Active Signal Box LTD

About Us..

As with many new ventures, this idea was conceived during Covid-lockdown; with long periods stuck around the house with little to do. I am fortunate to have the railway as my neighbours and after watching many trains pass, I wanted to design something that would show me when the next train would pass. I live in the same village that I grew up in and as a carefree child I was always exploring the local area and would regularly visit the local signalbox. Even more, I have fond memories of visiting the box and have a photo of me with the Signal Box Layout in the background. Times have changed but after a lot of research I have managed to pull together a number of resources that enabled me to draw the layout and bring it to life with real time data. And that is the start of a new journey..........

Background

Since the initial launch I have commissioned work for a number of clients and each time learning how to perfect my craft. Each layout take an enormous amount of time to reasearch, draw and code; but these are my hobby and the results are well worth the time. Originally I started with smaller layouts that fitted into A4 frames but it quickly became apparent that these were much better being larger and more of a centre-piece. The smaller layouts are still available to order and the recent supply issues have now been resolved. Please contact me with your requirements.

News

January 2023 - Happy New Year! The LED kits to Activate your Signal Lamp are now available. The kit sits inside your Signal Lamp and changes the colour of the LEDs based on the colour of a specific Signal on the rail network.

December 2022 - the LEDS required for the smaller layouts are back available and I have already completed 2 requests to extend a previous layout. Over the next few weeks I will contact interested parties to see if they remain interested.

November 2022 - after a lot of work; the application to decode the signal data is now available which means it is now possible to add LEDS to show signal colours onto the layouts. The signal data is not available for all signal areas so please contact me for details.

October 2022 - system resiliance; new servers have been installed and a backup system is available in the event that the live servers fail. The backup servers have had new disks to improve the read-write performance

September 2022 - system security; new passwords and firewalls have been introduced to keep intruders out. This is only necessary on the servers as remote access is disabled on all clients

Price List

It is possible to create a design for all routes where the signalling has been upgraded and is no longer managed by local signal boxes. The price of a layout depends upon the complexity of the design and of the number of Train Berths that are being mapped. If you have a section of track in mind, please contact me to discuss the options. Already existing designs are are offered on a discounted rate.