Bloomfield Junction is another of the boxes I worked regularly under supervision in the 1960s. It was on the Stour Valley, with Deepfields the next box towards Wolverhampton (left of diagram), Tipton the next box in the Birmingham direction (right of box diagram) and Tipton Curve Junction the next box on the branch (top right of the diagram). It was a very tall ex-L.N.W. box with a two-storey brick base. The height was because the Great Western line from Priestfield Junction to Dudley crossed over the Stour Valley line just on the Birmingham side of the box. The extra height meant that the signalman was given a good view of the double-track junction he controlled.
At that time, Deepfields box closed at night and the block section then extended to Spring Vale Sidings box. On the branch, with only a freight service, Tipton Curve Junction was only open as required. When this box was closed, trains could run off and onto the branch at Tipton but every train for Deepfields direction required the Porter-Signalman to walk from Tipton to Tipton Curve to open the box. This arrangement, as the name implies, meant that most of the shift was taken up with porter's duties at Tipton Owen Street station, with brief sorties to Tipton Curve Junction box when necessary. There was often a lady on this duty.
In addition to controlling access to the branch, there were both up and down sidings. The South Staffordshire Wagon company on the up side generated a reasonable traffic in wagon repairs. On the down side, the canal wharves had originally been served from the former Great Western line but, by the time I was there, the extensive sidings were served via a connection from our Number 2 Down Siding. Various freight trip workings were booked to call and shunt Bloomfield as required. I remember T312 and T208 (the Tipton Shunt) particularly.
Most of the running signals were upper quadrant semaphores. However, the down starter (lever 42) was a multiple-aspect colour light. We cleared it from red to yellow and then Deepfields cleared the signal from yellow to green as his distant signal. Occupation and clearance of the track circuit in the rear of the signal automatically put the signal back to 'Red', even with the lever still reverse in the frame. Similarly, Deepfields' Up Starter had been replaced by a colour light. In this case our Up Distant lever 1 changed Deepfields' colour light from yellow to green.
The lever sequence for trains on the Up Main was 2, 3 and finally 1. The top six inches of lever 1 had been removed, as a reminder to signalmen not to take a swing at it, because the only action of this lever was to work an electrical contact box under the floor. The lever sequence for normal down trains was 44, 42, 45 and 46. Lever 42 was shortened, being the colour light. Levers 45 and 46 worked weight bars some distance away and practice was needed to make the electrical repeaters move to the 'OFF' position. Too often, the repeaters would hang in the 'WRONG' position, meaning that the distant signal was imperfectly shown, merely "cocked" rather than pointing up through 45 degrees.
The block shelf running the length of the lever frame at shoulder height carried three absolute block instruments of ex-L.N.W. 'Fletcher's Double Needle' pattern. This old-fashioned design combined the block indicator for the section ahead (controlled from the box in advance), the block indicator for the section in rear on the opposite line, our switch (or commutator) for setting the block indicator and the single-stroke bell with 'tapper'. Many railways used three units - "non-pegging" indicator, "pegging" indicator and bell but the L.N.W., with economy and elegance, had integrated them from an early date. In large boxes with a number of block instruments, the Fletcher 'DN' reduced the 'clutter' on the block shelf. Bloomfield had just three block instruments, communicating with Deepfields, Tipton Curve and Tipton boxes. The gongs of the single-stroke bells were all a different size, so as to produce different tones. A signalman could recognise which box was calling from a single 'Call Attention' beat.
I spent many happy times working this box and watching the trains go by. Even as the engineering work started to electrify the line, I could not imagine how completely a way of life would shortly be swept away.
