Railway enthusiasts have discovered a Great Western Railway building in use as a garden shed in Locks Hill and are in the process of dismantling it for reuse on the Vale of Berkeley Railway in South Gloucestershire.
The property, on which it was discovered , was once occupied by Mr. R. Tabor who was the Area Signal Inspector for British Railways and bought the building for use as a garden shed in the 1950s. Frome Signal Depot maintained the railway’s signals until 1984 from Bradford on Avon to Salisbury and Portland to Savernake from a range of buildings behind the station, only one of which still remains .
These wooden buildings were built in large numbers from prefabricated sections made at Reading Signal Works and were used as small signal boxes.
The householders have kindly offered the building to the VoBR prior to a redevelopment of their property and, once removed to Sharpness, it will be fully restored for use in a railway setting as part of a scheme to re-open the Berkeley branch line to passengers.
