Par signal box is a Grade II listed former Great Western Railway signal box, located on

Par railway station Par railway station serves the villages of Par, Tywardreath and St Blazey, Cornwall, England. The station is from via . It is the junction for the Atlantic Coast Line to . The station is managed by Great Western Railway, which operates the ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Opened in 1879 and built to the first GWR standard design, it was set up to control the GWR's mainline onwards to , together with the junction for the branch to

Newquay Newquay ( ; kw, Tewynblustri) is a town on the north coast in Cornwall, in the south west of England. It is a civil parish, seaside resort, regional centre for aerospace industries, spaceport and a fishing port on the North Atlantic coast of ...

. Located at the southern end of Platform 2, when first built it was less than half its current length, only containing 26 levers. In 1913, the frame was replaced, and a new frame of 57 levers was added. A panel has since been added to control the section through to and as far west as the now closed Probus and Ladock railway station. Signals controlled from Par carry the identification code 'PR'. In July 2013, it was one of 26 "highly distinctive" signal boxes listed by

Ed Vaizey Edward Henry Butler Vaizey, Baron Vaizey of Didcot, (born 5 June 1968) is a British politician, media columnist, political commentator and barrister who was Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries from 2010 to 2016. A memb ...

, minister for the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

in July 2013, in a joint initiative by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and

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 ...

to preserve and provide a window into how railways were operated in the past. In January 2024, it was announced that a number of signal boxes in Cornwall, including Par, would be closed in Spring 2024, with signalling moved to Exeter. The signal box was decommissioned on the 4th March 2024.

References

{{coord, 50.354976, -4.704826, display=title Great Western Railway Rail transport in Cornwall Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall Signal boxes in the United Kingdom Industrial archaeological sites in Cornwall St Blazey