Cabling Continues

 Tues 3rd Feb

Various activities associated with the re-cabling project  going on today and this week.

Hole boring under the Bishops Cleeve Foot Crossing was proceeding at great pace. Two approach troughs have been dug out to enable the pneumatic powered vibrating mole to approach well below the footpath. Two 1" bore tubes have been inserted - one to feed through our current cable replacement and one any future cabling that may be required (future proofing!). This photo courtesy of John B:

Mike S and Mike C have been practising their skills in the workshop today at preparing the ends of 10 pair armoured cable . Getting the tough outer layers cut off requires a well practised technique. Mike E is our expert at this and has been doing most of the new  cable connecting so far. While he is on holiday, the other two Mike's are preparing for action. Here are some examples of cable prep from Mike E

Very tough outer and inner armouring

followed by 20 grease coated wires (10 pairs) - gets a bit messy doing this on site sitting at a lineside cabinet!

So on Wednesday Mike S has been to CRC to connect sections of the cable in the lineside "shoebox" at Southam Road bridge

and then up to the Section Start signal to install an additional phone on the side of the adjacent cabinet

 

John P spent most of the day in the workshop drilling and assembling a new stretcher for the replacement pointwork at CRC

There is a great feeling of development and cooperation in S &T at the moment - so much stuff is getting done. Kevern O. is spending much time sorting out the outstanding electrical work required in Broadway and Toddington signal boxes . 

Exciting times!

Curly

Cabling in Progress

 Tuesday 27th Jan

I have been absent for the last couple of weeks , so I have a bit of catching up to do.

There has been some excellent progress with the laying of new cables between CRC and Gotherington. 18" deep trenches have now been dug from CRC section signal  to Bishops Cleeve foot crossing and cables are in the process of being buried. 

So today there was concentration on feeding the cable into the trench from the CRC distant signal to BC. This is now a very slick operation using the RRV machine ( Stevie) with the cable coil on its trailer to feed the cable into the trench

You will notice that there has been a significant amount of rainfall recently , a lot of which has ended up in the trench!

John P is hanging on to the cable so that the RRV doesn't pull it away from the connection point - think the water in the trench was aiding the loss of friction to hold it back.

It's at this point that we need to terminate the cable and connect to a cabinet on the opposite side of the track to feed the lamp on the distant signal

So we insert a "high vis" yellow pipe to route the cable under the track. A mention now to Mike E who is slaving away to make all the complicated cable connections . 

Meanwhile back at Bishops Cleeve foot crossing we have decided that the best way to route the cable over the  "waterway " that passes under the track is to insert a row of concrete troughs adjacent to the sleeper ends.

It's nice to be back shovelling ballast and thanks to our new recruit Mike C for all his assistance with the heavy lifting!

Here is one of the many cable "coffin joints"

near Southam Road bridge which will now be redundant. These are potentially joints which have been giving us problems - there are approx 17 of these with different types of cable between here and Gotherington.

John P here preparing to insert a yellow tube under the track

John P and Mike C tidying up the ballast

So with our new 10 pair armoured cable we should enjoy many years of trouble free operation

 

Curly

January slides into view

 I promised a few pics of whats been going on. Good work by Kevern O has been done towards equipping SPAD alarms between Broadway and Toddington, also on the Acceptance Lever system for the same.

 Here in the new Luxurious, a bit chilly mechanical workshop, Andy and Rich C have started  to better understand the Token Instruments.

 

Whilst over in the Electrical workshop, its slightly warmer!

 Paul D is starting to recalibrate our stock of Westinghouse Shelf Relays which are used to detect train movement in the Track Circuits, fascinating elderly units and we hope to be able to squeeze a few more decades out of them yet

Here he is checking the operate and release voltages and contact resistance, all now to be used to update the relay records and be sure they are good to go out again.

 

Suddenly our new Head Of Dept has appeared, Welcome Sam! 

 I'm not sure what they are laughing at,,, but I was the only other person there!

Elsewhere I hear today that the new Cheltenham to Goth Cable installation has actually started, all 4Km of it!

 I'm sure Curly will  be updating as the work progresses.

 I also hear that we might have another new recruit,,, another Mike I beleive.

Mike S

December, All in All a busy Month

 Work continued on the preparations for the Cheltenham to Gotherington replacement cable, part of the the exact route of the old Cable has been marked out. During a meeting with the digger contractor John B discovered Other Utilities buried around Cleeve Crossing so they will also be in attendance when we need to get there, we wont be popular if we hit anything we shouldnt!

Meanwhile back at the Ranch ( New Workshop)  Andy, Rich C and Mike E,  have been studying the insides of some of the spare Token Instruments and Mike S has been checking over the spare Track Circuit Relays. They are all working ok but lets be sure we wont know until we have checked them all and rotated them around from the spare stock.

 If you know them well the big coils are linked by copper Braid to the Terminal posts and because the braid was not tinned, just bare copper strands, they've been affected by damp over the years.  These are the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co relays and they called them AFAIK "Shelf relays", looking at Pics of the "Relay Rooms" they were a lot drier and warmer than our Trackside cabinets and I suspect thats the reason.

Still in the New Workshop we have been pondering the best and safest way to move items like Electric Point Motors around for Inspection and tests, has anyone any suggestions, some sort of engine crane perhaps? Properly rated and tested of course.

Meanwhile up at Toddington we have finally reorganised and linked up  cable pairs right up to Broadway, another important stage in the preparations for opening. Kevern's magic watch said he walked 4 miles that day between cabinets, another stage completed!

Happy New Year to all our Readers, promise to have more pics and less words next time.

Mike S