Making a Point

Towards the end of the last season we started having trouble with the locking of Winchcombe Points 19.  Investigation revealed that the facing point lock casting was moving around due to the timber under it being life expired.  I tightened the bolts holding it down and for reliability had to file the lock slot for the normal a bit wider.  Whilst not rendering the points unsafe that did put them outside of the blade tolerance for setting the point lock, so a repair was required before the new season.  Seeing as these points had been in place for over 20 years and that the stretchers and sole plate were second hand, had home made insulation and a lot of packing to make them fit, and were effectively life expired we decided to replace the lot.

S&T removed all the connections (drive, locking, detection and stretchers) and took them away for cleaning, restoration or stripping for usable parts.  P-Way then came in and replaced several life expired timbers, including the one under the sole plate, and fitted a new sole plate.  The sole plate is a metal plate which sits under the toe of the points, on top of that timber, and has pre drilled holes and end stops for the point chairs.  In this case it also has an insulator built in because this section of track is track circuited.  The point lock casting also sits on this plate and is drilled through it.  The purpose of the plate is to hold the toe chairs and the lock casting in perfect register so that the gauge cannot alter and the casting cannot move relative to the rails.

S&T then returned and fitted the locking stretcher, along with an insulation kit at one end (track circuiting again) and detection lugs for the mechanical signal detection for facing moves.  We also fitted two packing pieces to set the toe spacing within tolerance.  This set the switch blades the correct distance apart, so we could then fit the new drive and intermediate stretchers.  These are fitted to one blade, and the other blade's connecting bracket is also fitted.  The stretcher bar is then offered up to the connecting bracket and marked and drilled to suit the spacing, before being fully bolted in place.  This now solidly connected the two switch blades together again.  We next fitted the refurbished drive connecting bar, which is driven from a sliding crank which allows alteration of the throw distance and has a bottler adjuster in its length which allows correct positioning of the blades in normal and reverse.  We re-used the original parts for this, but fitted a new and correct insulator kit in its length (the old one being track pad rubber and 20mm water pipe, those were the days).  This made the points operable from the box for local shunting.

The next job was to fit the facing point lock casting, which Richard C and I did yesterday.  The casting was placed on the sole plate with the locking stretcher running through it, and positioned so that the starting slots in the new locking bar were in the correct places for normal and reverse point settings.

We then marked round the casting with chalk so that we could be sure it hadn't moved during the next part of the operation.  We had previously had some 'top hats' made.  These are stepped ferrules with outside diameters of standard sizes, 3/4" in this case, and a 6mm hole through the middle and in this case allow us to accurately pilot hole the sole plate for drilling (we also used them on the stretcher bars).

Once we'd piloted the holes we slid the locking casting along the lock stretcher out of the way and brought in the mag drill.

This allowed us to accurately drill the sole plate to the correct size for the fixing bolts.  Finally we used a wood cutting flat bit to drill the timber, which showed the timber to be solid and healthy all the way through.  Normally the fixing bolts would be pushed up from underneath, but this is a horrible job if the timber is already in situ, as you need to tunnel under at sufficient depth to knock the 8" long bolts up through the timber.  Nowadays we use stainless steel bolts and nuts, which undo easily after time, so we decided to push the bolts down through the casting and put the nuts (along with 70mm square plates and washers) on the bottom.  These fitted well and were duly tightened up, we use locking nuts to avoid them coming loose.  Should future checking reveal a loose bolt it is reasonably easy to dig out and get a spanner on the nut below.

The above photo shows the finished job with the casting bolted in place.  You can see the bottle adjuster and new insulator on the drive bar, the new drive stretcher, the locking stretcher with detection lugs (blade extenders) (with new insulated rodding couplings) and insulated packing on the right, the sole plate with its insulator to the right, and the facing point lock casting bolted in place.

The next job is to offer up the locking bar, mark the locking stretcher and 'accurately' cut the locking slots.  We don't want to get this wrong as this is a pass/fail when you carry out the periodic point inspections.  Once this is done the lock bar can be reconnected to its drive and the points will lock once again.  After that the final part will be to reinstall the refurbished mechanical detection so that the passenger signals for facing moves are detected. 

As well as all this we have signal G17 at Gotherington stripped for refurbishment and continue to move parts and tools into the new workshop, more on those later.

Merry Christmas

 Just a quick update to let you know we're still here.  As mentioned previously I was away in Australia for all of October and a number of our crew were away undergoing their own maintenance.  Since November we have been gradually moving parts and equipment from the old coach to our new home in our freshly finished workshop.  There's been quite a lot to do, along with a handful of minor repairs and adjustments out on the line.  The weather hasn't helped, see the photo below showing the new workshop in late November, but we are making progress.  Hopefully we'll have a few photos of the inside of the new building soon, once we've got it looking something like.  Also we should be starting some winter maintenance in early January; some disconnection and reconnection and set up of one of our older sets of mechanical points at Winchcombe (P-Way changing timbers) and probably a strip and refit of a signal post at Gotherington.

Until then have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Neil and the S&T gang.

Upgrading Signage

 Tuesday 3rd Sept

A short trip to CRC today to replace some very tired warning signs. The first ones are at the crossing by the signal box:

John B and John P removing the very faded one:

And the bright new one (complying with current regulations) in place:

This one has much more of a visual impact

Then it's back to base at Winchcombe to do a bit of tidying up at the far end of the new workshop. It is planned to reposition the container which is presently opposite the C & W workshop at the side of the set of blue containers here. This to provide more secure and dry storage for our signal spares.

The whole of this area will be tidied up with a covering of stone/spent ballast

Note the drains here which we have surrounded with aprons of concrete.

This area will be used to tidy up the various  larger signalling items which currently are spread around Winchcombe yard.

That's all from me for a while - having a full knee replacement next week so no more clambering over ballast for some time!

Curly

 

And Finally at Gotherington

 Last Thursday George and I went to Gotherington for one last time, with the remaining parts for the ground signal and a tin of black paint.  We fitted the lamp case, balance weight and arm and the disc face and back blind and re-connected it.  We then touched up a few damaged and missed areas of paint on the new signal and ground signal and painted a few bolt heads.  Finally went to the box to correctly set up the signal wire for the new signal (the wire was just a bit too slack).  The adjuster on the lever tail was near the end of its travel and was also partly seized, so we removed the adjuster, placed it in the vice, freed it up and set it toward the longer end of its adjustment.  We then cut the signal wire outside of the box and re-jointed it using a short piece of wire and reducing its effective length by around 6" (we had to use an additional piece of wire and make two joints, as jointing a wire needs about 6-8" spare wire on each end to 'wrap' the joint, therefore to just cut and re-join a wire makes it around 12-16" shorter, which would have been too short).  Once we'd done this we set the adjuster correctly for a good off on the signal.  That completes the job replacing the old wooden post and refurbishing the disc, cabinet and associated connections around them.  The below photo shows the completed job, with the signal box in the background.

I'm off to Australia for most of October and some members of the gang will be absent for several weeks due to medical procedures.  Therefore there will be little to report for a while.  The good news is that our S&T Workshop is now almost complete, so November should see us moving in and setting up for winter maintenance.

More at Gotherington

 Tues 27th August 

A bit more work required at Gotherington today. The reconditioned ground signal which has now been cleaned and painted is ready for replacement on its new foundation block.

It's too heavy to transport fully assembled so today just the base casting is being bolted down. The fittings will be put on next week

The cables routed down the Cotswold side of the track here are in need of proper burial and the track circuit feed cables are being re-routed. So a bit more ballast digging required:

A lot tidier now for the cables between the signal and the lineside cabinet adjacent to the line crossing at the end of the platform. The cabinet has also had a coat of silver paint:

Neil C seen here drilling some new holes in the rails with the motorised drill for the repositioned track circuit connections 

Curly

Gotherington Signal Finished

 Yesterday a slightly depleted gang of Neil C, Peter B, John P and John B went to Gotherington with a truck loaded with signal parts.  We started at the top of Signal G3's new post, fitting the pivot casting and plunger casting, Neil and Peter on the scaffolding, John P fixing parts to the rope as required and John B keeping lookout and passing over parts when needed.  We then fitted the spec plate, lamp casing, lamp back blind, signal arm, and then hung the down rod from the spec plate, finally fitting the finial before moving to the bottom of the post.  At the bottom we offered up the balance weight casting and arm to the down rod and clamped that to the post, then fitted the signal wire angle crank and short connecting wire.  Finally we fitted a down rod guide half way up the down rod.  The operating part of the signal was now complete.  There then followed a quick partial dismantling of the scaffold and wait for the next train to pass, before we offered the ladder up through the scaffold.  The ladder turned out to be exactly the right length, so the ladder bracket and hoop were fitted just below the top fittings and the ladder foot buried in the ground.  We finally dismantled and cleared away the scaffold.  

Unfortunately the wooden post had a wheel and sling at the base rather than the angle crank now fitted and we didn't have enough signal wire with us, nor the correct thimble and shackle, to replace the sling and fully reconnect the signal to the box, therefore we temporarily fixed the signal off (Gotherington Box currently being switched out).  The signal wire and lamp cable will be fitted by Neil C in the near future, to bring the signal fully back into service.

Peter B takes a selfie as Neil C leans on the signal spec plate.

John B, John P and Neil C by the completed signal.

Gotherington Signal Update

 

Last Monday we enlisted the help of our colleagues in P-Way who came out with the Road Rail Vehicle and lifted a replacement post into the prepared hole in the concrete where the wooden post once lived.  We wedged the post near upright with timbers placed alongside it in the hole.

The RRV then picked up the rotten wooden post and headed back to Winchcombe.

On the Tuesday the gang went to Gotherington, and erected the scaffold around the new post.

Here we see the gang pausing whilst 7903 Foremarke Hall comes past, John B doing his lookout duties on the left of shot.

Once the train had passed we completed the erection of the scaffold and stood the post properly upright in the centre of the hole, tying it off at the top of the scaffold.  We then mixed and poured round the post a cement heavy and quite wet concrete mix, trowelling it up to the post to prevent water pooling against the post base.  Once that was completed we went back to Winchcombe to continue preparing fittings for the post.

The next visit will see us fitting out the post and possibly bringing it back into service.  once the scaffold is removed we will also fit the recently restored disc signal.