Cable Covering

 Tuesday 16th April

Back again to the viaduct today to finish off. The large cable passing over the viaduct is not fully protected at the northern end, so some additional troughs need positioning into the ballast

We took the route via Stanton "yard" with the blue pickup and drove slowly and bumpily trackside up to the viaduct with a load of concrete cable troughs - before the first train of the day.

Plenty of hands to dig away the fresh ballast and set the troughs in position

Job done with cable now well protected. John P, John B, Neil C and Peter W surveying the Job!

No wasted return journeys so we retreived a pile of cut-off dipped rail ends destined for the skip

The roof struts for our new S & T workshop are now beginning to appear in position 

in the Winchcombe yard

Curly

Team Bonding

 Tuesday 26th March

A good team out today in the diesel railcar ( avoiding the service trains I have to add!) to complete the jobs on the viaduct to enable the line to Broadway to be re-opened on Friday.

So...... with Neil C with the two John's P & B  Peter B and myself we set off to the viaduct.

 The main objective was to re-install the bonding wires at the  rail joints (made easier now that there are several welded joints of 120ft lengths on this section).

First the drilling of the pairs of holes each side of the fish plates for the bonding wires with the motorised drill

Then a bit of ballast shovelling to create a channel to fit the protective yellow tubing for the connecting cables for the track circuits. 

Then feeding the existing cables from the linesde cabinet in the background into the yellow tubes going under the track.

and then out through radial holes drilled into tubes

and then connected to posts on the rails - Neil spannering them up!

We heard the relay in the cabinet operating as the connections were made -so all is well!

Couldn't resist taking a shot of the track over the viaduct as we left - it is quite a site with the pristine ballast, etc

Have to say we are missing Malcolm W following his retirement from the railway - his many recollections of his experiences with our railway were legion!

Curly

Cheltenham Bracket Signal Completed

 After a lot of work by the team and the intervention of Covid we have at last replaced the bracket signal at Cheltenham.  The new bracket and dolls was erected in February, as per Curly's previous post, and then Malcolm and Neil scaffolded around the whole structure and working from the top down applied all the fittings.  The bracket finally being completed and tested on Thursday 22nd February. The completion of this project was quite a fitting 'last job' for Malcolm, our leader for many years, who retired on 1st March.  We wish Malcolm a long and happy retirement.  Below is a photo of Malcolm posing on the finished bracket.

Cheltenham Signal Renewal

 Tuesday 30th Jan

The bracket signal at Cheltenhan RC has succumbed to the ravages of the weather,  so the time to replace it has now arrived.  We have been preparing a complete replacement for it over many months in Winchcombe yard ( well documented in previous blogs).

The CRC signal has had all its fittings removed a fortnight ago and was lifted off its concrete block last week ( unfortunately no pics). Now been offloaded in Winchcombe yard with only its dolls and upper ladders attached 

There is a huge number of fittings on one of these bracket signals - about 150 individual pieces (including split pins!) - here's a selection

Cleaning these up for possible future use will keep us busy for a while!

Thursday 8th Feb 

The replacement bracket signal was taken from Winchcombe yard and offloaded onto its concrete base at Cheltenham.

Scaffolding now to be erected and all fittings to be attached. 

The flanged base of this post is quite a bit larger than the old one and overhangs the concrete block so some shuttering was required to infil the void underneath.

Neil C levelling off:

Curly

Broadway, the Concentrator pics

 Just a couple of internal Pictures which we meant to take when we were last there, I popped back  and here they are

A general view of the Blockshelf, Track Circuit Diagram and the finished Concentrator complete with 700 series phone.

 

 Thats about it for now, as I said earlier- Its the end of a 10 year project, now about those Paxes?

Mike S

 

Concentrating on Broadway

 Jus before the August Bank Holiday we got  involved in the new Signal Box at Broadway.

 Most of the Signal Post phones are mounted on the side of the Trackside Cabinets  so it was just a nut and bolt job,, but these things are rarely simple and two of the fixings were fine but the third had to go through the front internal timber so the bolts we had got specially wernt quite long enough!

 

The Concntrator unit itself had been in stock for some time  and gradually we ironed out the dusty gremlins  and  interconnected it down into the Locking Room and thence to the external Cable Heads 

There is one location a bit different from the others , its a 706CB  ( standard apart from having no dial) and it sits in rather a handsome  heritage correct pull down  cabinet 

So that just about completes the upgrade programme that we started back in 2013.

 In fact heres a pic of my original 3000 type prototype which was taken in Sept that year.  

 

The present versions have all been vastly improved and upgraded to almost entirely solid state thanks to  Keverns electronic skills and a bit of my dodgy woodwork!

So thats that project completed so now to pay more attention to the Strowger paxes, hoping to keep them working for a few years yet!

 Oh nearly forgot, the Team pics, here's (from left to right) Paul, Mike and Kevern) Dont forget  young Peter who took the picture! 

 

 

The Steps

 Tuesday 11th July

I missed the installation of the steps for the token exchange platform at Gotherington due to hospital visits last Wednesday, but a picture has been e-mailed to me. 

So here it is with Malcolm W posing for the collection of an imaginary token!

They managed to get the black gloss on and dry on the steps in time for the diesel gala!

A good substantial installation. It is now about a foot closer to the track than the old one which should make exchange much easier.

Curly