A rare colour look inside Bristol East Signal Box. In the foreground lever 233 is reversed, this was a shunt signal from the down goods to No. 1 spur (headshunt to Bristol Goods); a signal that would have spent most of its time cleared. There is what appears to be a reminder appliance on lever 218, a shunt signal from the Up Relief to the Down Main. The signalman while on the phone looks to be swinging 210 points, a crossover between the Down Relief and the Engine Line. Perhaps there's a locomotive just come off Bath Road Shed standing behind 218? The signalmen are from left to right, Cliff Porter, Ted Law and Bill Lomas

© Ray Whiteford via Peter Rendall Past-Track Publications

Interior photograph sometime after the closure of Bristol Old Station Signal Box in 1965.

© Unknown Photographer

© British Railways
Great Western Railway Handbook

Inside Bristol East sometime after closure of Bristol Old Station Signal Box.

© Unknown Photographer

Taken after the ladder connections between the Up Relief and Dr Day's South Carriage Sidings were disconnected on 29 June 1969 and sometime before closure of the Box on 9 March 1970. I think it must be just before closure, the photograph probably taken by the Evening Post newspaper for a report on the resignalling of Bristol Temple Meads. The instruments on the left are interesting, not appearing in any other photographs I've seen. They may have been to release the ground frame that replaced Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box when it closed on 28 July 1968? On the Midland Lines Bristol East now fringed with Mangotsfield North Junction.

© Bristol Evening Post

Bristol Temple Meads East Signal Box in the mid sixties as a peak trundles off the Midland lines and through the complex junction towards the down side of Bristol Temple Meads. A number of minor alterations had taken place recently. The left hand "Up Old Station Starting" signal on the gantry originally had different signal heads for each route. By the date of this photograph it had been replaced with a 4 aspect Multiple Aspect Signal with a position 1 junction indicator. Lever 80 would still signal trains along the South Wales Up Relief and lever 83, with the junction indicator, would signal trains towards the Up L.M.S. The position light shunt signal with associated stencil indicator would be for routes to Dr. Day's Bridge South Carriage Sidings via lever 85 or towards Dr. Day's Bridge North Carriage Sidings via lever 86. The "Down Old Station Line Inner Home" that the Peak has just passed also originally had separate heads for each route. Now replaced with a 3 aspect MAS signal with stencil indicator for routing along the Down Old Station (lever 340), the Down Relief (lever 352) or the Down Main (lever 356). The position light allowed access to Temple Meads Goods using lever 332. In the foreground are shunt signals appertaining to the Up Relief and the Up Main respectively for movements towards Bristol.

© Alex Seal