Hi all,!!!
Thought i'd grab a couple of pics of the disused sig box near the Walsall end of Bescot Yd-that's the large railway complex you see just after junc 6 northbound on the M6-Its not exactly an exciting explore but Hey its derelict.
Bescot yard used to be a Hump marshalling yard-humps were basically a small hill in the track where a shunt loco could push wagons onto the top of before rolling down the other side(without brakes) and hopefully being sent into the correct siding on top of other wagons without a large crash !! After the wagons were uncoupled from the train the shunt loco would push them up the gradient and when they were at the top would apply his brakes.The section which had previously been uncoupled would then career off down the gradient chased by a brakesman whose job was to control the speed of the movement by applying the correct amount of handbrakes on the wagons.Obviously mistakes were made and injuries were common but it is amazing to think that brakesmen were still employed by BR well into the 70's.Bescot,as far as i am aware, had two humps one on the down side (this was a much larger affair and used air operated retarders to slow wagons down) and one on the up side.This small 1950's box controlled the pointwork and signalling for the up side hump and yard.When hump shunting finished the box was used by shunting staff as a ground frame to control the local points etc before all the pointwork became hand operated and the box was completely redundant sometime in the 1980's.It remains today as just a rotting shell and no doubt before too long will be just a memory along with most of our railway system !!!
Front and side views of the box
Climbing the rusting stairway
Inside the box
and finally downstairs in the old locking room.
Notice the Baby Belling Cooker in pic 4 every sigbox/messroom/cabin etc used to have these BR must have bought MILLIONS !!! and although i'm no expert that could be a tin of Glitto next to it,no doubt placed there by an urbexer who had just liberated it from a nearby ROC post !!!!
PS Just to round off a good nite at work some thieving Gypo scum decided to steal the signalling cables in the Kenilworth area and so i had to sit for over 4hrs waiting for it to be repaired,still, got a nice piccy of the train at Coventry (Pity its not a British loco on the front !!!!)
Thought i'd grab a couple of pics of the disused sig box near the Walsall end of Bescot Yd-that's the large railway complex you see just after junc 6 northbound on the M6-Its not exactly an exciting explore but Hey its derelict.
Bescot yard used to be a Hump marshalling yard-humps were basically a small hill in the track where a shunt loco could push wagons onto the top of before rolling down the other side(without brakes) and hopefully being sent into the correct siding on top of other wagons without a large crash !! After the wagons were uncoupled from the train the shunt loco would push them up the gradient and when they were at the top would apply his brakes.The section which had previously been uncoupled would then career off down the gradient chased by a brakesman whose job was to control the speed of the movement by applying the correct amount of handbrakes on the wagons.Obviously mistakes were made and injuries were common but it is amazing to think that brakesmen were still employed by BR well into the 70's.Bescot,as far as i am aware, had two humps one on the down side (this was a much larger affair and used air operated retarders to slow wagons down) and one on the up side.This small 1950's box controlled the pointwork and signalling for the up side hump and yard.When hump shunting finished the box was used by shunting staff as a ground frame to control the local points etc before all the pointwork became hand operated and the box was completely redundant sometime in the 1980's.It remains today as just a rotting shell and no doubt before too long will be just a memory along with most of our railway system !!!
Front and side views of the box
Climbing the rusting stairway
Inside the box
and finally downstairs in the old locking room.
Notice the Baby Belling Cooker in pic 4 every sigbox/messroom/cabin etc used to have these BR must have bought MILLIONS !!! and although i'm no expert that could be a tin of Glitto next to it,no doubt placed there by an urbexer who had just liberated it from a nearby ROC post !!!!
PS Just to round off a good nite at work some thieving Gypo scum decided to steal the signalling cables in the Kenilworth area and so i had to sit for over 4hrs waiting for it to be repaired,still, got a nice piccy of the train at Coventry (Pity its not a British loco on the front !!!!)
