Wensleydale gets £80,000 grant to move Great Eastern ‘box

THE Wensleydale Railway has been given a £80,000 grant by the Railway Heritage Trust to move the disused Grade II-listed GER signalbox at Hertford East station and re-erect it 214 miles away at Leyburn, where it will control a new passing loop. Dating from 1888, the `box stands in the way of a platform extension. The trust's executive director Andy Savage said: “It's very close to the track and very close to the overhead wires, so nobody has been able to work out a way to use it.

“Signalboxes are designed to be relocatable and Greater Anglia is renewing its trains. The new trains are much longer, so they're having to lengthen the platform at the station to take the new trains.

“There is Network Rail guidance on what to do with redundant listed signal boxes. Top of that list is to give them to a heritage railway to use as a signalbox, so that way, you can see them doing what they're supposed to do.

“It hasn't been used for decades and it's the right thing for it. If you try to restore a listed building without having a use, it will just deteriorate.”