Bonding

Tuesday 7th May

A good team gathered today at Broadway with two main objectives. One, to clear the signal box locking room from all the "stuff" that has accumulated since we moved in. This will pave the way for all the electrical installation work now required.
Four of us spent most of the morning sorting it all out.
Here is the before:

At the end of all this platform 2 also looks a great deal tidier.

Most of the stuff removed will be taken back to Winchcombe for a good sort out and probably a lot of binning. John P made many trips with barrow loads down platform 2, over the barrow crossing and up platform 1 to the blue pickup parked on station drive. Similarly George B made innumerable trips up and down the locking room steps :

Platform 2 now also looks a lot tidier.

The second team of four took themselves south to start some track bonding required for the track circuits. They worked back towards the station from the breather joint at the end of the continuously welded rail section south of the home signal.

This requires the drilling of a pair of holes in the rails each side of a fishplate using our motorised twin drilling machine - here's Neil C in action with it:

A pair of bonding wires are then threaded behind the fishplate and bent through the holes.in Pegs are then hammered in to secure the wires and thus provide a good electrical circuit.

It seemed a good place to finish work as the 15.00 train with 4270 approached half way along the caravan site fence. Four weary workers Peter B, Carl S, Keith L and Neil C glad of a rest.

The same train returns from Broadway hauled by Freightliner with 4270 on the rear to be de-coupled at Toddington

Bonding still to be completed up to and through the station.

Not terribly clear here but this picture shows the two pegs which have been hammered in secure the wires. The pegs have a slot which sits on the wire and a  taper to allow entry into the drilled hole followed by several good clouts from a lump hammer.

Must remember to bring kneeling pads next time - ballast plays havoc with your knees!

Curly

A Great Day Out

Thurs 2nd May

 Nothing to do with GWSR (I think?) but had a great day out on Thursday to an old stately pad near Tamworth called Middleton Hall, and what did I spot on the restaurant wall but the nameplate of a close  relative of our dear friend Foremarke Hall:

Curly

Cables Galore

Tuesday 30th April

The next major stage at Broadway for the S & T Dept is the installation of the many cables needed for the track circuits, signal lamps, signal detectors and phones. So a strenuous day was spent shovelling ballast and replacing cable trough lids.
Cable drums ready for action once Neil C had determined the individual lengths required with a measuring wheel:

We started at the North end of platform 1 adjacent to the line-side cabinet by signal 39 (the one with the ground signal mounted on it). Firstly to dig a trench to feed the 20 pair cable (the one coming from the signal box along platform 2)  into the cabinet:

Next stage was to "tickle" a channel between the sleepers to fit the yellow plastic pipes which carry wires across the tracks

Signal lamp and signal detector wires from signal 38 and track circuit wires all have to cross over here. The object of the yellow tubing is to highlight the position of wiring hopefully to prevent damage by tamping, lighting of bonfires on top of cables (this has led to cable damage in the past!), etc. This is the reason we are now generally burying the armoured cables to a greater depth and using concrete troughs where burying is not practical.
There is now a multitude of cables feeding into this cabinet including a second 20 pair which feeds up to the next cabinet opposite the Route Indicator signal - quite a tangle to feed in! and 20 pair armoured cable is quite a swine to bend in a tight radius

A pause as 2807 runs round:

And then we moved northwards to the smaller cabinet opposite the Route Indicator signal to repeat the laying of the plastic tubes to take the wires from the signals and track circuits.
A close-up of the radial hole drilled into the tube to feed in the track circuit cable:

There are four cables required for signal lamps - one for the spectacle plate, one for the lamp behind the route indicator plate, one for the double ground signal at the base of the indicator and one for the ground Signal between the tracks.

And of course the track circuit cables. Just managed to get these all fed into the cabinet through our "patented" 90 degree brown soil pipe system!

And finally the lids were replaced on the cable troughs between the two cabinets:

Although all the necessary cables are now installed and buried with the exception of the ones along platform 2 (mini digger channelling required here) the connection of these will be a significant job for the future once we have the cables fed into the signal box (hole drilling through the brickwork required).
Over time the signal box locking room has become a workshop/storeroom and has accumulated a lot of equipment which now needs removing and tidying to give easy access for wiring activity.
The big tidy next week perhaps unless track bonding through the station is given priority.

Curly

PS. The cabinet by the bracket signal at the south end of the station holds the record for cable numbers - 15 in total - I'll treat you to an internal view once all the connections have been made.
There will be a fair amount of testing required.

I believe that the two track circuit connections from Toddington to Laverton have already been connected and tested and operate in Toddington Box - first one from the viaduct to the Stanton Aqueduct, the second one from the aqueduct to Laverton. The next two circuits will terminate at Childswickham Bridge.

Connecting Up

Tuesday 16th April

Another good turnout today with eight of us at Toddington to continue with the installation of the ground signals at Toddington South.
The signal we installed last week has now had all its wire connections made.

The shuttering round the concrete blocks has been removed and the ballast tidied up. One of the time consuming tasks is the fixing of the signal wires round the thimbles which attach to the shackles linking everything together. This is Malcolm W's task and I am sure he has sore fingers at the end of the day - I counted at least 10 of these joints were made today.
The objective is to ensure that these joints cannot work loose with the significant tension applied when a lever is pulled . The procedure is as follows:
1.Bend wire round thimble with the aid of pliers
2. Cut wire to length leaving approx 8" from thimble.
3. Unwind the seven strands of this excess length.
4. Wrap the first strand tightly round the main wire until it is all used up
5. Repeat successively for all the remaining strands blending all the sharp wire ends with pliers
It should look like this:

Now a few paces North to give our attention to the second ground Signal. 

It has been decided to install a trackside phone at this point so another concrete block has been sited -  we have utilised the 90 degree pipe bend to feed its cable in from underground (you may remember this from a previous blog about the line-side cabinets) 

Then the signal, and angle crank are bolted down - the phone assembly has been positioned on top of the wooden template for its photo shoot with Dinmore approaching from the signal box

The signal wire from here must also pass under the track so we are fixing a pulley to the sleeper ends to connect with the wire coming from the signal box on the Cotswold side. George B and Carl C wrestle with the through-bolting (spanner underneath job with knuckles in the ballast!) 

And here we with the wire sling in place:

With all the connections now in place it remains to check that both signals operate properly.
This will be left to Malcolm and George on Thursday.
I don't think you'll get a dialling tone yet Peter!

Final act of the day was to collect and tidy away the discarded sleepers that P Way are replacing

Curly

Wet and Windy

Tuesday 9th Apr

A very cold, wet and windy outing for us at Toddington today to make a start with the installation of two ground signals at the newly laid pointwork at the southern end.
Access to get the most southerly signal to its position was somewhat limited having got as close as possible with the blue pickup - it was a two/three man job to carry over the rails and drag it along the ballast. A heavy lump and awkward to get hold of in its fully assembled form. But we are made of stern stuff!

We had already unearthed an existing concrete block with fixings that suited this signal so it was soon bolted down:

Next task was to clear some ballast adjacent to the signal to prepare a concrete base for an angle crank to direct the wires across the track.

And the template holding the mounting studs sunk into the concrete:

Focus then shifted to other end to prepare two more concrete blocks for the North facing signal.
More ballast digging and shuttering required  for the signal and its adjacent angle crank.

And the two templates with mounting studs sunk in.

Signal, angle crank and wiring up to be completed next time.

Here is a sneak preview of the two mounting plates that have been pre-assembled in Winchcombe yard. These will carry the horizontal pulleys directing the signal wires across the tracks from the yet to be installed bracket signal at Broadway. We are waiting for a suitable opportunity for Steve and JCB to dig us a large hole for its concrete mounting block.

Curly

Preparing to Hide Cables

Tuesday 2nd April

Six of us off to Broadway today to do some preparation work for the burying and troughing of the armoured cables that run from the signal box along platform 2 up to the North end signals and finishing at the direction indicator signal by the North headshunt.
It has been decided to bury the cable in a trench along platform 2. To enable this we require access for a small mini-digger. At the moment there are several large piles of bricks of varying descriptions in the way so four of us set about re-locating them on pallets in a less obstructive position.
John P and Carl S make a start:

This occupied us for most of the day until we achieved a suitable access gap from the edging slabs:

Malcolm W and George B attacked the laying of the concrete cable troughs starting at the line-side cabinet adjacent to signal 39. The troughs had previously been roughly laid out where they were thrown off! The layout of the ground and the concrete mounting  blocks do not allow for a very neat alignment without a huge amount of digging.

Some excavation required at the cabinet to level up with the cable exit pipe:

but here is the end result looking north:

Curly

At Last an Update

Thursday 28th March.
Sorry about the radio silence for the last few weeks but I have been laid low in Worcester Royal Hosp having some serious surgery. But now on the mend and hope to be back in moderate action before long.
In the meantime, to bring you up to date with some of the S & T activity here are some notes and photos courtesy of Neil C.

Tues, 5th March
The facing point lock crank for 12B points was re-installed at Toddington. This was removed whilst P Way replaced the ballast and sleepers. Also note the replaced tie-bars at the ends of the sleepers to make sure that the FPL sleeper cannot alter its position relative to the Fpl stretcher itself.

Next was the re- installation of the crank that drives Toddington points 14. Again removed whilst the track was re-laid through where the rodding run went.

Note that the fixing timber, whilst a bit second hand, was basically sound. The only rot was where the crank sat on it. Malcolm sorted this by fitting a steel plate to span the crack.

Thurs 7th March
Next photo shows George and Andy fitting chicken wire to the board crossing.

The crossing was re-fitted by John Carl and Jim on Tuesday. In this photo you can also see the new signal box windows (still to be painted)  and the troughing run heading into the distance.
The troughing was installed on Tuesday by Malcolm and Keith with help from Jim George and Carl. Also on Tuesday Peter and Neil finished off the bonding of the re-laid track, reconnected and tested the track Circuits and re-fed the signal lamps on the bracket signal.

Thursday 21st
Neil, Malcolm, George and Andy went to CRC and Gotherington and did a few remedial jobs, tidied up the locking rooms and carried out the annual signal box examinations and six monthly point checks.

Tues 26th
Jim, Peter, George, Carl, Keith, Malcolm and Neil were at Toddington all day. Neil was working recovering a small lineside cabinet from the south end of Toddington site. The cables from this were re-jointed  in the remaining cabinet

The rest of the gang were working on finishing the troughing run from the signal box to the south turnouts. All on site troughing is now laid out - we require approx 65 more pieces to complete the run to the furthest turnout where a new point machine will be installed :

Two new signal wires were run out (showing slack in the above photo) - these will operate two new disc signals allowing access into and out of the yard at the south turnouts.
Malcolm took measurements under Toddington box for the installation of a large electric lock on lever 7 for the new turnout operation.
Neil later fitted one of the safety bars to the signal box window that is used for token exchange. The new windows are still to be painted - the remaining bars will be fitted later

Wed 27th
Neil and Malcolm want to Broadway and fitted the top fittings and ladder to the distant signal. This distant will be machine operated in the fullness of time but for now will be fixed at caution

Thurs 28th
Neil, Malcolm, Andy and George will be test fitting the mounting parts for the electric lock for Toddington lever 7 and carry out the box and point examinations.

Curly

PS Some shiny new steps have appeared in front of our "workshop"!!