Whittlesea: We headed back to Whittlesea, where the box is located to the east of the station which has two staggered platforms. This is another Great Eastern Type 7 design box, built in 1887; it now houses a Saxby & Farmer 23-lever frame, reduced from 40 levers. The frame was refurbished in 1996. There are facing and trailing crossovers between the Up and Down main lines, as well as disused sidings on both sides of the line. The facing crossover, operated by point Lever 16, is not signalled and is designated for emergency use only. The box controls four crossings to the west, the one immediately to the west of the station being Key Lock controlled from a Crossing Box, one with just warning lights and then two AHBCs. There is also one AHBC crossing to the east of the station crossing. Due to a fault at the time of our visit, the signaller from Three Horse Shoes was having to telephone Whittlesea to clear the home and combined distant, resulting in Down trains being slowed quite severely.

The furthest signals from the box, particularly No26 Down home, had very heavy pulls, requiring a particular technique to pull the arms off. The interlocking in the box is both mechanical and electrical. The lines are AB in both directions. Unlike most boxes where the toilet has been added to the lever floor, here a flat roofed brick building nestles under the box steps. Whittlesea station serves the town of Whittlesey and carries the historic name of the town. It is unclear how and when the 'ey' ending came about although an 1832 reference to the Second Cholera Epidemic indicates that it was Whittlesea then.

However, the 1849 Whittlesey Improvement Act used the alternative spelling. The station had opened on 14 Jan 1847. One of GBRf's newest locos, 66799, was seen light engine as 17.12 Peterborough New Yard to March Down Reception Sidings and 66593 was on the 15.28 Felixstowe North to Doncaster.

In 2025, the semaphores at Whittlesea have been replaced with 2-aspect lightweight (grey plastic) fold down colour light signals. The Up line signals were commissioned from Mon 31 Mar 2025 and, unusually, the Down line was due to follow from Tue 27 May (BLN 1467.568). Unfortunately, the semaphore arm and associated equipment was stolen from signal W23 on the night of 17-18 Apr (BLN 1471.1019).

Whittlesea Level Crossing: This was our final stop, a modern portable cabin style building at the west end of the Up P2. The crossing keeper controls two manually operated traditional wooden gates, each spanning both tracks. These are hung from concrete posts, with an adjustable hanger - a huge spanner was in the cabin for adjustments! Once closed to road traffic, the two gate Key Lock keys are placed in the Key Lock instrument on the wall in the cabin and turned, allowing the Whittlesea signaller to signal trains. Sadly, the staff here are often in conflict with road users as the gates are sometimes closed for long periods; CCTV is sometimes used by the police to deter and apprehend the worst offenders. As with all the locations we visited, a monitor shows all workings that are due. 66748 was on 15.38 Felixstowe South to Doncaster iPort (-60), 66747 was on 14.41 Birch Coppice to Felixstowe North (-2) with 66761 & 66733 light engine 18.30 Peterborough Maintenance Shed to Whitemoor Local Delivery Centre.






The fixture concluded at 18.50 after almost 10 hours (!), with huge thanks given to LOM Gary Atkins and his signaller colleagues, for a thoroughly enjoyable day visiting signalling installations on his patch, also to our organiser, Nick Garnham. The day raised £730 for the NR nominated charity - Railway Children.