Built in 1873 by the Furness Railway to the design of Lancaster architects Paley & Austin, who designed the rest of the station and buildings nearby at Drigg and Bootle. The original signalman was a man called George Glaister, who would operate it from 5.45am till 9.50pm in the summer and 8.00am till 6.00pm in the winter, his day off being on Sundays. The signalbox's main purpose was to serve the goods yard which adjoined the "Owd Ratty" 3' gauge mineral line that ran up to iron ore mines above Boot in Eskdale. With an 18-lever Easterbrook frame and Tyers 3-position block instruments, it was unusally raised up above the adjacent bridge carrying the footpath, giving an especially good line of sight to the north, well beyond Saltcoats level crossing. The 'box was closed by British Railways in 1965, upon the closure of the goods yard, but it was acquired by the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway Co. Ltd. and used for a time as a library, until it fell into ruin and the steps collapsed. Up until 2000 it was the subject of a restoration project and won the R&ER's volunteer signal engineer, the late Gordon Nichol, the Ian Allan Heritage Award. It is now opened up on occasion throughout the year, at Bank Holidays and when main line railtours are schedueled to pass through on the "big railway".

Trackplan of the Furness Railway Goods Yard at Ravenglass  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View of the interior of the restored signalbox     

                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The signalbox, seen from the footbridge over the main line  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a Weekday working timetable for Ravenglass with Northern Rail and Direct Rail Services traffic included - Click here to download this file

Bibliography

RAVENGLASS Roman Port to Railway Junction by Peter van Zeller

It's been a lot of fun by the R&ERPS

Freightmaster by Mark Rawlinson