OLD DEVONPORT . UK
Plus parts of East Cornwall and West Devon
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: March 20, 2018
Webpage updated: March 27, 2019

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RAILWAYS IN OLD DEVONPORT  |  LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY COMPANY
MAIN LINE, LYDFORD STATION TO FRIARY STATION

LYDFORD SIGNAL BOX (LSWR, SR, BRSR)

SEE ALSO LYDFORD SIGNAL BOX (SDR, GWR, BRWR)

The first Lidford (sic) Signal  Box was brought into use on October 12th 1874 when the line from Okehampton was opened.  It was situated just before the new terminal Station and contained a 12-lever frame.

On May 17th 1876 the Station became a through Station when the connection to the Great Western Railway Company's Launceston Branch was brought in to use and the trains started running down through Tavistock, Horrabridge, Yelverton and Marsh Mills to Plymouth.  Trains from the London and South Western Railway Company shared the line with those of the Great Western Railway Company for the next fourteen years.

When the new route constructed by the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway Company was opened on May 12th 1890 the signal box frame was  extended to 17 levers.  Lidford was renamed Lydford in 1897.

That original Box was closed on December 31st 1916 and replaced by a new Lydford Signal Box at 207 miles 15 chains mile post mileage from London Waterloo Station.  It had 18 levers on the London and South Western Railway Company's side, who provided the signalmen from now on, and 21 levers in the Great Western Railway Company's frame.  The connection to the Launceston Branch was removed and the new joint Box opened on January 8th 1917.

When new goods sidings were provided and the former link between the two railways was reinstated on November 15th 1943, as a wartime emergency measure, the frame Southern frame was increased to 34 levers and the Great Western one to 25 levers.

Lydford Signal Box was closed on or as from May 6th 1968.