Murrow 1926-1976

[thesignalman]

This photograph was taken of the village sign at Murrow 9/4/80, it is probably still there.

Copyright N L Cadge/John Hinson collection

I am intrigued at the dates, what would be the significance of the 1926?

John

[Hatfield Shed]

Could that be the golden jubilee commemoration marker of the village's formal incorporation with a council? Doesn't mean there was no-one living there in a location known as 'Murrow' before that date, but that it acquired local government independent of Wisbech or some other nearby much larger town.

(Due to what I live in Welwyn Garden City, which was brought into being in 1920s, I have seen objects littering the landscape communicating much the same idea.)

[R. pike]

Is it true the driver who was stopped at the home signal pulled forward to the box to ask why he'd been stopped? That is the story i've heard as to why there was a new signalbox here..

[thesignalman]

Could that be the golden jubilee commemoration marker of the village's formal incorporation with a council? Doesn't mean there was no-one living there in a location known as 'Murrow' before that date, but that it acquired local government independent of Wisbech or some other nearby much larger town.

Thanks. I hadn't really considered that the date might bear little relation to the emblem. Nice, though, that they recognise the railway's past significance.

Is it true the driver who was stopped at the home signal pulled forward to the box to ask why he'd been stopped? That is the story i've heard as to why there was a new signalbox here..

I can't say I have heard that before. I understood it was a freight train derailment that caused it. I don't think an accident report was published - with it involving a freight train and the date being 1941.

John

[Mickey]

Is it true the driver who was stopped at the home signal pulled forward to the box to ask why he'd been stopped? That is the story i've heard as to why there was a new signalbox here..

If that happened it seems a bit 'over the top' to build a new s/box??.

The above post reminds me of a article I remember reading in RAILNEWS back in the early 1970s of a train driver somewhere in the north west of England I recall saying he wish signalmen would give him an explanation every time they stopped his train at signals?.

Mickey

[R. pike]

Is it true the driver who was stopped at the home signal pulled forward to the box to ask why he'd been stopped? That is the story i've heard as to why there was a new signalbox here..

If that happened it seems a bit 'over the top' to build a new s/box??.

Mickey

The signalbox controlled a flat crossing between the GN&GE and the M&GN.

[Mickey]

The signalbox controlled a flat crossing between the GN&GE and the M&GN.

Yeah I believe i've seen some pictures of the box and location a long time ago Richard and if it's the place that i'm thinking about it's a 'flat crossing' as you say located in the 'middle of nowhere' in flat open countryside for miles around.

Mickey

[R. pike]

So not really the place to pull up to the box to ask why you've been stopped at the home signal.

Box diagram..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pwayowen/8497747597/

and the other Murrow..

https://www.flickr.com/photos/pwayowen/8497748487/

[Mickey]

Yeah probably not the best thing to do.

Mickey

[thesignalman]

The signalbox controlled a flat crossing between the GN&GE and the M&GN.

Yeah I believe i've seen some pictures of the box and location a long time ago Richard and if it's the place that i'm thinking about it's a 'flat crossing' as you say located in the 'middle of nowhere' in flat open countryside for miles around.

Hence the design of the village sign, which is where we came in.

I have looked into said accident as far as I can and as far as i can establish the box was demolished by a passing derailed freight train.

Then again, you can now read other things about it on the internet so they must be true . . .

John

[R. pike]

The next far fetched story about a wagon carrying Branston Pickle demolishing a signalbox on the GN&GE. They built a new box to replace it and the same service a year later derailed on the same points and took a chunk out of the new box with the same signalman on duty.

[Mickey]

The next far fetched story about a wagon carrying Branston Pickle demolishing a signalbox on the GN&GE. They built a new box to replace it and the same service a year later derailed on the same points and took a chunk out of the new box with the same signalman on duty.

Wasn't that the signalman who was eating his cheese sarnies at the moment of impact and was alleged to have told the signalling Inspector that funny enough he fancied a nice dollop of pickle??.

Mickey

[R. pike]

And after the second occurrence asked for a transfer to a safer location?

[Mickey]

When you stop and think about it theres probably been a quite a number of signal boxes that were either totally demolished or partly demolished by trains all over the country down the years?.

Mickey

[Hatfield Shed]

There must have been.

One that strikes me when examining the photographs is that wouldn't have taken very much at Harrow and Wealdstone in slightly different positioning of the initial location of the first collision between the two up trains, for the resulting wreckage pattern to have sent the pilot engine of the down train through the nearby signal cabin between the running lines; instead of what actually happened which was demolishing the footbridge span. Once it all starts to go that badly wrong, outcomes are very chancy.