Signalling and Signal Boxes along the GCR Routes

Over the course of several volumes, Allen Jackson offers an array of never Allen Jackson before published photographs to lavishly illustrate the story of signalling in the principal constituents of the LNER – continuing here with the Great Central Railway.The Great Central Railway (GCR) started its life as the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), but changed its name with the London extension to Marylebone, which was completed just before the turn of the nineteenth century. Exporting Yorkshire and Nottingham coal, and stretching westwards into north Wales, the GCR formed an extensive and economically significant route that is still in use today as the only line in the world still featuring a wide array of steam locomotives.In the volume in this series concerning the Great Central Railway, Allen Jackson represents a wide cross-section of the remaining signal boxes on Network Rail, including the second largest mechanical signal box in the country at Wrawby Junction, making sure to include full details of signal box lever functions, ways of working, listing classifications, and other valuable information on signalling and signal boxes on the Great Central routes.

Originally hailing from York Allen joined the RAF as an apprentice and served on the engineering side with Cold War aircraft at home and overseas. Still in the RAF he qualified as a teacher at an apprentice training school where he taught Mathematics, Physics and Mechanical Engineering Science. Upon leaving the service he worked for a company who manufacture bespoke computer systems and taught these systems all over the world. Latterly involved with Fire and Rescue Services in the UK and Bahrain from whence he formed his own business in 2004. He has been writing since 2014 with fifteen books with Amberley published so far.