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Totnes Signal Box is a Grade II listed former Great Western Railway signal box, located on Totnes railway station. It presently functions as a cafe.
Contents
Background
The signals at Totnes railway station were initially controlled by "policemen" who walked to each signal to change it. In 1894 they were controlled from a wooden signal box at the west end of the westbound platform.
Operations
In 1923 the current structure was built to the standard blue brick-built GWR design, located towards the opposite end of the eastbound platform. From 17 December 1973 under British Railways it was downgraded to a "fringe box" to the Panel Signal Box at Plymouth railway station, when the signal boxes at Brent and other intermediate locations were closed. The signal box was closed on 9 November 1987, when new multiple-aspect signals were brought into use, controlled from the new signalling centre at Exeter.
Present
Now used as a café, it was one of 26 "highly distinctive" signal boxes listed by Ed Davey, minister for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in July 2013, in a joint initiative by English Heritage and Network Rail to preserve and provide a window into how railways were operated in the past.