Token Instrument

 Tuesday 26th Oct

Quite a good turnout today with six of us in action. 

Neil C and John P set off to Gotherington to re-bond a replacement rail.

While the rest of us waited to board the 10.10 from Winchcombe.

For a trip to Cheltenham Racecourse

Our objective is to reclaim some surplus rodding rollers and castings from the stools heading down to the points from the signal box. There are several stools with sets of six rollers attached but only two are in use. 

Mindful of the fact that we needed to catch the DMU back to Winchcombe to reunite us with our lunch, we had to leave several stools for another day. Unbolting turned out to be more difficult than anticipated with the growth of brambles and seized nuts. Next time we'll come armed with a battery angle grinder to cut them off! 

We will need some of these when the pointwork at Toddington is re-configured.

The token instrument in Toddington signal box is proving a bit problematic to operate so we are attempting to provide another one. We have two almost complete units which hopefully can provide us with a fully functioning one. Looks quite complicated inside!

We finished off the day with chopping up some posts to provide kindling for the signal box fires/stoves. These posts were the ones holding up the rotted Greet Tunnel sign (South end) - this has now been replaced with a posh new one - so a bit of useful recycling achieved. Axeman John P in action

Curly

Various Stuff

 Tuesday 19th Oct

A couple of problems to sort out at CRC today - so a trip with P & O with shovel, pick and tools in buckets.

The Signal wires opposite the signal box where they disappear into the tube to pass under the foot crossing have become snagged in weeds and ballast so we have cut back and cleared the problem.

The Signal wire for signal 1 has become too tight and is at the limit of its adjuster. Malcolm has made a link to extend it in the locking room but first we must tie off the wire outside to give some slack to allow disconnection and insert the link.

 A bit awkward getting in between the wires, pulleys and levers but the link has been inserted and the adjuster now has about 6" to play with and the signal showing a good "off" 

While we were in the locking room we gave all the pulleys and angle crank pivots an oiling. 

Thursday 21st

A picture from Peter W concerning the refurbishment of a token instrument by Andy D. There are a lot of damaged tokens which have been cut up to be sure that they cannot be used. Hope to get some pictures and a bit more detail of this instrument next week

Curly