Blackrod Junction and signalbox

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Blackrod Junction and signalbox by Peter Whatley as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Blackrod Junction and signalbox

Image: © Peter Whatley Taken: 9 Feb 1989

Blackrod Junction still survives, though the line from Horwich works in the photo is now (2008) no more. The box was sometimes termed the "standing joke" by railwaymen, as its survival into the 1990s was solely due to the inability of electronics at Preston signalbox (built 1973) to exchange train ID data with those at Manchester North (built circa 1990). To achieve the necessary exchange of information, the signalman at Blackrod receives information from one super-duper modern signalbox and manually re-enters it into the system feeding the other. Ain't technology wonderful?

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
53.592589
Longitude
-2.571653