Amazingly Twenty-six of the “rarest” signal boxes in England have been granted Grade II listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, minister Ed Vaizey said interest in trains and railways was one of the country’s “most endearing and enduring national preoccupations”.

I can’t say I have ever been into train spotting…but it takes all sorts. Saying that the above image of the signal box built in 1888, the Bury St Edmunds Yard signal required four resident signal men to work the levers and it does look quite cool. I just love Victorian architecture and yes this does count as such!

English Heritage with the help of the government will preserve 26 “highly distinctive” signal boxes would provide a “window into how railways were operated in the past,” he added.

Signal platforms were first introduced in the 1840s, but British engineer John Saxby first created a building housing levers in 1857. They were designed by private contractors and railway companies, such as Great Western Railway, leading to a huge variety of designs.

The new designations are as follows:

North

• Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire
• Hensall, Selby, North Yorkshire

West

• Bournemouth West Junction, Poole, Dorset
• Lostwithiel, Restormel, Cornwall
• Marsh Brook, Shropshire
• Par, Restormel, Cornwall
• Totnes, S Hams, Devon

East

• Brundall, Broadland, Norfolk
• Bury St Edmunds Yard, St Edmundsbury, Suffolk
• Downham Market, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk
• Skegness, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
• Thetford, Breckland, Norfolk
• Wainfleet, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire
• Wymondham South Junction, South Norfolk, Norfolk

South

• Aylesford, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent
• Canterbury East, Kent
• Cuxton, Medway, Kent
• Eastbourne, East Sussex
• Grain Crossing, Medway, Kent
• Littlehampton, West Sussex
• Liverpool Street, City of London
• Maidstone West, Maidstone, Kent
• Rye, Rother, East Sussex
• Shepherdswell, Dover, Kent
• Snodland, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent
• Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent