Wigan Album
Wigan Wallgate Station
3 CommentsPhoto: RON HUNT
Item #: 27987
Lovely. When was this built?
The signalbox was apparently built by the LMS in 1941, during World War 2.
I've never seen it described as "lovely" before - but definitely characterful!
The box was built to ARP (Air Raid Precautions) standards, meant to make it resistant to bombing. It has a reinforced concrete roof, smaller windows than usual in a railway signal box and no windows to the lower floor room where a lot of the equipment is housed.
It's unlikely the large concrete "Wigan-Wallgate" signs (there's another facing the Southport line) would have been installed initially, in accordance with wartime blackout and "confuse the enemy" precautions.
I read somewhere that the brick-outhouse standards of construction used in other ARP signalboxes around the country can give Network Rail a bit of bother when it comes to demolishing them after completion of modern re-signalling schemes.
That signal box is still there and it looks exactly the same now, as it does in the photo.