Signal boxes of the
MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD & LINCOLNSHIRE RAILWAY

From the early 1870s, block working and interlocked signalling initially spread quickly around the MS&L system, although progress later slowed and it was the late 1880s before all lines could be claimed to be properly signalled.

Some early boxes on the were to contractor's designs, but the majority were built in their own architectural style. The latter were generally fitted with lever frames manufactured by the company in their own works at Godley, which opened in 1875.

Please click on the thumbnail images for more information on each location.

	Blackmoor Crossing Between 1873 and 1880, a large number of boxes were built in the style show here, with hipped roofs and vertical battened timberwork. The glazed area in the centre of the front wall extended down to floor level. Cast ball and spike finials were provided on the roof, although many of these fell off with old age.
	Worksop West This similar box shows signs of having been rebuilt during its lifetime, as the front windows are slightly deeper than the end ones, and lack the centre bank of taller ones. The locking room windows would have been in the end walls rather than the front, too.
	Friargate Crossing The MS&L introduced gabled roofs on their boxes in 1880, creating a design not dissimilar to those built by the Gloucester Wagon Company at this time. The battened vertical boarding was retained from the hipped-roof boxes, but the glazed area was more conventional with two-pane high sections throughout.
	Denaby Crossing This example of the 1880 design has been elevated by the addition of an additional storey. The ground floor, however, is not fully enclosed, and the fencing that surrounds the point rodding, signal wires, cranks and pulleys may have been a later addition.
	North Kelsey Around 1887, the design was modernised by the introduction of horizontal weatherboarding and taller window sections. Some further changes were made to this design from 1896, but most boxes of that type were built in Great Central Railway days, and are therefore detailed on that page.

After the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway reached London, it was (not unreasonably) renamed the Great Central Railway in 1897.