Monthly Archives: April 2015

Successful Railcar Weekend at DRC

THANK YOU to everyone who came along and visited and supported the display stand at Didcot Railway Centre this weekend!

We were especially impressed by our young visitors who were particularly interested in Newbury Emergency Panel and loved operating the route-setting switches! It’s a sign of things to come when young visitors will be operating switches on Swindon Panel and seeing the results in the indications.

Well done to everyone who helped run the stand, including today (Sunday), which we weren’t originally expecting to open!
If you weren’t able to visit us this weekend, don’t forget we’ll be back during the bank holiday galas in May.

More photos of the weekend available at: http://photos.swindonpanel.org.uk/index.php?/category/113

Have you got more photos? If so, we’d love to see them!

Spring Raffle – Now Closed

THE SPRING RAFFLE IS NOW CLOSED.
Thank you to everyone who took part. – Results


Our Spring Raffle is open now!

There are some fab prizes to be won, and all funds will be used in the move and restoration of Swindon Panel.

Top prize is a pair of First Great Western tickets, first class, or even on the Paddington to Penzance sleeper train!

Other prizes include :

2. A family entry ticket to Didcot Railway Centre
3. A family ticket on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway
4. A copy of Adrian Vaughan’s brand-new latest book ‘Railways Through the Vale of the White Horse’
5, 6. Swindon Panel Society Ties
7, 8. Swindon Panel Society mugs
9. A selection of vinyl depot stickers

Thank you very much indeed to all our friends for their most generous donations of prizes:

First Great Western Didcot Railway Centre The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Crowood Press

Raffle tickets are available:
* from Society officials
* at the SPS stand at DRC on 18 April
* at the Gathering on 25 April
* at the Panel Visit on May 9th
* at the SPS stand at the DRC steam gala on 2, 3, 4 May
* at the SPS stand at the DRC diesel gala on 23, 24, 25 May
* you can also purchase online https://www.heritage-ops.org.uk/product/226/

(Raffle tickets purchased online will not be posted out (to maximise funds for Swindon Panel), but we will advise you of your raffle ticket numbers by email.)

The draw is on Monday 25 May at 1pm at Didcot Railway Centre. Winners will be notified shortly after.

Farewell Slough PSB

SLOUGH PANEL, Swindon Panel’s older sister, will signal its last train forever later this evening.

The panel, a Henry Williams / WR turn-push panel exactly the same type as Swindon, opened on 13 October 1963, as part of the Reading-Hayes MAS scheme and in its early life it signalled ex-GWR steam trains. It controlled from from West Drayton East, where it fringed with Hayes, to White Waltham, between Maidenhead at Twyford.

As part of the scheme a new box was opened at Maidenhead to control mechanical connections the branch to Bourne End (which still had a passing place at Cookham), and West Drayton West Box was recycled as ‘West Drayton’ to control the Staines branch there.


The panel shows off three types of train describer at once. The Sodeco mechanical describer on the Relief lines; Neon “union flag” or “calculator” train describer on the Main Lines; and VDU train describer in the process of replacing both temporarily positioned on top of the panel. Saturday 16th January 1993 with the signalman on the on the Control phone. [Phil Bellamy]

As with all railway locations the layout has been rationalised a lot over the years. There was originally a running junction between all four lines between Burnham and Taplow, and at West Drayton East. (West Drayton East has since been removed and now re-instated in all but name at Stockely Bridge!) There was also a sizeable loco depot on the down side at Slough. It is hard to believe that back then the signalmen would have looked towards across from the panel towards the east loop and bay line, and what is now just two simple tracks would have been lost inside a mass maze of railway either side of it!

Right: Across all four lines at Maidenhead East from the Down Main to the Bay Line. [Phil Bellamy.]

In later years of course steam gave way to diesel and the popular and long-serving HST, and Hayes and Twyford West boxes gave way to Old Oak Common and Reading Panels. The box is now fringed on both sides by the Thames Valley Signalling Centre.

The panel has always had a great community of present and former signalmen/signallers. Many Slough PSB staff progressed on to Old Oak Panel, Reading Panel or Slough IECC and still work on or around the area. We wish all the present and past signaller of Slough PSB the very best with their future careers.


To TVSC. From TVSC. [Phil Bellamy]

The West Drayton area was resignalled at Christmas 2014 and is now controlled from the Hayes desk in the Thames Valley Signalling Centre. The new Slough desk will open over the Easter weekend and will take over the remaining area of control, from Iver to Waltham. This will fill a gap in the TVSC’s area of control, giving it continuous route coverage all the way from London Paddington to Culham, Uffington and Lavington.


A panoramic shot of Slough Panel by signaller Andy Stuart.

For more photographs of Slough PSB, see our photo website.