2nd February, 2024
After dismantling and removal of the ex-Barnstaple signal box from the garden in Umberleigh, a start has been made to assess and conserve the various components. Perhaps the most distinctive and delicate parts of signal boxes are the windows, so this is where work has initially been focussed.
The box was originally built with windows on all four sides, with a total of eleven separate sashes of 6 slightly different sizes/types. 7 of the 11 were fixed and the other 4 slid behind their adjacent fixed sash on plain rollers along rectangular section sash rails. Only three sashes have survived to the present day – a matched fixed+sliding pair from the RHS of the front elevation facing the track, and a larger ~2m wide fixed sash that would originally have been on the rear face of the box overlooking the transhipment siding. At some time post-1935, this large sash had been relocated to the front LHS of the box.