Regular visitors could not fail to notice the changes to Stopham Road Station. The water crane positioned between the tracks always concerned us, not just becuase of the risk of impact with one of the narrow gauge locos if it was not returned to position, but also the fact that passengers could easily reach the arm and grab it.
Extending the platform has been an aim of the Railway for many years. Initially it was impossible because of the old access to the swimming pools, but once this was closed there was room for about 15ft of extra platform. The next hurdle was the insulated joint activating the crossing and the starter signal. The track replacement programme in Feburary 2018 gave us the ideal oppurtunity for the insulated joint to be moved, which was easily achieved by the S&T gang. The final problem was the starter signal which was on a gantry with the inner loop signal. Simply moving the signal back was not practical becuase of the curve making for poor visbility. The S&T Gang put their thinking caps on and came up with the ideal of splitting the gantry signal in half, leaving the inner loop signal where it was and placing the starter signal at the end of the platform.
