Wigan Album
Railways
5 Comments
Photo: Baldylocks
Item #: 24144
Books such as this were (& still are) used in a traditional manual mechanical lever framed signal box to record all information relevant to the safe operation of the signal box & line(s) under it`s control.
The signalman on duty would have to record information such as. . . . .
All train movements & passing times etc.
Trains entering section.
Trains out of section.
All bell signals received & sent.
Block regulations used.
Line blockages & engineering works.
Single line working.
Safety critical phone calls & conversations
Train cancellations & diversions.
Shift changes.
Time checks
Equipment tests
Opening & closing of signal boxes.
Official visits & checks.
Emergencies & failures etc
The signalman on duty would be responsible for keeping this ledger up to date at all times as in the event of an emergency or serious failure of the signalling system he would have to refer to it in regards to the last known location(s) of any trains within his area of control.
Judging from the TR Book Crow Nest Junction dealt with 124 trains over the 24 hour period on Monday 12th June 1989.
These books could (& often were) inspected/seized & audited without notice to check for any irregularities/discrepancies/errors.
In the event of an irregularity involving a signal box it is the train register(s)that are usually seized & sent for inspection ASAP.
I suppose you could look at them as a kind of manually updated paper "Black Box" book for signal boxes.
The timings in these books also had to strictly correspond with the books in the adjacent signal boxes too.
Any questions raised in an audit would result in a "Please Explain" letter & possible disciplinary action or demotion from signalling duties.
Books like this were kept on archive for 2 years then sent for destruction/recycling if not required for an audit.
A signal box TR Book.
Probably the most important document in a signal box.
Judging from the Crow Nest TR Book for June 1989 the resident signalmen were.
Alan Ashworth Pomfret.
John Fletcher.
& Jimmy Whittle.
The rest of the time Crow Nest was covered by the RDR & GPR signalmen.
I understand that Aitch is Jimmy`s nephew,& if Aitch wants this TR Book that his uncle has written in then just give me an email & I`ll see that he gets it.
bet that box had in the 1950's a book for one day that had more entries in it than the the present one had in a week.
I found all that extremely interesting as we never really appreciated the amount of book-keeping had to be completed.
Thank you for posting such an eye opening topic.
Very interesting Baldylocks, well done.
Thanks for all the kind comments,
As for the old crow nest box,in its heyday that was so busy at one time it actually employed 2 Signalmen plus a TRB Train Register Booking Boy Junior Clerk (a "lad")AKA a train booker(who would maintain the train register on behalf of the signalmen as the old box was so busy).
From what I got told there were two particular signalmen in the old crow nest box many many years ago that did not get on.
One was called Bracegirdle & the other one was called Dean.
Signalman Bracegirdle & Signalman Dean absolutely hated each other with a passion & as such whenever they were together,working on the same shift in the old crow nest they would only normally communicate via the poor TRB Boy Clerk.
I feel sorry for the TRB Boy Clerk,who was no doubt the junior rank,stuck in the middle & getting all the flak.
In recent years, up to the signalbox closing last July, there have been 5 trains per hour in both directions passing Crow Nest. The signalman must have been busy enough just filling in the Train Register (given there are 7 pieces of info entered for each train), never mind switching the points, pulling off and resetting signal levers and all the other sundry tasks involved. Better make sure you went to the lav. before the start of your shift, I bet!