Doncaster PSB - The Signalling Centre

The Signalling Centre

The signal box is a two storey brick building, with the upper section clad in black ceramic tiles, the signal box complex houses the ground floor relay room, telecommunications room, standby generator room and also houses the maintenance team with offices and mess facilities. On the first floor is the signalling control room.

Dominating the control room is a 110 feet long illuminated signalling control panel, the wings of which are inclined towards the centre. On the near-vertical portion of the panel is depicted the track layout of the area controlled. Positioned on the layout to correspond with the location of all signals are push buttons which are used for operating points and clearing signals along the route selected for the passage of a train. Track circuits, which indicate the position of trains, are also shown on the diagram in distinctive colours.

Television monitor screens for two of the seven level crossings monitored by closed circuit television (CCTV) from Doncaster PSB, are inset into the panel itself (Kirton Lane & Rossington)and the other five are mounted on a separate desk console (Daw Lane, Arksey, and Moat Hills on the ECML; Bentley, and Dock Hills on the Leeds line).

Also on hand in the signal control room are read-out units for the special line side equipment, located at 16 sites, which detect overheating in the axle boxes of vehicles on passing trains. If an abnormally high temperature is recorded, the equipment will indicate the exact position in the train of the overheated axle, and the signaller can have the train stopped and the vehicle examined.