Edgware Road signal frame

[londonse]

Seeing the thread regarding this box and the recent publicity on the TV set me looking and I found that the frame has 38 levers, but there is a space for number 39. Anyone know what this was for or was it just as the frame came like.

Paul

[citysig]

During its life in the cabin, the frame has had a couple of alterations, with levers used for different things at different times. From memory, there is a blank space for lever 39, with a back-plate simply labelled with the number "39" plus there is space for at least a lever "40." There was also the planned branch to Willesden which never came about.

Others on here would be able to comment on whether this is a standard size (as if "brought off the shelf").

A good site, often referred to on here, is Harsig's Signalling Page which shows at least one historical layout of the area.

The frame was also rumoured to be either from another cabin, or ordered for another cabin but altered at the last minute for Edgware Road - depending on which rumour you hear. The person who told me [the latter rumour] was a long-serving signalman who knew quite a bit about the cabin and its history. Unfortunately he is no longer with us, and I believe during similar debates on here and elsewhere, nobody has come up with the definitive proof as to whether the frame was always meant for Edgware Road, or if it was squeezed in at the last minute.

The building housing the frame is also the oldest such building built for the purpose of being a signal cabin on LU.

[norbitonflyer]

Jul 26, 2010 14:35:42 GMT @citysig said:

There was also the planned branch to Willesden which never came about.

.

That, more than anything else, has brought home to me how old this box actually is: the idea, as I recall, was hatched in Metropolitan (pre LT) days to relieve the Baker Street- Finchley Road section by creating a spur line between ERd and, presumably, Finchley Road, and thus a triangle allowing traffic from the Met main line to go either way round the Circle (as is the case at Earls Court and Aldgate).

Instead, after formation of the LPTB, the tube section between Finchley Road and Baker Street was built. That was in 1938, by which time this box was already 13 years old.

In contrast, the current Jubilee upgrade is repacing an eleven year old installation!