A visit was arranged to the National Railway Museum at York to participate in an interactive event dealing with signalling through the ages. The event was hosted by Phil Graham, Level Crossing Risk Specialist, Network Rail.

At the museum a model railway, which was installed in the Lancashire and Yorkshire School of Signalling Railway in Manchester in 1908, has been restored by a group of volunteers and is once again fully operational. The volunteers were present to mentor the delegates to operate the layout using scale model signals operated by perfect replicas of signalbox interlocking and operating block telegraph. The trains move realistically in response to the signals.

Following the session on the layout, delegates were then given the opportunity to operate a full sized manual signalbox simulator, which is also housed in the museum, and to observe the repeater displays from York Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC).

This proved to be a very popular event, with delegates having the opportunity to try for themselves a hands-on experience of traditional signaling – something that will soon be a thing of the past.