Thursday, May 14, 2009

It's not a cottage, it's...

...a signal box on the side of the railway line, somewhere in East Sussex - presumably not far from Rye.

A signal box is where the signal man used to manually operate levers and handles so that various pieces of equipment were set in the required position for each train that passed. The raised design also provided the signalman with a good view of the railway under his control. These days, signal changes are managed remotely, so no idea what the signal boxes are used as, but there are several dotted around South East England, and I reckon this is one of the prettiest.

If you're a railway enthusiast, you can read (a lot) more about the Rye signal box here and about signal boxes in general on Wikipedia. Apparently, signal boxes are called signal cabins in Ireland, interlocking towers in the US and postes d'aiguillage (literally "shunting stations") in French.

Never let it be said that blogging isn't educational.

8 comments:

Gattina said...

How interesting ! I have been in Rye ! Each year in August I stay a week with my friends in Langley/Eastbourne and this year I will go there for the yearly airshow. I love this coast !

Tinsie said...

I've never been to Rye or Eastbourne - how bad is that?!!

Maria Verivaki said...

love it - it's a whole house to me

Karen said...

I agree with Med kiwi--it's a whole, adorable house to me!

Tinsie said...

It's pretty tiny though!

palmtreefanatic said...

wow! thats interesting!

Betty Carlson said...

Interesting, it looks like it's been spruced up a bit compared to the photo from your link. It STILL looks nicer than the French ones...

Tinsie said...

Yeah, I think it's had a lick of paint and new signage at the very least. Who knows what it looks like on the inside though? It could be falling apart...