Yard Clearance and more

Because I haven't blogged for quite a while this blog will cover the last few Tuesdays that we have been in action. So...... most of you who attend Winchcombe will have noticed the Grand clear up of all the S &T stuff from the concrete pads at the far side of the yard. A lot of this accomplished with the able assistance of Neil C and the telehandler.  A lot has been scrapped but all the potentially useful stuff is now neatly stored at the side of our workshop.

Now that we have our excellent new workshop at Winchcombe,  the removal of all the equipment from the old coach which doubled as our workshop and mess area is now complete and the opportunity for superior organisation is now in place!

We are now in the process of planning the replacement of lineside cabling between Gotherington and CRC. The existing cables were not suitable for burial in wet conditions and in certain areas are showing serious degradation - this  together with many surface joints in "brick built coffins" are causing serious concerns. The plan is to eliminate all these joints with continuous armoured cable only jointing at the appropriate lineside cabinets where connections to signals and track circuits are required .

The majority of armoured 10 pair cable will be required for the majority of the run as far as the CRC section signal. A shorter section of 20 pair cable will continue from there.

The plan is, as far as possible, to dig an 18" deep trench to bury the cable and to bore a hole under the Bishops Cleeve foot crossing to avoid disruption of the foot traffic there. Where there is limited access for  mechanical trenching equipment it will be out with the picks and shovels!

The lengths of cable have now been determined - a total of approx 4500 metres.

Of course all this work cannot be carried out in one go - as there is potential for ripping out the existing cable while trenching as the exact routing of this underground is not known. A potential embankment slip at Gotherington is giving concern over possible damage to cables so some detection equipment is now on hand to try and find  them.

We have also been upgrading some of track circuit connections to lineside cabinets. These were made originally using BT telephone wire which is thin and very susceptible to damage. The cabinet opposite CRC signal box has been replaced completely and the wiring with a much more substantial cable. 

Here Peter W is re-connecting the 8 cables 

This week Kevern O, Mike E and Mike S have been fault finding within the track circuits at Toddington. Traced to a loose connection in the signal box locking room! 

Curly