Work repair arson hit historic Peterborough railway signal box to begin

Work to repair an historic signal box badly damaged in an arson attack is set to begin – thanks to thousands raised by two young schoolboys.

The Nene Valley Railway signal box at Orton Mere was torched as part of a string of arson attacks across Orton in March.

The box was put out of action by the vandalism spree – leaving two 12-year-old boys, Harry Cowley and Oliver Walker devastated.

But the train mad pair vowed not to let the arsonists win – and planned to go on a walk along the length of the Nene Valley Railway to raise cash to repair the signal box, raising £12,000.

Now works to bring the signal box back to it’s former glory are set to begin.

A spokesperson for Nene Valley Railway said: “The money the two lads raised will be very important for getting the box back into operation. While our insurance will pay for a lot of the repairs it won’t pay for the necessary upgrades, we need to make the box secure plus much of the old signalling equipment is bespoke and will need replacing with similar equipment. We will try to repair as much as we can, again using our own volunteers, but some is to badly damaged.”

The work has already started, with structural repairs now ongoing. The spokesperson said: “The first thing we had to do was clean out the box, salvage any useable or repairable equipment and then get the structure surveyed by an engineer. Dave Gent of Engineering Consultancy Services Ltd (Nottingham) very kindly donated his time for free to come and give the box the once over.

"Luckily the damage is mostly cosmetic and on the upper level of the box, so we were able to begin the repair work.

"Our volunteer electricians made the electrical supply safe, shifting the consumer unit down to the lower level. With the electric supply reconnected our signalling team were able to migrate the control of the points at either end of Orton station from the upper level of the box to a temporary operating position. If we need to we can operate the points without having to wind them by hand.

“We have now let the contracts for roof repairs and building repair. The scaffold for the roof work was put up on Wednesday and the roofer started on Thursday.

"The building repair work will start on Monday 5th June. We would normally have done this with our own station and buildings volunteer team, but they are busy carrying out the refurbishment of our grade 2 listed signal box at Wansford.

"Once the building work is done, we will have to put the signalling system back together and test it before the box can be fully open to operation. As part of the work we will be installing security shutters and fencing to try and prevent further attacks.”

Three people have been arrested in connection with the attack, and have been bailed until June.