Brampton Fell Signalman - Keith Long

I was born and grew up in Leeds, Yorkshire where I started my railway career in 1960, but was made redundant with the opening of the new Leeds Power Signalbox, at which time I transfered to Brampton Fell on the Carlisle to Newcastle line. It was quite a change to work at Brampton as prior to this I had only worked in city signalboxes at Leeds. The most surprising thing was that Brampton Fell box had electric light and running water but the box I had left at Leeds, which was only one and a half miles from the city centre, had paraffin light and no water.

Brampton Fell operated the level crossing on the B6413 road. The crossing was equipped with boom gates. These were full length gates running on rubber tyred wheels operated by electric motors. They were filled with a clutch so that they could be pushed across if the electric motors failed. They could be difficult to operate in stong winds when the gate with the wind behind it would speed across but the one fighting the wind would be so slow that it would repeatedly trip out the motor. The tyres were the same size as my Vesper Scooter tyres but operated at 75psi. The S&T had a foot pump to inflate them if we got a puncture (which did happen) but they used to take the wheel to the garage at Brampton and use the air line. Other than these problems I found them to be very reliable.

The block section was to How Mill in the Carlisle direction and Low Row towards Newcastle. There was a crossing box at Milton on the B6292 Alston road, Milton had signals and conventional crossing gates but was not a block post and did not signal trains. The block instruments between Low Row and Brampton Fell were repeated in Milton so the crossing keeper knew when to open and close the gates.

The box also had refuge sidings on both the Up and Down sides but no crossover road although one has been installed since I left. The sidings had originally been loop lines between Brampton Fell and Hell Beck but were converted into sidings when Hell Beck signalbox closed. They were also used to detach “hot boxes” which were more common in those days before roller bearings were fitted to freight wagons.

By the time I moved to Brampton in May 1967 steam was rare on the Newcastle line other than on railtours, and the only trains regularly steam hauled were the “Ammunition Trains” between Longtown and Felixstowe, which were always steam hauled until Kingmoor shut to steam at the end of December 1967. The loco returned light from Newcastle as the NE did not have facilities for servicing steam by this time. All passenger trains were DMU operated other than the overnight Stranraer Boat Trains, but on summer Saturdays there were a few dated trains which were loco hauled to either Stranraer or Heads of Ayr.

I left Brampton Fell in March 1969 on promotion to work on the Sheffield & Manchester Electrified Lines, eventually becoming signalman in the Power Signalbox at Leeds which had sent me to Cumberland in the first place. It is interesting to note that I worked in signalboxes from 1960 to retirement in 2005 and was only made redundant twice, the first when Leeds Power Box opened, and the second when it closed in 2002. Infact I was the signalman who worked the last shift there and closed the box for the last time.

I enjoyed my time at Brampton working on and exploring the railways of Cumbria and made many friends there. I hope you enjoy looking at some of the photographs I took during this period.