User Announcement: Lowdham Railway Heritage

We are pleased to announce our third early partner for openSignalBox: Lowdham Railway Heritage! This museum project started as the resignalling of the Nottingham to Newark line came to fruition and Lowdham box was one of four made redundant in 2016. A group of Lowdham residents formed a charity, Lowdham Railway Heritage (LRH) with the aim of moving the signalbox from its original inaccessible location to some spare land at the other end of the station and restoring it as far as possible to how it looked in the mid-1950s. The box has been running successful open days since summer 2021, with the first open day being on the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Nottingham to Lincoln railway in August 1846.

The frame has had its interlocking remanufactured to how it was prior to rationalisation in the 1960s and most of the equipment is now wired up and working, albeit with a manual simulation. LRH are eagerly awaiting getting involved with openSignalBox.

The sepia photo below is of Lowdham in the Edwardian era – the photographer, Mr Spree, died in 1932:

1932 sepia photograph of Lowdham station and signal box.

The next photo shows the box in its new location at the other end of the station in 2024:

Lowdham signal box today.

The black and white photo below is of Jack Hammond’s last day as Lowdham signalman in November 1969, taken by the Newark Advertiser – the newsworthy feature is that Jack didn’t have a single day off sick in his 49 years working for the railways. But it means that LRH have been able to restore the box to exactly how it was in the 1950s (very little would have changed from the mid-50s to the late 60s).

Signalman Jack Hammond in Lowdham signal box in 1969

By comparison, this is a recent photo from the same spot. The only intentional difference is that the point and signal levers to the goods yard don’t have a fresh coat o’ white paint! And the view out of the windows is different as the box has been moved:

A recent recreation of the 1969 photograph

Lowdham signal box requires the following features from the simulator:

  • Implementation of absolute block working regulations.
  • Interfacing to relay contacts for track circuits, and digital inputs for proximity sensors for lever and block circuit detection.
  • Interfacing to block bells using the Bell Interface Board.
  • Interfacing with signal, lamp and track circuit indicators.
  • Interfacing to the gate wheel to enable road traffic to be simulated requiring the correct operation of the gate mechanism.
  • Interfacing to the block telephone, the omnibus telephone and GPO telephone for initiating simulator sequences.
  • Simulation of a selection of working timetables, including shunting onto the wrong line for an express to pass a slower goods, and the pickup goods shunting in the yard.
  • Hand signals to the drivers, as many movements are not controlled by ground signals.
  • Spatial sound effects based on traction and train type.
  • Appropriate video clips shown as certain things happen, such as:
    • Video of gates opening or closing as the gate lever and wheel are operated
    • Video of signal moving to danger or clear as the lever is operated
    • Video of point blades moving as the lever is operated
  • Although the box diagram only had one track circuit in the 1950s, the 2013 diagram had 12. LRH would like to put a digital output card in the back of the diagram and illuminate the track circuits as real trains pass using the open train times database from Network Rail.
  • LRH as also working with a partner who is developing a 3D train simulator using games software (UnrealEngine 5). LRH would like to have the ability with all the same hardware to run either the 3D sim or openSignalBox. It is envisaged that some of the interfacing and low-level modules of openSignalBox will be used for either mode of operation. OpenSignalBox should be able to interface to UE5 using this TCP communication plugin.
  • LRH plans to use a number of 16-input 16-output Modbus cards which also have LAN and WiFi network connectivity. By standardising on a single product, they can carry just one spare to cover any failure. The card is opto-isolated on the inputs and drives SPDT relays for output. There will be one card in the block shelf for the block instruments, telephones and track circuit, one behind the frame to read the lever proximity sensors, and one each in the ‘modern’ track diagrams. This will drastically reduce the amount of wiring.