page_title: Hull Paragon Interchange
section_title: LNER period (1923–1948)
hierarchical_section_title: Hull Paragon Interchange / Paragon railway station / LNER period (1923–1948)
caption_attribution_description: English: Hull Paragon Signal Box Photo taken from Park Street bridge.
context_page_description: Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport interchange providing rail, bus and coach services located in the city centre of Kingston upon Hull, England. The G.T. Andrews-designed station was originally named Paragon Station, and together with the adjoining Station Hotel, it opened in 1847 as the new Hull terminus for the growing traffic of the York and North Midland leased to the Hull and Selby Railway. As well as trains to the west, the station was the terminus of the Y&NMR and H&S railway's Hull to Scarborough Line. From the 1860s the station also became the terminus of the Hull and Holderness and Hull and Hornsea railways.
  At the beginning of the 20th century the North Eastern Railway expanded the trainshed and station to the designs of William Bell, installing the present five arched span platform roof. In 1962 a modernist office block Paragon House was installed above the station main entrance, replacing a 1900s iron canopy; the offices were initially used as regional headquarters for British Rail.
  A bus station was erected adjacent to the north of the station in the mid 1930s.
context_section_description: From 1924 passenger trains running from the Hull and Barnsley Line became able to run into Paragon station with the construction of a connecting chord between the NER and H&BR networks in north-west Hull. The H&BR's Cannon Street station closed in the same year.
  On 14 February 1927 it was the site of a head-on train collision (see Hull Paragon rail accident) in which 12 passengers were killed and 24 seriously injured, caused by a signalling error.
  In 1931–32 the hotel was internally revamped, and expanded by the addition of an extra storey of rooms on the roof, replacing staff bedrooms; and by cement rendered wing on either side of the main entrance; an art deco entrance onto the station concourse was also added.
  A railway museum was established by Hull Museums director Thomas Sheppard in the station in 1933.
  In 1935 the decision was made to resignal the station and approaches, replacing the 1904 electro-pneutmatic power signalling system with an electrically operated system. "Park Street" and "Paragon station" signal boxes were to be replaced with a single box; the running lines out of the station, including those controlled by the West Parade signal box, were to be track circuited. The system was an early British example of electrical interlocking. 48 points were controlled, using thumb switches in the signal box. Power supply was from the Hull Corporation at 400 V 50 Hz three phase, with a backup generator powered by a 28 horsepower (21 kW) Petter oil-engine. The main external system was electrified at 110 V AC, with shunt signals at 100 or 55 V AC; the point motors, previously electro-pneumatically operated were retained, with a 50 cubic feet (1.4 m³) per hour 80 pounds per square inch (550 kPa) max. pressure compressor system, duplicated for redundancy. Signalling was electric lamp backlit. The Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd was the main supplier of the equipment. A new signal box was installed, a LNER type 13, resembling in architectural design the Southern Railway's Streamline Moderne signal boxes, but with square corners.
  During the Hull Blitz of 1941 the station received direct hits on the night of 7 May, with many incendiary bombs hitting the roof. The signal box was badly damaged when a parachute mine exploded nearby during the same night the station's small railway museum was destroyed by fire.
caption: 1930s signal box (2006)
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