INFRASTRUCTURE
FOLLOWING a two-week engineering blockade of the Cornish Main Line at the end of February and start of March, signalling control at three signalboxes dating back to the 1890s will pass to a workstation at Exeter Panel.
Truro, Par and Lostwithiel ’boxes will all close, but there are at least no plans to demolish any of the structures, while those at Lostwithiel and Par are Grade II-listed and so few alterations may take place.
The changes mean that the Cornish Main Line is now signalled by Plymouth Panel (Plymouth to Liskeard); Liskeard; Exeter Panel (Liskeard to Roskear); Roskear; St Erth; and Penzance. Of these, the ’boxes at Liskeard and St Erth still have traditional lower quadrant semaphore signals, as do two further ’boxes on the Newquay branch at St Blazey and Goonbarrow.
I have always had an interest in signalling and, as a Network Rail employee based in Cornwall, have had the privilege of covering many shifts in the country’s signalboxes. But here I will take a fond look at Truro, Par and Lostwithiel, covering the many facets of each, some of their quirks, and a history of operations from the early 1970s to the present day.
Truro ‘box 1899-2024
Truro is a 51-lever, type GW7a ’box with a brick base to the windows. It sits at the London end of the station on the up side of the main line and beside a level crossing that today provides access to the station car park and industrial buildings on the site of the former engine shed at the west end of the station. The ’box was called Truro East until November 7, 1971, when a programme of track rationalisation took place and consolidated all of the city’s signalling into one.
The original 45-lever frame was insufficient to accommodate the new consolidated layout, and so a frame from Bristol East Depot ’box was installed directly behind it, to make 51 levers in all. Stories abound of the duty signalman walking up and down the centre portion of the former floor on scaffold boards working the original frame whilst the alterations were taking place. There are faded pictures on the wall of this, but sadly too poor quality now to reproduce here.
The 1971 rationalisation saw Penwithers Junction and Truro West ’boxes close, with the East ’box becoming simply Truro Signalbox – the word ‘East’ being hastily painted out
