Over a hundred and thirty years ago, the North Eastern Railway
erected three signal boxes to control a triangular junction near
Norton-on-Tees, north of Stockton. Three routes met here, from Northallerton
and Darlington (via Stockton), Hartlepool and Ferryhill.
Two of these three survive today - Norton West was renewed in 1910. Norton East is not regularly manned, as the west to east portion of the triangle no longer carries regular traffic, and is boarded up to provide protection against vandalism.
However, Norton South (depicted here) is very much alive and well. This view, looking towards Stockton, shows the Ferryhill route to the right of the cameraman as being the straight route for traffic, although not the main line, and it is worth noting the home signal has the arms mounted at the same level. Just in front of the signal box can be seen a cut-out speed restriction sign with an arrow indicating a limit of 20 mph for the diverging route.
That signal is distinctly modern compared with the box, and probably dates from the British Railways era. The main post is crudely constructed from four pieces of angle iron, welded together at intervals with steel plates for strength. It has since been replaced by a colour-light signal.
A closer view of the box
shows how it is neatly tucked into the embankment. The brick base reaches to
roof level at the rear. Unusually, the gabled roof is at right angles to the
line - this feature could occasionally be found on early boxes, but became
impractical as larger frames necessitated longer boxes. Later boxes on the
Central Division of the NER were built in the style illustrated at
