Preserving Rail History in 3D
Network Rail has published ‘virtual reality’ tours inside Birmingham‘s iconic signal box, preserving rail history in 3D. You can access here.
In Rail Advent by Janine Booth.
The box stopped operating a year ago, and in March sixty visitors, picked at random from numerous applicants, were taken on a guided tour of the disused Power Signal Box (PSB).
In September, the University of Birmingham’ Human Interface Technologies (HIT) team carried out a comprehensive scan of the insides of the Power Signal Box (PSB). The team made a series of 3D laser scans and taking panoramic images over two floors, including the relay room and signalling panel. It then stitched the various scans and images together to build an interactive online model which is compatible with virtual reality headsets.
This is now freely accessible on the internet.
Built in the 1960s as part of the West Coast main line route modernisation, one of four power signal boxes in the West Midlands, replacing sixty-four manually operated signal boxes. The PSB directed up to twelve hundred trains a day, adding up to tens of millions over its fifty-six years in operation.
It used the Westpac Mk 1 signalling system, and was the last signal box to do so until it closed.
In the months leading up to Christmas 2022, workers installed equipment for the switch from analogue to digital signalling. On Christmas Eve 2022, the switch was made, and control for all train movements through Birmingham New Street – Britain’s busiest station outside of London – passed to the West Midlands Signalling Centre in east Birmingham.
The building will have a new role as a training academy for railway signallers, and conversion work for this has begun already. The outside of the signal box is Grade II listed and will not change. It was listed in 1995 because of its ‘dramatic and exceptional architectural quality’ and ‘strongly sculptural form’.
The building is seen as one of Birmingham’s best surviving examples of Brutalist architecture, a style which features imposing facades built from pre-cast concrete.
More information about the history of Birmingham New Street station is available here.
The University of Birmingham’s HIT team is a research group established in 2003 by Professor Bob Stone, a 37-year ‘veteran’ of the international Virtual Reality community. Prof Stone and colleague Dr Vish Shingari completed the 3D scanning and ‘spherical’ panoramic imagery of the Birmingham PSB in a single day, using a Matterport LIDAR-based 3D scanner and a twin-sensor/lens Insta360 ONE camera. They placed these devices at various locations in the PSB’s Relay and Console Rooms, located on two floors, building an accurate, high-resolution 3D image of the building, which is often referred to as a ‘digital twin‘.
For the complete article on preserving rail history CLICK HERE.
<strong>Note</strong> – If you liked this post click <a href=”http://lidarnews.us11.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=ca4e23e0ae0178817d0fdf309&id=e6f5cb94f2“>here</a> to stay informed of all of the 3D laser scanning, geomatics, UAS, autonomous vehicle, <strong><em>Lidar News</em></strong> and more<strong>.</strong> If you have an <strong>informative 3D video</strong> that you would like us to promote, please forward to <a href=”editor@lidarnews.com“>editor@lidarnews.com </a> and if you would like to join the <strong>Younger Geospatial Professional</strong> movement click <a href=”https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12152921/“>here</a>