Historic Birmingham Signal Box Closes After 57 Years 🚉

It's the end of the line for a famous Brutalist signal box which will move its final train on Christmas Eve – after 57 YEARS service.<br /><br />The pre-cast concrete signal box at Birmingham New Street station has divided opinion since it opened in 1966.<br /><br />Fascinating pictures reveal the distinctive ‘Brutalist’ style of the Birmingham Power Signal Box (PSB).<br /><br />The Grade Two Listed building has been at the heart of Britain’s railway network with signallers directing 1,200 trains a day from inside the Soviet-style building.<br /><br />It used a huge telephone exchange linked to mechanical relays controlling signals and points, with staff manually setting safe routes for trains through Britain’s busiest station outside of London.<br /><br />When it first opened it controlled trains between Hampden-in-Arden, Warks., through Birmingham and towards Stourbridge and was one of four power signal boxes in the region.<br /><br />Since 2005 the other boxes closed and the panels in the Birmingham PSB got smaller and smaller as sections of the signalling system were modernised.