Telford Steam Railway volunteers left heartbroken after vandals smash signal box

Workers at the railway were called to the site on Monday and discovered damage to a signal box's brickwork, smashed windows, and graffiti sprayed across the room.

Telford Steam Railway leases the signal box and railway from Network Rail.

The volunteer-run organisation previously repaired the box in 2016 after it was burned down by vandals.

Volunteer, Doug Stoddart, told the BBC that he estimates the damage will cost more than £1,000 to fix, and that the organisation would have to spend more on security.

It's believed that bricks were used to smash the windows.

Doug said: "Every window frame and window in the building has been smashed. That’s really the biggest damage.

"The door hadn't been broken into, they'd smashed brickwork to get into the bottom of it and access upstairs.

"Cleaning up and repairing all the parts that have been broken and scattered about is the biggest job - and then to get it back fundamentally into a heritage type building.

"We're all volunteers, nobody gets paid, we've got to start again basically.

"Everything is done by donations, so money is tight and every penny counts.

"It’s heartbreaking what’s happened. The reasons why they do it, I don’t know."