Edwardian signal box gets new lease of life

A 1904‑BUILT ex‑Great Eastern Railway signal box will enjoy a new life in retirement at Holt on the North Norfolk Railway.

The 60‑lever ’box – formerly based at Reedham Junction, where Network Rail’s Yarmouth line diverges from the Norwich‑Lowestoft line – was made redundant in 2019 as part of NR’s re‑signalling scheme in the area and gifted to the NNR. Following months of preparatory dismantling, the top half of the building was lifted from its base on November 30 during a line possession, and delivered to Holt on December 1, when it was placed on a new brick‑built base.

Once restored, the signal box will serve as an interactive facility where visitors can discover how trains were controlled on 20th‑century railways. The project is being led by NNR volunteer Steve Ashling, a driver at Greater Anglia and a former signaller at Reedham Junction. He said: “The next step is to restore the building to its Edwardian condition and reinstate the original items that have been recovered, including re‑fitting the 60‑lever frame. Visitors will be then able to come into the ’box, meet re‑enactors in period uniform and have a go at pulling the lever and working the bells, as if it were a proper working signal box.

“The intention is that by next autumn we will receive our first visitors who will be able to get a taste of the life of an Edwardian signalman in a safe, simulated environment. In the longer term, the railway aims to restore the ’box so that visitors can experience what it was like in the busier times of the 1950s when holiday expresses to Yarmouth passed from all corners of the country and freight for the docks of Lowestoft and the sugar factory at Cantley were part of daily life.”