User Announcement: Knighton Crossing Project

We are pleased to announce our second early partner for openSignalBox - the Knighton Crossing Project! This museum project, under construction in Norway, is a recreation of a level crossing signalbox on the GWR mainline between Didcot and Swindon, set in the early 1950s steam era. It features a new-build 14-lever frame and will make use of telephone audio interactions and permissive and fog working practices. The idea of the Knighton Crossing Project is to allow members of the public to work a highly realistic interactive signal box simulation, showcasing British signalling to Scandinavians!

Below are photos of the original Knighton Crossing signalbox, a mockup of the proposed frame and block shelf layout, and the finished new-build frame during locking fitting.

Original Knighton Crossing signalbox.

Knighton Crossing block shelf design.

Knighton Crossing frame under construction.

For openSignalBox the main challenge here will be providing a realistic telephone experience between the different signallers, control offices and loco crew. It will be the first deployment of our Asterisk-based telephony system, using SIP adapters to connect vintage telephones to the simulator. Initially using recorded conversation, the next stage will be to implement a softphone agent using AI-powered speech interfacing to provide meaningful interactions.

Knighton Crossing telephones.

The Knighton Crossing project requires the following features from the simulator:

  • Implementation of absolute and permissive block working regulations.
  • Interfacing to Schneider, industrial relays at multiple voltages.
  • Interfacing to relay contacts and proximity sensors for lever and block circuit detection.
  • Interfacing to GWR block bell lines.
  • Interfacing to Tyer’s permissive block instrument on goods line.
  • Interfacing to Spagnoletti block instruments for mainlines.
  • Interfacing with signal, lamp and track occupancy indicators.
  • Interfacing to gate wheel to enable road traffic to be simulated requiring the correct operation of the gate mechanism.
  • Interfacing to selector telephones, omnibus telephones and direct line phones for calling Fogmen and initiating simulator sequences.
  • Simulation of a selection of working timetables, including fog working, switching out, single line working and other operating failures.
  • Simulation of ground frame working being released by the signal box, when shunting is required.
  • Spatial sound effects based on traction and train type.

The hardware definition is still in progress and will be updated here when complete.