Princes Risborough North Signal Box
The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association is in negotiation with Network Rail over leasing land and extending train operations into Princes Risborough Station. Waiting for us there is the disused Princes Risborough North Signal Box.
PRN Box is/was a splendid 126 lever brick-built bulding, the largest surviving Great Western signal box. It is a listed building. Neither means it is guaranteed not to fall down or rot away! It falls to us to look after this imposing piece of our railway heritage, and it will be a unique showpiece for our railway if we do it well.
After the box’s closure in the 1991, the Association had much involvement in restoring and preserving the box by agreement with British Rail. Over several years considerable work was carried out to restore the box to good condition and to make improvements such as rebuilding a chimney and re-instating one of the original fireplaces. Some of the equipment removed in previous BR rationalisations was re-instated.
Crack on NE wall
However, resulting from rail privatisation (from 1994) the more formal track access and safety regimes began to bite, and eventually a point was reached where it became untenable for Association staff to access the box. Our Personal Track Safety certificates were not recognised by Railtrack. It was then hoped that within a couple of years the C&PRR would extend into Princess Risborough and access via our own land would become possible. The box work was therefore suspended. The two years estimated proved wildly wrong and indeed negotiations are still in progress. The PRN box had effectively been abandoned and has inevitably deteriorated as we watched across the tracks.
The vandals had first go, the 421 window panes providing plenty of targets. Pigeons took advantage and moved in. Weather and time did their worst. In 2004 Network Rail (or its contractors) decided during some other works in the area that it was prudent to seal up the box. All windows and doors were boarded, and the staircase was taken down as the timbers were considered unsafe.
Our approach to once again restoring the Princes Risborough North signal box will be entirely dependent on the timely conclusion of the negotiations with Network Rail and progress on our line extension.
Once the access and ownership issues are resolved, funding will have to be found. The proposal is to prioritise restoration of the building’s fabric, and then to fit/restore the lever frame and block shelf equipment etc. to its post 1958 re-signalling condition with a view to opening the box to the public and demonstrating its operation. The size of the structure offers possibilities of museum displays in part of the locking room, and of other uses of the operating floor level by the Association (as an operations training room, or for holding small functions etc.).
Recently (2011), a little progress has been made. Following an attempted break-in and police involvement, Network Rail and CPRRA attendance discovered some water damage. This led to the arrangement of some supervised access for CPRRA people to limit the consequences, which in turn provided the opportunity to assess the effects of the long period of inattention the box has suffered and to do something about a few of these.
While the main construction tasks (re-roofing, timber replacements, reglazing…..) will clearly have to wait until we own and have unrestricted access to the box and can raise grant and sponsorship funding, it is also clear that some earlier intervention is needed to prevent further deterioration. It looks as though NR will grant us some supervised access so we can do this.
Appeal
The scale of the restoration task means that it will take us several years to achieve, and will need funding of a form CPRRA has not previously tapped. It is anticipated that various bodies such as the Railway Heritage Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund may be supportive, and also that commercial sponsorship may be found. (Wouldn’t it make a good advert for a glazier or a bespoke staircase manufacturer?) Creating the team and process for the significant task of writing grant applications is now a priority.
In the meantime we need to set up some seedcorn funding to allow urgent work to halt further deterioration and to get the main project started, so we have launched an appeal for funds. If you would like to help please either print off and use the form below or click this link to make a donation.
From 1904 to 1991 this imposing signalbox commanded the railway through the Chilterns. Now it needs our help. Can we give it life once more as its builders intended, watching over panniers busy on our branch as Birmingham expresses thunder by? Surely we cannot just leave this building to rot? Please support the project if you can. Thank you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To donate to this appeal using your credit or debit card through this web site click this link.
Form for postal donation to the Princes Risborough North Box Appeal
I wish to support this project and enclose a cheque payable to CPRRA for £_______.
I wish this donation to be treated by the Association as a Gift Aid donation unless I have ticked this box [ ] (CPRRA may reclaim tax paid on your donation (currently 25p for each £1 you give) provided you anyway pay Income or Capital Gains Tax in the current tax year of an amount at least equal to the tax reclaimed.)
Signed: ______________________ Name: ________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Please send this to: PRNB Appeal, 27 Bedfordshire Way, Wokingham, Berks. RG41 3BA, or bring it to Chinnor station on any day the railway is open. In the unlikely event that this appeal is oversubscribed, your donation will be used to support other Association projects.
| ©CPRRA 2011 | Updated: 27/07/2011 | E&OE |