Warrington Central Signal Box

[AK1982]

Quite often when I am sitting at Warrington Central I see the shift changeover at the signal box at the station.
Was wondering following the recent opening of the Manchester centre which has taken a lot of the signalling work for this area over does the Warrington box still maintain control and if so where for?

Also are there plans in place to close the box and move to Manchester?

 

[headshot119]

Warrington Central still controls the area it has for many years. The Warrington Cental side of Widnes, through to the Manchester side of Padgate.

No firm date for the line to be moved to Manchester ROC.

 

[Freightmaster]

Further to headshot's reply above, Hunts Cross signalling centre controls the line
west of Widnes and Glazebrook(East) covers Birchwood to Chassen Road where
Manchester ROC takes over, but until the 1980s, there were a lot more boxes;
as this excellent website explains:

http://www.8dassociation.btck.co.uk/SignalBoxes/TheCheshireLinesCommittee


MARK

 

[AK1982]

That’s great thanks for the info.
Just one further question, after Hunts Cross is the line to Lime street controlled by Manchester ROC?

so in effect the Liverpool to Manchester route via the CLC line would start off being covered by Manchester ROC and end with it too with different boxes along the way?

 

[takno]

That’s great thanks for the info.
Just one further question, after Hunts Cross is the line to Lime street controlled by Manchester ROC?

so in effect the Liverpool to Manchester route via the CLC line would start off being covered by Manchester ROC and end with it too with different boxes along the way?

MROC for a bit, then Edge Hill, and then finally MROC again for Lime Street station

 

[louis97]

MROC for a bit, then Edge Hill, and then finally MROC again for Lime Street station

Edge Hill closed last month. MROC after Hunts Cross all the way through to Lime Street.

 

[takno]

Edge Hill closed last month. MROC after Hunts Cross all the way through to Lime Street.

Ugh, missed that. Brb, off to update some diagrams...

 

[Tomnick]

It’s absolute block between Warrington and Glazebrook (with an intermediate block section in each direction), so can’t readily be shifted into the ROC without at least a bit of resignalling work. Eccles and Astley on the Chat Moss route are perhaps more unexpected survivors!

 

[The Planner]

Astley got put on the annoying costs too much to deal with pile.

 

[AK1982]

It’s absolute block between Warrington and Glazebrook (with an intermediate block section in each direction), so can’t readily be shifted into the ROC without at least a bit of resignalling work. Eccles and Astley on the Chat Moss route are perhaps more unexpected survivors!

thanks that is interesting. Sorry for the daft question but what does absolute block mean?

 

[pdeaves]

thanks that is interesting. Sorry for the daft question but what does absolute block mean?

The method of signalling. It's 'old fashioned' (but still valid) now. More info here: https://www.signalbox.org/block.shtml