“The Signal Box That Wouldn’t Lie Down” by John McGowan
The Story of the St James Deeping Signal Box: Its birth, death and eventual reconstruction. The Lincolnshire Loop Line opened in 1848 and was, for a short period, the main route to the North and Scotland. The final section, from Peterborough to Boston, is the only section that remains open today and it has been upgraded to allow more freight traffic to pass along it. The Deeping St James Station opened on the 1 August in 1849. It was renamed ‘Crowland /St. James Deeping’ in 1850 and then changed again to St James Deeping in January 1851. The train station was closed to passengers in 1961 and to goods traffic in 1964; the main produce to travel from Deeping St James was potatoes. The station also served the nearby brickworks owned by the Great Northern Railway. A campaign to reopen the Deeping Station was launched in 1995 but failed due to the fact that the station is a long way away from the town. In 2000 plans were made to bring a link from the station into the Deepings – that also failed. In 1876 a Signal Box was built to control train movement by signals and allowed the signalman a good view down the line to his signals. He controlled the progress of trains along the Loop line, which was regulated by a ‘block system’, between the Peterborough power box and the Littleworth signal box and this continued until the line was automated. The Deeping box also controlled the Fox Covert Crossing after the Peakirk signal box was closed. The box’s design represented another variation in Great Northern signal box design. Whilst having a lot in common with the boxes of the same era not many miles away, 16
