Building The Signalbox

I intend to scratchbuild a Great Central Railway Type 5 signalbox, of the smaller 16 feet wide by 12 feet deep design. This is the type of 'box widely used on the South Yorkshire Joint line as the GCR provided the signalling equipment when the line was built in the mid-1900's. Even when the LNER opened the line to Firbeck and Haworth colliery in 1929 they decided to use this design. This makes a box of this style far more plausible to use on the layout than any of the kits available on the market currently.

This section will be expanded when construction on the box begins and I will provide an illustrated guide to it's construction.

1. Design Drawings
I am indebted to Shaun Sanders of the GCR Signalling and Telegraph department for providing drawings of the larger Type 5 'box as at Ollerton Colliery (22feet x 12feet) and the smaller Type 5 that I am using for Wickersley. Sadly I cannot republish them here as they are currently not in the public domain.

2. Card Mock-Up
The drawings were however not to 4mm:1ft scale (or 1/76th full size) so after a quick bit of math and the use of Paint.NET imaging software I managed to resize the image and printed off two copies (the drawing I was using had only the front and left elevations). I then affixed the drawings to some card and cut out the elevations carefully with a craft knife. I stuck the sides together with masking tape and I was left with a reasonable approximation to how the signalbox would look. When I placed it on the layout during the last building session it confirmed my idea that it was just the right size.

3. Materials & Planning
The next stage of course is to figure out how I will build the 'box and the materials required. I'm currently expecting a copy of the January 2008 Railway Modeller which featured an article about scratchbuilding a GCR box, although one of a pre-1900 design (So it should really be a MS&LR box) that was almost certainly not used on the line I want to depict.

This post will be updated with pictures and a step-by-step guide as to how I built the signalbox.