Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo) signal cabin

Elephant & Castle (Bakerloo)
BS
Overview
Opened	2 November 1941
Closed	12 August 1991
Operator	London Underground

Elephant & Castle (prefix BS) was a signal cabin located within the station of the same name on London Underground’s Bakerloo line. Opened as a replacement cabin in 1941 and closed in 1991, the lever frame has been preserved and restored as a demonstrative exhibit at London Transport Museum, Acton Depot.

Baker Street & Waterloo Railway

The first signal cabin on what is now the Bakerloo line platforms opened with the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway extension from Kennington Road (now Lambeth North) to Elephant & Castle on 5 August 1906. Located at the north end of the northbound platform, the cabin was equipped with a Westinghouse B-style electrically interlocked minature lever frame of 15 levers. Whilst the powers given by the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway Act, 1906 permitted exploration of a southward extension, these were not developed upon.

London Transport

Upon the creation of London Transport (LT) under London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB), the standardisation of operating practises as well the upgrading of infrastructure. Elephant & Castle signal cabin was relocated to the southern end of the southbound platform and equipped with a Westinghouse N-style miniature lever frame of 11 levers being commissioned on 2 November 1941. Unlike the original miniature power frame that preceded it, this frame was of ‘push-pull’ design with route levers a controlling a combination is signals and points helping to aid the throughput of trains at this busy two track terminus. This same principle would later be adopted for much larger Harrow-on-the-Hill signal cabin. The implementation of route lever working would come to represent final evolutionary development of miniature lever frames in signal cabins which had now reached their maximum extent of coverage. This would lead on the development of Push-Button Desks first in signal cabins such as Ealing Broadway (1952) and eventually into centralised control rooms such as Earl’s Court (1965).

However, the repeated financial uncertainties that dominated the organisations that presided over LT meant that whilst any technological barriers had been largely overcome, the high up-front cost of re-signalling remained a substantial obstacle. As a result, signal cabins on the Bakerloo line at Queens Park, Paddington, Baker Street, Lambeth North and Elephant & Castle continued to operate well past their intended life spans.

Closure and Preservation

It would take until the 1990’s before sufficient funds were available to fulfil the ambition of signal concentration in the form of Baker Street (Bakerloo) Service Control Centre. Whilst trial operations took place during late 1990, migration began at the northern limit of London Underground control at Queens Park on 6 January 1991. From 12 August 1991, Elephant & Castle signal cabin briefly reached its maximum extent of control with the addition of a Push-Button Desk to control Lambeth North. This hybrid set up lasted for less than a month with the signal cabin finally closing on 7 September 1991 when local area control passed to Waterloo Interlocking Machine Room overseen by Baker Street.

After having lain redundant for several years, the N-style lever frame was brought to London Transport Museum, Acton Depot for restoration circa 2009. The frame now functions as a demonstrator exhibit simulating its operations.