Wrawby Junction is a busy

railway junction A junction, in the context of rail transport, is a place at which two or more rail routes converge or diverge. The physical connection between the tracks of the two routes (assuming they are of the same gauge) is provided by turnouts (US: switc ...

located a short distance west of

Barnetby Barnetby le Wold is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England, located between Brigg and Immingham. The village is also near Barton-upon-Humber. Barnetby railway station serves the vill ...

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Lincolnshire, England. At the 2011 United Kingdom census, 2011 Census, it had a population of 167,446. T ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and controls the confluence of the

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

routes from

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the 16th president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincoln (na ...

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal. Retford is located east of Sheffield, west of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Linco ...

and

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town in Lincolnshire, England, and the county's third most populous settlement after Lincoln, England, Lincoln and Grimsby, with a population of 81,286 in 2021. It is the administrative centre and largest settleme ...

towards

Immingham Immingham is a town and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England, on the south-west bank of the Humber, Humber Estuary, northwest of Grimsby. It was relatively unpopulated until the early 1900s, when the Great Central Railway began de ...

and

Cleethorpes Cleethorpes () is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England with a population of 29,678 in 2021. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry ...

. The junction was controlled by a large

signal box A signal is both the process and the result of transmission of data over some media accomplished by embedding some variation. Signals are important in multiple subject fields including signal processing, information theory and biology. In ...

of part-brick, part-wooden, construction and is now controlled from

York Rail Operating Centre York Rail Operating Centre (also known as York ROC) is a Rail operating centre (ROC) located at the south western end of railway station in York, England. The site is one of twelve that will control all signalling across the mainland of the Uni ...

(ROC).

History

Although the railway has served the area since 1848, the present construction is of late-

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

design. Apart from the part-brick construction, Wrawby Junction is of similar design to its companion signal boxes at Barnetby East and Barnetby West. All signal boxes were built about 1916 when the section of route between

Wrawby Wrawby is a village in North Lincolnshire, England. It lies east of Brigg and close to Humberside Airport, on the A18 road (England), A18. The United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 Census recorded a village population of 1,293, in around 600 homes, ...

and

Brocklesby Brocklesby is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the West Lindsey Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated south of Habrough, south-west of Immingham, it is located close to the borde ...

was quadrupled to cope with the growing amount of freight traffic heading for the docks at

and

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...

. As well as controlling this busy complex of routes, Wrawby Junction was also responsible for controlling the entrance to the once-busy railway sidings at

, and the locomotive depot. When built, the lever frame consisted of 132 levers, whilst later, 5 more levers were added at the left hand end (A,to E inclusive). Wrawby Junction was the largest manual signal box in the world to be worked by a lone signaller. Most other large signal boxes require two or more signallers. Wrawby Junction signal box is a grade II listed building, and closed on Christmas Eve 2015, control of the area being transferred to York Rail Operating Centre.

Accidents

Wrawby Junction has been the site of two fatal accidents : * On 17 October 1898, 8 people were killed when a passenger train collided with a derailed goods train. * On 9 December 1983, one passenger was killed when a goods train collided with a passenger train.

Wrawby Junction today

Modern-day Wrawby Junction is still quite a complex location, although changing traffic patterns have resulted in significant rationalisation of the layout. Once noted for its impressive semaphore signal arrays, the whole area is now controlled by colour-light signals. The locomotive depot no longer exists, although the eagle-eyed observer will still notice the old

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

pit between the

and

routes. The sidings see little use, trains may be either recessed or run-round in the Down Reception lines. Additionally, Colas Rail locomotives can be found stabled in what is left of the goods yard sidings. Wrawby Junction signal box closed in December 2015 as part of the re-signalling of the line between Scunthorpe and Cleethorpes.

References

External links

Photo collection at Wrawby JunctionPhoto collection at Wrawby Junction

Modern photo of the signal box
{{coord, 53.5700, N, 0.4206, W, format=dms, type:city_globe:earth_region:GB, display=title, name=Wrawby junction signal box Rail junctions in England