Princes Risborough North Signal Box.

The Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association is in negotiation with Network Rail over leasing land and extending train operations into Princes Risborough Station. Waiting for us there is the disused Princes Risborough North Signal Box.

Princes Risborough North Box is/was a splendid 126 lever brick-built Great Western box, possibly the largest such "in preservation".

After the box's closure in the 1980s, when it was listed grade 2, the Association had much involvement in restoring and preserving the box and its equipment as official custodians by agreement with BR. However after privatisation of the BR network this was halted due to increasing access/safety rules, and the building has deteriorated once more.

Over a period of years considerable work was carried out by the Association to restore the box to good condition, to refit the missing part of the frame (rationalised by BR in the 1960s/70s) using equipment from elsewhere, and to make other improvements such as rebuilding a chimney and re-instating one of the original fireplaces.

However, resulting from privatisation (1994) the more formal track access and safety regimes began to bite, and eventually a point was reached where it became impossible for Association staff to access the box because our Personal Track Safety certificates were not recognised by Railtrack. It was then hoped that within a couple of years the C&PRR might extend into Princess Risborough and access via our own land would become possible. The box was therefore "mothballed". The two years estimated proved wildly wrong and indeed negotiations are still in progress. The PRN box had effectively been abandoned and has inevitably deteriorated as we watch across the tracks.

In 2004 Network Rail (or its contractors) decided prior to some other works in the area that it was prudent to seal up the box (without the prior knowledge of the Association). All windows and doors were boarded, and the staircase taken down. The latter has subsequently disappeared, which is a loss since while the timber may not have been in good condition it had all the original cast iron tread and socket plates.

The current position is that the Association has no means of approaching the box due to PTS issues, and no simple means of getting in once there due to the boarding and lack of staircase.

Our approach to once again restoring the Princes Risborough North signal box will be entirely dependent on the outcome of the negotiations with Network Rail and progress on our line extension.

Once the access issue is resolved, funding will have to be found. The proposal would be to prioritise restoration of the exterior fabric, and then to restore the lever frame and block shelf equipment etc. to its post 1958 re-signalling condition with a view to opening the box to the public and demonstrating its operation. The size of the structure offers possibilities of museum displays in part of the locking room, and of other uses of the operating floor level by the Association (as an operations training room, or for holding small functions etc.).