Apperley Bridge, Calverley & Rodley and, I believe, most other local stations had a bell on the platform and a buzzer in the booking office. They were both sounded simultaneously from a button in the signal box. When the signalman got "train entering section" for a stopping train, he pressed this button once for platform 1, twice for platform 2 and so on up to 4. This was primarily to alert staff who, in those days, were supposed to attend the arrival of every train to assist passengers, collect tickets, deal with parcels and shut doors. There was a special note in the N E Region timetable for stations which didn`t have "staff in attendance". Five rings required station staff to contact the signal box. I suspect this may have been three at a station which only had two platforms. The bell also served to alert passengers to the imminent arrival but that, I think, was only a by-product. The bell only functioned when the station signal box was open.
When New Pudsey opened in 1967, it had staff attending every train but didn`t, at first, have a platform bell. But one did subsequently appear. It would now need research to determine whether this came from Stanningley following closure of that station and whether the New Pudsey bell disappeared upon the closure of Stanningley signal box.
