just beyond the signalbox, and the two pairs of loop exit signals further round to the left.
Note the catchpoint in the down main line just beyond the junction as the line is on a rising gradient here. Most catchpoints were removed once all freight trains had become continuously-braked, but a few remain in critical locations such as this. If anything ever did run away back towards the junction, this would (hopefully!) derail it before it conflicted with any following move to the Bromsgrove line.

Here, an up train from Kidderminster is being checked at each signal in turn because there is another train still in the section to Worcester Tunnel Junction. I managed to take the shot just when the signaller was, slowly, pulling off the up starter in the foreground. When a signaller is unable to clear all his signals for a train, there is a long-standing regulation that he must check the train's speed at each signal in turn, only lowering each signal when the train has almost arrived at it. In the old days this was Rule 39(a); nowadays it is General Signalling Regulation (TS1) 4.6.1. The (almost ten-minute) section from here to Tunnel Junction was a notorious bottleneck, which is why Central Trains led the now successful campaign for Network Rail to install the additional signalling (see below). At the time, checking trains like this was a common occurrence during weekday evening peaks.

A closer view of the down main advanced starter.

A better view of the up main distant.

One important addition since 1984 has been this tail lamp camera for the up goods loop. This allows the signaller to confirm a train has arrived complete with its tail lamp even though it hasn't yet passed the signalbox.

A closer view of the tail-lamp camera, with the down advanced starter in the background.

A close-up of the up main homes bracket.

24/3/08

The up branch distant...

...and home.

21/9/08

Additional signals have now been provided to reduce delays on the busy section between here and Worcester Tunnel Junction. This is the new up Intermediate Block (IB) home, situated a bit north of the former Fernhill Heath station site. A second train can now leave the station as soon as the preceding one has passed this.

On the down line, the outerhome has been reinstated in the form of this 3-aspect LED signal.

The up IB distant signal.

The view towards the junction from the up platform.

A tail-lamp camera (right) has also been installed just behind the down platform. This allows the signaller to see the tail lamps of trains as soon as they have entered the station so he can then send train-out-of-section to Worcester Tunnel Junction, after which another train can be allowed to proceed from there.
The clearing distance beyond the new down outerhome of 200 yards (as the down distant is a colour-light) ends just beyond the limit-of-shunt sign. The latter has also been provided with a TPWS loop to stop any shunting movement that should accidentally overrun it.

A closer view of the tail-lamp camera.

On a lazy Sunday evening, with these new signals in use, the last thing I expected to see was trains being signal-checked. But...

...it transpired that all the Cross-Country trains were being diverted via Worcester on this occasion, so the new signals really were earning their upkeep!

27/5/13

The up starter has now been replaced with a shorter signal on the left-hand side of the lines (on the right here). The post for the previous signal can still be seen on the left.

Improved staging for maintenance has also been added to the down inner homes.

A face-on view of the new up starter. Note the kink in the push rod.

These points have also been given a major overhaul and had heaters fitted to their blades (the whitish strips you can see along the insides). On my last several visits they had been clipped and padlocked in their normal positions. (The left-hand one leads to the down goods loop; the one on the right forms part of the crossover between the running lines.)

For those unfamilar with the layout, here is a diagram which I hope will help put the photos into some context. Just click on a signal, signalbox or other item to jump to the corresponding photo...

(The two signals at the bottom left have also now been replaced with LED signals, but I'll update that when I get a chance to photograph them, as they are not easily visible from public places.)

I have deliberately excluded various technical details to prevent the diagram getting overcomplicated. I have, however, included signal numbers - these are the codes in black on small white plates you can see in some of the photos, and are the lever numbers in the signalbox. More information about Droitwich Spa signalbox can be found on the Signalling Notices site.