If you enjoyed our #geekthread on the upcoming #HitherGreen engineering work, which marks the end of 46-years of signalling from this brutalist building at London Bridge, you might enjoy this mini-thread... /1

Among the sadness from everyone who has worked at this signalling centre is the knowledge that the railway is always evolving, and when London bridge box opened it took with it some smaller boxes, including the busiest in the country...
Borough Market Jn (pic @RailwayMuseum ). /2

Perched high on the viaduct above the market, it signalled 100 trains per hour at the busiest times, using an old lever frame (pictured), and was a two-man job. Amazingly, the box has been preserved @RailwayMuseum , which reopens to the public on 4 August. /3

While the box now lives in York, it's not hard to spot where it once sat, with a staircase from London Bridge up to the eryie overlooking @Southwarkcathed . There's just a gap in the wall now! /4

At some point the new operating centre at Three Bridges will also be old news, but for now it's cutting edge stuff, with more digital tech coming onstream to help run trains more reliably.
For more on the #HitherGreen work (kicking off Saturday!) see here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/running-the-railway/our-routes/kent/kent-and-south-east-london-railway-upgrade-plan/hither-green-area-signalling-and-track-upgrades/

Addendum - we found this list of the signal boxes that were closed to create London Bridge signalling centre, with their target closure dates, neatly typed up and stored in a scrapbook of signalling memories. When memos were really memos!
Ends.