Second-hand signalling

Robert Taylor’s letter about unwanted infrastructure ( RAIL 842) highlights a problem with Network Rail’s policy regarding disposals.

When the Norwich-Ely line was being resignalled, the S&T area manager ensured that semaphore signalling equipment was collected at Brandon yard so that a number of East Anglia’s heritage lines were able to benefit. This included a number of signal boxes.

Now that resignalling is being accelerated, I would have thought that Network Rail would have been keen to support our national heritage rail sector by offering this material for reuse.

By no means all of it is just scrap. And looking at branch lines in my area (Norwich-Great Yarmouth/ Lowestoft), there is some comparatively recent equipment from BR days which would be eminently usable elsewhere, and which I’m sure would fetch more than just its scrap value.

I suggest that there is also a moral obligation on Network Rail to at least allow the heritage sector to look over what is becoming available - given that there are still assets from the ‘Big Four’ days (and before) in use, and that some rare examples of interesting machinery occasionally come to light.

NR’s disposals website seems very good at offering vast quantities of rotten sleepers and nearly new overhead line equipment, but classic signalling is nowhere to be seen. Andrew Hayden, Norwich