Shropshire Star

Historic Shropshire signal box demolished overnight

A historic railway signal box in a town was wiped off the landscape overnight.

Published

The signal box in Wem was demolished over the weekend. Traffic was banned from using Aston Street in Wem at the level crossing from 10pm on Saturday – and by the time many people woke up the following morning the signal box had gone.

It had been deemed obsolete by Network Rail as part of plans which have seen signal boxes on the Shrewsbury to Crewe line ditched. Level crossing barriers, including those at nearby Wem station, are now controlled remotely from Cardiff some 120 miles away.

A signal box in Prees has already been demolished, and another at Harlescott in Shrewsbury will be taken apart during the weekend of August 22.

Plans to scrap the box in Wem were first revealed back in 2009 with residents immediately concerned automated signals would put lives at risk on Britain's sixth most misused level crossing.

Other residents had hoped to re-open the box as a tearoom or museum to keep it as part of the town's heritage.

But Network Rail chiefs made the signal box fully automated in 2013 and stuck by their plans to remove it.

Pauline Dee, Shropshire councillor for Wem said: "We have asked Shropshire Council if it could be listed, but it said it was not viable.

"I think it was another landmark that has gone in Wem. It's unfortunate when we tried to get it listed to stay in situ or taken down and moved to a museum that they weren't able to do that because it had such a lot of replacement, it wasn't an original signal box but it would have been nice to keep it. It had historical value and it was a landmark."

Many residents in Wem took to Facebook groups such as the Wem Train Station Safer Group and similar sites to share their sadness at the loss of the historic box.

Rail enthusiasts across the country have called to save historic signal boxes with some protesting in a bid to stop demolition.

Some have been in place for more than 100 years and many consider them to part of local heritage.

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