Abbey Foregate

17/9/06

A marvellous view of Abbey Foregate, looking towards Shrewsbury station. The incoming lines from Wellington split into three pairs of tracks here. The leftmost pair are the loop lines to English Bridge Junction on the line towards Sutton Bridge Junction; the remaining lines serve Shrewsbury station area (see below for a fuller explanation of the layout here, or the diagram on the Shrewsbury index page.) The other two corners of the triangle are controlled by Severn Bridge Junction, which can be seen in the background behind the signalbox here, and whose down homes are in the middle distance facing the camera.
In the far distance, a train from Aberystwyth approaches the station along the far side of the triangle.

Looking towards Wolverhampton, a train from Birmingham approaches Abbey Foregate's colour-light home signal.

The colour-light above was installed when Wellington was resignalled and came under Madeley Junction's control in 2002. As recently as the 70s, Abbey Foregate had wooden-posted outer and inner homes immediately before the two bridges shown here. You can see where the bridges were painted white to give clear backdrops to these signals.

The train we saw earlier arriving from Aberystwyth now approaches us on its way forward to Birmingham.

18/9/06

The three up homes. The one on the left is also slotted by Severn Bridge Junction as the latter's starter, so both boxes must have worked their levers before it will actually clear.

28/7/06

The layout towards the station is unusual and asymmetrical - the two lines going straight ahead at the junction here are not actually the two main lines, so I have annotated the key tracks and signals on this photo to show where they run to/from. Through the station, the down main is the 'middle' line between platforms 3 and 4, while the up main runs outside the platform 7 line on the other side. Approaching Shrewsbury, platforms 3 and 4 are reached via the down main, while the line diverging to the right serves the bay platforms 5 and 6. Trains leaving Shrewsbury towards here can depart from platforms 4, 5, 6 or 7; the platform 7 line converges into the up main at (B) while a crossover at (A) enables trains from the bays to join the up main. The line on the right is now a through siding, though the section through here was originally classified as the up relief line and signalled with normal running signals (see below). See also the diagram of the station area layout on the Shrewsbury index page.

In the opposite direction, the up starter towards Madeley Junction can be seen.

A train arriving from Birmingham is signalled into Platform 4.

26-28/5/07

Abbey Foregate as seen from Laura's Tower.

On this occasion a diversion was in force for up trains leaving Shrewsbury. Look closely and you will see three discs have been cleared along the up siding line to the right.

The fourth disc, at the foot of the up main home, is now cleared for an approaching train...

... and here's the train, about to cross back to the up main.

July 1984

Abbey Foregate used to have this splendid, wire-operated down distant.

This shot, taken from a train approaching Shrewsbury on the Hereford line, shows the Abbey Foregate gantries with a rear view of Severn Bridge Junction's down homes.

June 1982

Until the 1980s, this gantry carried the junction signals, as well as innerhomes for the up main and relief lines. Further back, a second gantry carrying the up homes for the Platform 4 and up main lines can be seen - note the signal on its very right, which signalled the move from up main to the up relief. The latter has since been relegated to a through siding and is no longer signalled for running moves. The siding on the extreme right no longer exists.

A view from the other side of the junction gantry, with the signalbox behind it. Note the old GWR-style up relief arm.

Another shot towards Abbey Foregate from the Hereford lines.