Severn Bridge Junction is the area of railway lines just south east of Shrewsbury railway station, in

Shropshire Shropshire (; abbreviated SalopAlso used officially as the name of the county from 1974–1980. The demonym for inhabitants of the county "Salopian" derives from this name.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West M ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is controlled by a mechanical interlocked signal box of the same name, which is the largest operational mechanical signal box in the world.Network Rail
Refurb of World's largest working mechanical signal box completes The

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

signalling area code is 'SBJ.'

Background

The complexity of the railway system in the area is brought about by the convergence of five major lines at , built in the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the ...

by two competing and yet also co-operating railway companies, the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

and the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

. They were competing to connect the coal and raw material supplies of

South Wales South Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, loosely defined region of Wales bordered by England to the east and mid Wales to the north. Generally considered to include the Historic counties of Wales, historic counties of Glamorgan and Monmouthshire ( ...

with the industrialised Midlands and Northwest; and secondly to transport passengers to and from London to the port of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

. After the GWR amalgamated with the

Cambrian Railways The Cambrian Railways owned of Railway track, track over a large area of mid Wales. The system was an amalgamation of a number of railways that were incorporated in 1864, 1865 and 1904. The Cambrian connected with two larger railways with c ...

in 1921, it was also a major point of accessing GWR services into Mid and West Wales: *

Cambrian Line The Cambrian Line (), sometimes split into the Cambrian Main Line () and Cambrian Coast Line () for its branches, is a railway line that runs from Shrewsbury in England, westwards to Aberystwyth and Pwllheli in Wales. Passenger train services ...

(GWR) *

Shrewsbury to Chester Line Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...

(GWR) * Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line (GWR) * Welsh Marches Line: **North to via Crewe and Shrewsbury Railway (LNWR) **South to via Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway (Joint) Lines formerly converging in the area also include the regionally important

Severn Valley Railway The Severn Valley Railway is a standard gauge, standard-gauge heritage railway in Shropshire and Worcestershire, England. The single-track line runs from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster, calling at four intermediate stations and three request stop ...

(GWR), and the Stafford to Shrewsbury Line (LNWR).

Junction

The railway junction lies directly south of the railway station. It was constructed jointly by the GWR/LNWR after the completion of improvements to their jointly owned Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway, which at this location junctioned with the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury Line. To allow freight trains to move to/from South Wales direct to the Midlands and hence avoid the passenger railway station, the junction was constructed in a tight triangular form south of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

Signal box

Jointly constructed from 1902 to an enlarged standard LNWR design of 1876, the three storey structure is built of two storeys of red brick and cement, with a third floor mainly of wooden weather board pin-panel containing the glass windows, all topped by a Welsh slate pitched roof. Access is via a door on the rear, with the lower two floors housing interlocking signalling equipment accessed via two internal wooden staircases. The main operational floor houses a 180 lever interlocked frame, divided into two sections: Abbey Foregate to Sutton Bridge; Shrewsbury station to Crewe Junction. The frame scale makes it the largest remaining mechanical signal box on the British network, and from 2011 it became the largest mechanical signalbox in the world, following the closure of the 191 lever box at Spencer Street in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. Today only approximately half of the levers are in operational use, although it still takes two signallers to operate the complete system on a 24/7 basis, allowing 300 train movements per day. The signal box is a

grade II listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

and underwent extensive heritage renovation in 2020-21, carried out by Network Rail.

Future

Although there have been line closures in the Shrewsbury area, and the closure of the joint motive power depot at the end of the steam era in the 1960s, there is still a complex residual converging rail system in the area. Within of the junction, there are another three interlocked mechanical signal boxes: *Abbey Foregate Junction: located on the Wolverhampton line to allow access to the adjacent Abbey Foregate yard; its code is 'AF'. *Crewe Junction: located on the north side of the station, at the convergence of the lines from Crewe and Wrexham; its code is 'CJ'. *Sutton Bridge Junction: located south of English Bridge Junction, at the convergence of the line to Hereford and the Cambrian Line; its code is 'SUB'. A further three boxes that had formed part of the local system: *Crewe Bank: closed 8 December 2012. *English Bridge: controlled the southside of the triangular junction through Coleham to Sutton Bridge Junction. Closed in 1953, its controls were transferred to Severn Bridge. *Harlescott Crossing: closed 8 December 2012. Network Rail currently believes that to simplify this system to allow it to be remotely controlled through colour-light signals would not be economical. Hence the current mechanical signalling system in the area is presently envisaged to remain in operation until at least 2030, and possibly as long as 2050 on current plans.Railway Herald
Issue 295, p8

Background

Junction

Signal box

Future

See also

References

Further reading