There were four separate visits in parallel with visits to Birmingham New Street Power Signal Box. 20 members rotated between the boxes in five groups with convenient train travel between them using nearby Duddeston station.

Aston Signalling Centre/Vauxhall Shunt Frame opened in 1957 as Vauxhall (prefix VL) with a 100 lever mechanical frame. The box is a British Rail London Midland Region design, 'Type 15' (size number 12). Type 15 signal boxes were designed to be modular so that structures of various sizes could be built. Similar Type 15 signal boxes also opened in 1957 at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Deansgate Junction & Wigton.

During the 1966 West Midlands Multiple Aspect Signalling (MAS) major resignalling scheme it was reduced to a shunting frame and renamed Vauxhall Shunt Frame. The new Birmingham New Street Power Signal Box electrically 'released' the frame to allow movements to and from the Up Sidings, Down sidings, Bad Wagon Line, and the Down Through Siding. It no longer controlled the Up and Down Fast lines or the Up and Down Slow lines which were then controlled by Birmingham New Street itself. Not controlling all the lines in front of the box was a taste of things to come!

The box was relatively busy, with movements to and from the wagon works on the Down side and the carriage shed on the Up side, but decline was inevitable. The carriage sidings and shed finished in the mid-1980s when maintenance and cleaning of stock transferred to Oxley depot. The layout was so cramped that many trains (loco hauled of course then) had to be split on arrival and joined to come out - every time. In June 1990, Curzon Street box closed and the remaining sidings were brought under control of Vauxhall Shunt Frame. Duddeston Carriage and Wagon Works closed three years later.

The Cross-City line electrification in the early 1990s had a positive impact for the box. While Erdington, Four Oaks and Lichfield City signal boxes were abolished in Oct 1992, a new 'eNtrance and eXit' (NX) panel was installed in the box from 12 Oct 1992 as part of the Aston - Lichfield resignalling scheme. To make room for this, the mechanical frame was cut back to leave 20 levers - numbers 81 to 100 - only one fifth of the original frame [80 leavers then‽]. The remaining levers continued to control shunt movements to and from the wagon works until its demise in 1993.

When this new panel was installed in 1992, the box was renamed Aston Signalling Centre (Aston SCC), with the prefix (AN). It now has the unusual, (but not unique) distinction of not controlling any trains at its location. Since the resignalling was funded by BR (Regional Railways Central), the nameboard (a metal sign) is in the style of the early 1990s era. In contrast, the BR London Midland 'Vauxhall Shunt Frame' nameboards remain at both ends of the box to signify the former dual use of the signal box.

When Lichfield City signal box closed the former Lichfield - Walsall route was reduced to a single track and control transferred to Aston Signalling Centre from 25 Oct 1992. By then it was just a branch from Lichfield to Brownhills Charringtons Oil depot (the Anglesea Siding Branch). This heating oil traffic ceased in 2001; from 26 Mar 2005 the branch was secured OOU, the track circuit showing 'occupied'. Vauxhall Shunt Frame itself was abolished in Aug 2000 when Proof House Jn was remodelled. The 20 levers and frame remain to this day but the diagram and associated instruments have been removed.

Aston SCC is a Grade 4 single-manned box, operating 24 hours with early, late and night shifts. The method of working was Track Circuit Block between Aston North Jn (excl) [now reduced to Gravelly Hill Crossover (excl) from 27 Dec 2017] to Lichfield Trent Valley (TV) Jn (excl). At the time of the visit it fringed at Aston North Jn with Birmingham New Street Power Signal Box (but now with West Midlands Signalling Centre Proof House Workstation at Gravelly Hill Crossover - excl) and with Lichfield TV Junction mechanical lever box. There is no bi-directional working except for shunt movements and trains crossing to, and terminating on, the Up side at Lichfield City, Four Oaks and Blake Street.

Terminating Down trains at Lichfield TV P3 (High Level) are manually controlled by Aston SCC but the approach signal to the station, joint signal number TV5 and AN165, on the Down Sutton line is 'slot' worked, shared between it and Lichfield TV Junction. A slot is a 'permission' or consent for a route to be set, usually between adjacent panels or boxes, or into yards or sidings. Slots work in two ways: ●By preventing a route from setting until the slot has been given. ●By allowing routes to be set, but preventing the signal from clearing (showing a proceed aspect) until the slot has been given. Needless to say there are variations and complications to this! The line continues through Alrewas, north of Lichfield TV Junction, using the more rudimentary absolute block method of working. Of note on the Aston panel a laminated card notice is used to remind the signaller if the latter box is open or closed!

The control area has 3-aspect main running signals in both directions, most are automatic and a simple version of Automatic Route Setting (ARS) is available with many controlled signals having an auto setting. Aston SCC also has Train Operate Route Release (TORR) which means the signaller doesn't have to pull up the signal button on the panel for controlled signals (which is the traditional practice of replacing a signal to danger after the passage of a train). The route releases automatically ready to be set for another train thus reducing workload at busy times. This enables the ARS function to operate. Unlike many panels, there are no track circuit berth train describers on the main panel. Instead the signaller uses the Control Centre of the Future (CCF), the graphical representation of real-time operations on a VDU, with a keyboard on the panel enabling manual entry if required. There are also no block instruments or block bells in the box.

During off-peak weekdays, there are six trains per hour north from Aston, two terminate at Four Oaks, two at Lichfield City and two at Lichfield TV P3, the pattern repeating every half hour. Lichfield City and Four Oaks each have facing crossovers along with Blake Street which, Monday to Saturday, has one early morning starter (06.34 to Longbridge) and a late evening terminator (22.27 ex-Longbridge) with their corresponding ECS movements, which entail the use of the facing crossover there.

There are also trailing crossovers at Lichfield Trent Valley, Wylde Green and the extremely rare one between Gravelly Hill and Aston. It is also a diversionary route with regular CrossCountry PSUL and ECS movements over the line late in the evening for traincrew route knowledge retention. Therefore while much of the route is double track plain line, there can be many trains on the move at once to monitor with a burst of activity every half hour when each of the three southbound trains starts out on its respective journey within a four minute period and have to be set up in the CCF.

Thanks to NR hosts Gary Strickland, Richard Cartmell, Stuart Edwards and the duty signallers for a most interesting visit. Special thanks to John Cowburn for the excellent arrangements; it is good to report that £430.03p was donated to The Alzheimer's Society as a result of these and the New Street visits.