From Tenterden Town Signalbox

First day as a learner in a new signal box. I've been working Wittersham Road for 4 years so am looking forward to learning a second box on the line. This one could not be more different to the splendid isolation of Wittersham Road where the only people you see are on the train and the only noises are of bird song and the countryside.

Tenterden is the hub of the railway, it's the headquarters, where all trains leave and return to. Full of people and always lots going on. Always under the scrutiny of the public who watch you exchange tokens and work the gates.

A much smaller and more straightforward box too. No crossing of trains only dispatch and arrival but it does have it's compensations as there are runarounds where the loco detached from the train and trundles around the loop to attach at the other end. In this view, the blue loco No. 300 has done just that and is waiting to depart with the 1.15pm train to Bodiam. No. 300, aka No 21 is a USA Tank recently returned to service in the colours of the Longmoor Military Railway.

Much easier to open and close than Wittersham too. No involved lever movements and token actions just a bell exchange with Rolvenden and a test token and even quicker at the end of the day.

I'll like it here, I remember first coming down to the railway around 1980 and enviously eying this box and wanting to be a signalman in the box. Well, 38 years later here I am!