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The box won the Westinghouse Signaling Award at the National Railway Heritage Awards. The award was presented at a ceremony at the Merchant Taylors Hall in London.

Welcome to Scarborough!

For over 100 years it has been the first sight train passengers have had of their imminent arrival in Scarborough. Perched right at the end of Platform 1 of what was originally Scarborough Central station, it is a testament to the enduring skills of Britain's Victorian railway engineers.

Like much of their legacy, the signal box, has stood the test of time. It has seen thousands of trains - and literally millions of passengers - come and go. Now, perhaps to mark its centenary, this little piece of railway history has been given a well deserved make-over.

Train passes the signal box

Network Rail has spent thousands of pounds refurbishing the signal box. It's probably fair to say the box looks better now than it has done for years, perhaps even better than it did in its heyday! After all, it now boasts such 'mod-cons' as central heating, double glazing and - for the first time in its history - even has an inside loo!

The company describes the signal box, which is a grade II listed structure, as "an important part of our railway heritage" and it has been "delighted to be able to work with the North Yorkshire Moors Railway to bring it back to its former glory."

Signal levers

In the age of computers and digital technology, a complex network of levers, rods, wire and chain still control the signals and points which regulate the arrival and departure of trains at Scarborough station.

Falsgrave signal box was built in 1907 by the North Eastern Railway (NER). It has a staggering 120 levers which control the signals and points between the stations at Scarborough and Seamer. Until the 1960s it also used to look after trains travelling between Scarborough and Whitby, although that line has long since closed. (It was shut down two years before the 'Beeching cuts').

Mick Hewitt

Although mechanical signal boxes like this are still a fairly common sight in the UK (there are around 600), Falsgrave is one of the biggest according to Mick Hewitt, one of the signalmen who works there.

"There are 120 levers, around 60% of are still connected and perhaps 40% are still in regular use."

Despite being from an "age gone by", Mick says modern technology has been incorporated to provide electrical failsafe devices which work alongside the mechanical locking devices which the Victorians used.

Setting the route

"It is old technology, but there's quite a lot of relatively new technology attached to it. So instead of just the mechanical locking that the Victorians produced, there's electrical locking as well which was installed in the 1950s.

"To get a train out of, say Platform 5, you have to set the route. If the route's not set correctly the mechanical interlocking won't let you pull the levers out of the frame, so it's quite safe in that way."

Nowadays, the life of a signal man in the Falsgrave box is a lot quieter than it would have been in the past. "It's no-where near as busy as it used to be" says Mick.

Mick Hewitt on the signal box balcony

"Until around 30 years ago there were three signal men on each shift - earlies and lates - and on nights there were two signalmen. There was a tremendous amount of traffic in and out, plus freight work."

They were needed to cope with all the passenger trains to and from York, Filey, and Whitby, the freight traffic, shunting in the goods yards, not to mention the tens of thousands holiday makers who used to arrive in the resort on special excursions during the summer months.听听听听

Mick is enormously proud to be carrying on this tradition

Falsgrave signal box

The team involved in the refurbishment - led by Gary Booth from contractors Construction Marine Ltd - has gone to painstaking lengths to make sure the work they have done is in keeping with the boxes original look. The building is around 70 feet long and has windows on three sides. Each window has dozens and dozens of small panes of glass. These have all been replaced with the double glazed equivalent and rather than the ubiquitous uPVC, the new frames are all wooden, like the ones they replaced.

"When I first started here" says Mick Hewitt " it was very drafty, very cold, a nice box but showing signs of its age... sliding wooden windows with very thin glass and lots of gaps.

A steam train passes the restored box

"It's nice now because the refurbishment means we've got lots of modern conveniences - like central heating and carpets - and the windows don't rattle anymore. They're all double glazed but they've been renewed in sympathy with the original design, so there's lots of individual panes, they still slide but once they're closed they're nicely sealed so it gets nice in warm in here, quite cosy!"

A lot of work has also gone into making sure the paintwork is right. The colour scheme (cream and oriental blue) is an identical match to what was used by British Rail North Eastern Region in the late 1950's. It's the same colour scheme used at Grosmont signal box on the nearby North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The refurbishment involved lengthy discussions with Dave Fenney from the NYMR, who gave advice on what bits should be painted which colours. Paul Hughes, who is also from the NYMR, did a lot of research on how the signal box would have looked and provided the contractors with drawings to help them make things like the 'Scarborough' platform sign and the 'Falsgrave' signs which are at either end of the building.

Mick Hewitt is delighted with the way the refurbishment has turned out "it's a nice box to work says Mick "everyone looks after it as best they can."

So next time your train pulls into Scarborough station - whether it's this year, next year or in five or ten years time - have a quick look to your left, give Mick a wave and admire how well the old signal box is looking!