Image caption Built in 1888, the Bury St Edmunds Yard signal required four resident signal men to work the levers Image caption The Skegness signal box in East Lindsey was at the end of the Poacher line which ran from Nottingham Image caption Hebden Bridge signal box was fitted with 36 levers and is one of only a handful of Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway boxes to survive Image caption The decommissioned signal box in Totnes, Devon, has been converted into a cafe Image caption The Downham Market signal box in Norfolk has been well preserved with wood blocks cut to resemble stone Image caption The Grain Crossing signal box in Medway, Kent was responsible for the diverging lines on the approach to the now disused Port Victoria previous slide next slide

Twenty-six of the "rarest" signal boxes in England have been granted Grade II listed status by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey said interest in trains and railways was one of the country's "most endearing and enduring national preoccupations".

The joint venture, between English Heritage and Network Rail, is part of a 30-year plan to modernise the railways.

A number of mechanical boxes are being replaced by regional operating centres.

"These are very special buildings, at one time a familiar sight on our railway system," said English Heritage's senior investigator John Minnis.

The preservation of 26 "highly distinctive" signal boxes would provide a "window into how railways were operated in the past," he added.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Sillito visits a signal box in Norfolk

Hebden Bridge signal box, which was built in 1891, will be preserved as it has a "time warp quality" and has retained its original 1914 signage.

English Heritage said some of the listed buildings could be "rejuvenated" as cafes or museums, such as the 1923 signal box in Totnes, Devon.

In the 1940s there were more than 10,000 signal boxes in the UK. Now fewer than 500 mechanical signal boxes are still in use, according to Network Rail.

The "difficult and expensive" operating buildings limit the "potential of the rail network", it said.

Network Rail said modernisation plans were aimed at improving railway technology so there are fewer delays and higher capacity.

Signal platforms were first introduced in the 1840s, but British engineer John Saxby first created a building housing levers in 1857.

They were designed by private contractors and railway companies, such as Great Western Railway, leading to a huge variety of designs.

The new designations are as follows:

North

Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire

Hensall, Selby, North Yorkshire

West

Bournemouth West Junction, Poole, Dorset

Lostwithiel, Restormel, Cornwall

Marsh Brook, Shropshire

Par, Restormel, Cornwall

Totnes, S Hams, Devon

East

Brundall, Broadland, Norfolk

Bury St Edmunds Yard, St Edmundsbury, Suffolk

Downham Market, Kings Lynn and West Norfolk, Norfolk

Skegness, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire

Thetford, Breckland, Norfolk

Wainfleet, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire

Wymondham South Junction, South Norfolk, Norfolk

South

Aylesford, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent

Canterbury East, Kent

Cuxton, Medway, Kent

Eastbourne, East Sussex

Grain Crossing, Medway, Kent

Littlehampton, West Sussex

Liverpool Street, City of London

Maidstone West, Maidstone, Kent

Rye, Rother, East Sussex

Shepherdswell, Dover, Kent

Snodland, Tonbridge and Malling, Kent

Wateringbury, Maidstone, Kent

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