About this book: Mechanical signalling has been on the way out since colour signalling was introduced in the 1920s. It was originally intended to replace mechanical signalling by the millennium, however, there are still odd pockets in the system today. There is a network rail project to finally eliminate the last boxes and mechanical signals in the next few years, replacing it with a dozen railway operating centres. this book looks at the last mechanical signalling on the network. The author's inspiration for the book came when travelling the country to look at revived and re-opened lines for the author's first book: Railway Renaissance. In doing so, he realised that capturing images which featured semaphore signals gave a sense of context and history to what he was photographing, and so grew the germ of an idea to shift focus away from the lines and trains themselves and to capture as much as possible of the remarkable signalling heritage. While many fine signal boxes remain, only a small proportion of them still control semaphore signals and, in many cases, only a handful of signals apiece. Southern England, as a case in point, has NO remaining routes where semaphore signals remain, apart from the short, inaccessible and freight-only Dudding Hill Line in North London, but other isolated survivors exist in places as far afield as Greenford in North-West London, Deal in Kent, the seaside resorts of Hastings, Bognor Regis and Littlehampton on the South Coast and Yeovil in Somerset. 

Even so, at the time of writing, there are still sections of route across the remainder of England, as well as in Scotland and Wales, where there are no significant outposts of mechanical signalling to be viewed and appreciated. The chapters in this book will hopefully bring them all to life - those fine examples in Cornwall (seven mechanical boxes between Liskeard and St. Erth); notable survivors in East Anglia (nine boxes with mechanical signalling on the Wherry lines from Norwich to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft) and the Marches Line northwards from Newport to Shrewsbury where there are a dozen surviving boxes from Little Mill Junction near Abergavenny to the 'big daddy' of mechanical signalling, Severn Bridge Junction at Shrewsbury. There are many more in the rest of the UK of course, but it must be pointed out that though the focus of this book is primarily on working semaphore signals controlling passenger and freight running lines, there are other examples of mechanical signalling to note - these are the short-armed shunting signals and discs, which -in some cases- have survived when all other signals in the vicinity have been replaced by colour lights. Examples noted in the book are March and Sleaford, but others worthy of mention include those in the goods yard at Peterborough, which can be seen from trains passing on the East Coast Main Line and are controlled by Eastfield signal box, while there are others in the yards at Willesden Junction and Tyseley, and manually-worked shunt signals at Wokingham, for example. 

AUTHOR: Gareth David is a lifelong transport enthusiast who has been following railways and transport photography for most of his adult life. He trained as a journalist and helped to launch Open Access Operator Grand Central Railway Company. Gareth is also a volunteer on the Mid Hants Railway, where he works as a booking clerk. This is his second book for Pen and Sword Publishing.

Chapters: The Author; Introduction; Chapter 1: East Anglia; Chapter 2: South of England; Chapter 3: South-West England; Chapter 4: Wales and Borders; Chapter 5: The Midlands; Chapter 6: North-East England; Chapter 7: North-West England; Chapter 8: Scotland; Chapter 9: Ireland; Bibliography; Index