Swing Bridge East Signal Box

Location type


Name and dates

Swing Bridge East Signal Box (1889-1997)

Opened on the Stirlingshire Midland Junction Railway.

Description

This signal box was at the east end of the Grahamston Swing Bridge over the Forth and Clyde Canal in Camelon/Falkirk. It was subsidiary to Swing Bridge West Signal Box just across the canal. Both boxes opened in 1899 (the west box replacing an earlier box) when the swing bridge was replaced with a double track bridge, before this it was single track. The west box was the principal as it controlled the branch to the Carron Iron Works and the exchange sidings.

In 1908 the second route to Grangemouth opened via Bainsford and Orchardhall, the Bainsford Branch (North British Railway). The new Swing Bridge Junction box took away many of the responsibilities of the west box which then became subservient to the east box. The east box became the block post.

The west box closed in 1927 but appears in 1960s photographs so may have survived as a gate box - there were level crossings at either end of the swing bridge.

The canal closed in 1963 and the bridge was fixed.

In 1988 the western level crossing, which had become a busy road, was lifted up onto a bridge a little to the west of its original course.

The box remained until 1997, replaced by the new 'portacabin' box at Grangemouth Junction which replaced the box there too.

The canal re-opened to through traffic in 2001, but the swing bridge remains fixed. The railway is now electrified.

It had been an attractive box, the rectangular plan had the corners cut off at the canal, west, end to give views over the canal traffic. Even more impressive was its original configuration as to the north was a second building containing the hydraulic pumping station for operating the bridge, complete with a tall tower. This second building was largely demolished in the late 1960s.

The Carron Company Basin was just to the north on the west bank of the canal. The basin and the tramway provided an outlet for the company and was used as part of the route to bring coal to the works.

Tags

Signal box swing bridge
11/06/2020




Nearby stations
Falkirk Grahamston
Falkirk Camelon [1st]
Camelon
Falkirk High
Camelon [1st]
Larbert
Thornbridge Halt
Grangemouth
Bonnybridge
Bonnybridge Canal Goods
Bonnybridge Central
Polmont
Greenhill
Alloa Junction
Upper Greenhill
Grahamston Swing Bridge
Lock 9 [FCC]
Carron Company Basin
Lock 8 [FCC]
Camelon Iron Works
Parkhouse Iron Works
Lock 10 [FCC]
Lock 7 [FCC]
Swing Bridge Junction
Carron Junction
Lock 11 [FCC]
Sunnyside Iron Works
Camelon Basin
Lock 12 [FCC]
Tourist/other
Swing Bridge West Signal Box
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.


Chronology Dates

  /  /1899Stirlingshire Midland Junction Railway
Single track Grahamston Swing Bridge over the canal in Falkirk replaced with a double bridge. Swing Bridge East Signal Box and Swing Bridge West Signal Box replaced.