The Signalling Record Society

The Society Archive

The Archive is currently closed to visitors pending our securing new premises

The Society's archive was established in the 1980s when premises were first rented to house material accumulated by members.

The archive material is mostly in paper form of considerable variety. The quantity and variety continues to expand as will be seen on our archive catalogue page.

With increasing use of computers for record keeping, some of the archive material is being digitised and made available in that form. Take a look at our digital archive page for more detail.

Whilst part of our photographic collection is looked after by Kidderminster Railway Museum we have been accumulating other collections ourselves.

Donations To The Archive

The Archive continues to grow substantially, both from members’ donations and from official sources. The SRS is committed to working with the Railway Heritage Committee (RHC), The National Archives (TNA), National Railway Museum (NRM) and other statutory bodies, as well as Network Rail, to identify and rescue out-of-date records. A number of members with very substantial collections are known to have left these to the SRS in their Will, and the society seeks to ensure that arrangements are in place for a problem-free transfer of the records when the time comes.

We have produced a guide for donors which can be downloaded and printed out or just viewed in your browser. The guide includes sections setting out our policies, what we do and don't collect, digitisation and conservation.

We are also happy to accept donations of money towards the cost of housing and expandng the archive. If you would like to donate some funds please follow this link to donate.

Signalling Records Held at the National Railway Museum (NRM)

Amongst the material held at the NRM is the “Croydon Collection” of material deposited with them during the privatisation processes of the mid 1990s by the S & T Signal Projects Group of British Railways, Southern Region. It comprises a range of drawings encompassing signal box diagrams, locking charts, wiring arrangements, architectural drawings and so on. Whilst the collection is not fully catalogued, John Creed produced a “Finding Aid” to help searchers locating documents in the collection.

The NRM accession number for the collection is NRM 1996-7909 and consists of 187 cardboard filing boxes.

Viewing of the documents requires a visit to the Search Engine at the NRM and advanced ordering is necessary giving them at least one week's notice. Current terms and conditions, requirements regarding identification and opening hours will be found here on the NRM's web site.