Wittersham Road from the Ground Frame

Last day in the Wittersham Road signalbox before the passing out turn on 27th May. So I was out doing things that needed a bit more practice. Here I'm at the ground frame - a series of levers that control the points into the sidings. At the ground frame there is a telephone which you use to contact the signalman, when the box is open, to ask for a "ground frame release" which enables you to operate the points and carry out some shunting of wagons.

Releasing the ground frame to the shunter locks most of the other signals to danger as obviously you don't want trains approaching the station if the line is either occupied by a train or the points set for going into the siding.

When the shunter has finished he will put the ground frame back to normal, which means set for the main line, then call you to say the words you want to hear, "Points set for the main line and the line is clear and safe to run".

This view of Wittersham shows amongst other things the rising gradient of the line toward Northiam. It also over emphasises track distortions too! Shows well the isolation of the station. In all the times I've been there only a handful of people have got on or off the train here. We've seen a few photographers around though.

The day consisted mainly of crossing trains here, there were 4 crossing moves during the day, so plenty of practice at that. The day ended uneventfully for us at 5.15pm but not for others. When I went to Rolvenden with the Long Section Staff I learned that the last up train had stalled at Tenterden Town Station blocking the level crossing so preventing people from leaving the station carpark. Apparently it had run out of steam going up Tenterden Bank and had to wait for 10 minutes to brew up some more!