The Bristol Railway Archive

Having lived in Taunton in the 1960s-70s, I sometimes idled my time on the footbridge across the line about 1/4 mile west of the station, locally known as Fortysteps. A great vantage point. Can someone tell me how the signals were arranged.

There was a signalbox just under the Staplegrove Road bridge, about 1/2 mile west of the station, and another at the west end of the station itself. Up trains had signals just at that road bridge, then again just before the footbridge, then again on the large gantry approaching the platforms, and finally at the London end of the platforms.

Now whose signals were these, which were homes and which were starters. Furthermore, all of them had distants as well. Whose distants were these? Given the speed of fast trains they must have been slotted forward at least two, if not three signalboxes.

Thank you if you can help.

I can't, but I am sure that someone at Taunton Trains will be able to:

http://www.tauntontrains.co.uk/

Taunton was a complex place and not easy to decribe just in words

Approaching from the east there was Taunton East Junction, where the Goods Lines diverged. There /used/ to be a Taunton East Station, but that closed in the 1930s changes. Then came Taunton West Station, at the west end of the centre platforms. Then came Taunton West Junction (by the Staplegrove Road bridge), where the Goods Line joined again. Further west was Silk Mill Crossing, with a bi-directional Goods Running Line on the Down side between TWJ and SMC (in effect an extension of the Goods Lines). Then you went on to Norton Fitzwarren Junction and finally Victory Siding. Going round the Goods Lines themselves there were East Loop and West Loop boxes, but the East went early in BR days IIRC and the West mid/late-1960s.

Because of the close proximity of the various boxes, in most cases any one actual distant signal probably served at least two boxes. In the Down direction TWJ had control over no less than SIX successive distants within the TES and TWS areas on both Main and Relief lines!

In the Up direction, the signals just west of the SR bridge were the Up Homes for TWJ. The ones near 40 Steps were the Up Homes for TWS and the gantry closer to the west end of the station carried the Up Inner Homes and Down Startings for TWS. The ones at the London end of the station were all TEJ.

Hope this helps, at least a little

PS: it sounds like we could have frequented 40 Steps at much the same time !