London Bridge Signalbox (geograph 5590888)

London Bridge Area Signalling Centre (ASC) was a signalling centre on the Kent Route of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

, principally covering the line from London ( Charing Cross,

Cannon Street Cannon Street is a road in the City of London, the historic nucleus of London and its modern financial centre. It runs roughly parallel with the River Thames, about north of it, in the south of the City. It is the site of the ancient London ...

and London Bridge) to

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

and Sussex route areas of Network Rail. The signalling centre was opened in 1974, and closed in 2020.

History

Background

In the 1970s, a substantial project to resignal railway lines into the three railway termini of Charing Cross,

and London Bridge was initiated. This involved consolidating 16 signal boxes into one new Area Signalling Centre, to be located at London Bridge - as well as partially rebuilding London Bridge station. In 1972, work began to segregate the trains before their arrival at London Bridge. Prior to the development of the ASC, Cannon Street and Charing Cross trains arrived on all lines and were signalled approaching or leaving to London Bridge station to their respective destinations. To facilitate this, the

Borough Market Borough Market is a wholesale and retail market hall in Southwark, London, England. It is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, with a market on the site dating back to at least the 12th century. The present buildings were b ...

signal box (opened in 1895) required 2 full time signallers, and handled over 100 trains per hour. This project would allow it and other signal boxes to be consolidated into a new, modern signalling centre - with signallers assisted by computers and substantial automation.

Building

After searching for an appropriate location, a site at the country end of London Bridge station was chosen. The building was built on top of the Grade II listed railway arches on the south side of the station. The building was designed by in-house British Rail Southern Region architects, in a Brutalist style. The upper section of the building is about two-thirds the length and slightly wider than the lower storey, projecting over live railway lines. It is clad with white

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

slabs in a contrast to the lower storey's brown walls. The lower floor housed the signalling equipment, as well as the offices and mess facilities for the signals maintenance team. The upper floor contained the control panels for the signallers.

Commissioning

In 1974, the first section of the control panel in the London Bridge ASC was commissioned, with trains first being signalled from the new ASC in 1975. As work continued, redundant signal boxes such as the old 1923-built London Bridge signal box were closed one by one and consolidated into the new ASC at London Bridge. In 1975, British Transport Films produced 'Operation London Bridge', a short film about the project. In 1976, the Borough Market signal box was closed - with the historic signal box acquired by the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant ...

. The ASC was visited by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1976. By December 1978, the project had been completed, costing £23.8 million. Traffic bound for Charing Cross and Cannon Street was now segregated outside London Bridge, mainly at Parks Bridge Jn but occasionally in the

New Cross New Cross is an area in south east London, England, south-east of Charing Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham and the SE14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwic ...

area. The London Bridge central traffic was kept as a separate working railway from the eastern side.

London Bridge ASC

At its height, the London Bridge ASC was one of the busiest signal boxes on the British Rail network, controlling trains from Charing Cross on the routes out to Kent through Greenwich, Lewisham, Grove Park, and to Norwood Junction. It controlled of route, which is just over of track. Open 24 hours a day throughout the year, it took a total of 60 signallers and 4 shift signalling managers to run the signalling centre.

Closure

Following resignalling work as part of the

Thameslink Programme The Thameslink Programme, originally Thameslink 2000, was a £6billion project in south-east England to upgrade and expand the Thameslink rail network to provide new and longer trains between a wider range of stations to the north and to the ...

, the majority of the functions of the signal box were transferred to Three Bridges ROC (Regional Operating Centre) in 2014. In 2020, the last area signalled by the ASC (Hither Green to Grove Park) was transferred to Three Bridges ROC, with the London Bridge Area Signalling Centre operating its last day on the 24th July 2020. , Network Rail have decommissioned the signalling centre and are seeking new uses for the redundant building.

References

External links

Operation London Bridge (1975) - British Transport Films
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