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Stokewood Road, Craven Arms Business Park, CRAVEN ARMS, SY7 8PF

A very 'green' building, not only decked out with an impressive solar-voltaic array, but surrounded with myriad cowslips.

Craven Arms Household Recycling Centre operated by South Shropshire Council.

Looking towards the station from the level crossing. Still looking very traditional with semaphore signals and mechanically operated points, although very much simplified from earlier days. The right signal arm on the bracketed gantry controls movement of trains onto the Heart of Wales Line which use the crossover to reach the right hand platform before branching off to the right at the far end of the station http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4927235.

Looking north from the footbridge at the station. The crossover in the foreground is used by southbound trains on the Central Wales line, which have to use the west platform in both directions before branching off http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4927235. The signalling and points are still all mechanically controlled from the signalbox at the road crossing in the distance.

The Marches Line is one of the remaining secondary routes in the UK still retaining this essentially Victorian technology. A northbound train is approaching from behind the camera and though it will stop at Craven Arms has the "all clear" to the next section indicated by three dropped signal arms. In the foreground is a "facing crossing", a track configuration always avoided if possible. It consists of two "points" or "switches", each of which offers a choice (controlled by the signalman) of two routes to an approaching train. In this particular location, southbound trains bound for the Heart of Wales Line must use this crossing to enter the northbound platform the 'wrong way' before diverging to the HoW branch. Facing points are potentially dangerous as there is a risk of one or more switch blades moving under a passing train causing a dangerous obstruction to both tracks. This risk does not arise with a "trailing" or converging switch as the train simply forces it way past the faulty switch. Facing points are therefore always protected with a complex mechanical system of slotted interlocking bars, attached not only to the point mechanism but also to any signal control wires which directly or indirectly control the point.

The point on the right leads to two sidings (more in the past) which are now, inevitably, little used. The footbridge at Craven Arms station is visible in the distance.

Manufacturing and research & development building, located on the corner of Long Lane and Stokewood Road in Craven Arms Business Park. Agilent Technologies is a global company whose business is the design and manufacture of electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and other equipment for measurement and evaluation.