Mainly Victorian…but getting there.

How has technology changed your job?

Change? What’s that?

I work on the railway, in many aspects there has been a technological change especially in the development of new rolling stock and safety aspects.

However where I am in the East Midlands we still use an awful lot of Victorian technology, and yes you travel over it every day especially if you use the line that goes between Leicester and Peterborough via Melton Mowbray. Here we have signal boxes that still use Absolute block technology with the signallers using bell codes to communicate. The signalling is the Victorian semaphore signal type and the signal boxes all have large amounts of levers to pull using a wire and pulley system to activate the signals. Most of the boxes themselves are listed buildings and can’t be renovated in any way, yes some of them are getting on for 150 years old.

In my job I spend an awful lot of time on this line, I must admit it is very safe and quite reliable, however sometimes the system has issues that need attending and due to a lot of parts being widely unavailable due to the systems age, this is when the new technology gradually gets implemented. It’s taking time but as they say on the railway….

We’re getting there.

Maybe not today, or tomorrow, but who knows when.

Don’t ask me 🤷‍♂️

We’re getting there.

Have a happy and safe day.

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Author: Balders

Passionate hobbyist, restoring the past, one old camera at a time. iPhone14 Max Pro - Sony A7II and about 80 others from the days of silver halide 📸 Main aim in life - Retirement

2 thoughts on “Mainly Victorian…but getting there.”

  1. Working with Victorian railway tech in 2025 feels like asking a grandpa to run a marathon—he might surprise you, but don’t expect him to sprint. There’s something beautiful about these old machines still clicking and clanking along, like wise elders refusing to retire. Sure, the world is racing ahead with digital everything, but these signal boxes remind us that slow doesn’t mean stupid—it means steady, careful, and full of stories. Progress is great, but respect for the past is what keeps the train from jumping the tracks. And sometimes, “We’re getting there” is more honest—and human—than pretending we’ve already arrived.

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