I wanted to get back to the work which I liked most of all, the work as Railway Signalman, and in 1966 I returned to the railway, this time on the London Midland Region. The first job I had, after learning, was signalman at Elstree, Hertfordshire, on the St Pancras line. It was a very busy signalbox with four running lines with facing cross over roads between the up and down fast and slow lines. The names 'fast' and 'slow' were always used by the London Midland and Scottish (LMS) railway, the names 'main' and 'relief' were always used by what was then the Great Western Railway (GWR). Many express passenger trains ran between St Pancras and the North Midlands, using mainly the fast lines, while stopping passenger trains and freight trains mostly used the slow lines, but some times it was necessary to divert a train from fast line to slow line or vice versa. The lever frame at Elstree was a Midland type, as were the block instruments. I preferred the GWR type lever frame that I had used when working on the Western Region, and better still the London and North Western (LNW) type lever frame, which I worked on subsequently.
Elstree signalbox was close to a tunnel, on the London side of Elstree station. Further on was the next signalbox at Mill Hill station. The signalbox at Radlett was in the opposite direction towards St Alban. Not far from Elstree was a hospital for mental patients called Shenley. The reason I remember it is that one night when I was on duty a man came up the steps of the box and, as he was only wearing a vest and pants, I let him in. He was evidently a patient from Shenley and, so far as I can remember, I rang up our Control and they arranged for a member of the Shenley staff to come and take the patient back. Fortunately, the patient was quite pleasant.
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