Some time later I was successful when I applied for a signalman's post at a bigger and much busier signalbox called Denham East. Denham Station Box was on the north side, there being four running lines between Denham East where I worked and Denham Station, and two running lines between Denham East and West Ruislip, which was on the south side. The box was built quite high above a canal so I could sometimes see passing barges. I very rarely saw the signalman at these other boxes, although they were on the same shift as I, and only spoke to them on the telephone when necessary. While I was on duty I would often not see anyone, except passengers in passing trains, and this suited me very well. I would occasionally see, and could have a few words with, the ganger, whose job was to inspect the track each day. The signalling inspector visited the box at certain intervals to sign the train register book, as he did at the other signalboxes in his area. The only other persons I normally saw each day were the signalman I relieved when I came on duty and the signalman who relieved me when I had finished my turn of duty and was ready to go back home.
Most of the passenger trains were locals from and to Marylebone, and a few express passengers between Paddington and Birmingham, Snow Hill. There was one express from Marylebone called The Master Cutler that went via High Wycombe and north to Sheffield each day during the week. We also had quite a lot of freight trains especially at night; the only other trains at this time were usually trains carrying the next day's newspapers. One occasion while I was on duty sticks in my memory. An express passenger train was passing when the guard opened his window and threw out a piece of paper tied to a piece of coal to stop the paper from being blown away. I went down the box steps to recover the paper and found that it contained a message requesting me to telephone High Wycombe station to have an invalid chair ready when the train arrived, as a person on the train was ill. Of course, I was able to do this immediately and presumably everything came to a satisfactory conclusion, although I never heard anymore about the incident.
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