More Cleaning and Painting

Tuesday 29th Oct

An excellent turnout today with twelve of us  - just about room for us all in the mess coach.

We continued with the painting and re-assembly of the replacement Cheltenham bracket signal - not room for many more hands in here!

Got it together at last - a good job all the parts were matchmarked because a bit of twist and bolt holes need pulling into alignment. Are we pleased?!

The fittings removed from the soon to be installed Broadway bracket needed a bit of paintwork touching up after the rigours of bolting and unbolting. Screw threads also needed a good clean up and greasing.
I believe the decision has been made to transport the signal by rail to Broadway - and use the telehandler to  erect it. Watch this space.
Here are some of the fittings now ready for action

Next main task for the  CRC bracket was to find a suitable steel baseplate which will have to be welded to the main post. This post is currently in a pile at the back of the yard, will need the telehandler to get it out ready for cleaning and painting. Not sure yet if the  bottom end of it will need squaring off prior to welding.
Keith L found suitable plate and trailered it in for examination

Unfortunately there was some confusion over the size of the plate and hole spacing to suit the existing foundation block at CRC so John H and Jim P were despatched to CRC to take measurements. This subsequently meant that this plate would need cutting down to size - however, pilot holes have now been drilled on the correct centres, and the edges marked up for cutting.

Various other cleaning and painting activities were going on including a cover for one of the point machines stored in the yard - this is fibreglass and has a split in it which needs repair to keep the rain out - George B cleaning it to remove all loose "muck"ready for the repair kit

And Carl S cleaned and painted the side covers for this point machine

Our telecommunications experts Mike S and Paul D spent most of the day in Churchward House removing all the computer and telecom wiring and sockets  from the offices ready for installation of the new system.
Paul de-commissioning some plastic trunking:

And Mike disposing of the rubbish

Another sub-team set off to Toddington to complete the replacement of the ground signal lens plates that was unfinished business from a few weeks ago.

So  all in all a day of mixed activity

Curly

Preparations at Broadway

Tuesday 22nd Oct.

Rather short-handed today with four of us plus the boss.
I understand that the round of fire extinguisher checking/replenishment was happening today so Carl S and John P went off to Gotherington Signal Box by train to bring the two extinguishers back to Winchcombe - a bit difficult for the contractors to access.

Peter W and Richard C continued with the painting of the Cheltenham bracket signal parts - nice sunny day for a change.

After lunch it was decided to depart to Broadway to do some preparatory work for the wiring up of instruments in the signal box.
We had already mounted the block diagram unit on its brackets hanging from the roof, but this is not a very practical position to do the art work and fitting of the track circuit lights - so we struggled this down and mounted it horizontally on a pair of trestles ready for Malcolm W's artistic talents:

Once the artwork and lamps (LED's) have been fitted we can remount it ready for wiring up.

Some of the plungers have already been mounted on the blockshelf and the holes drilled through ready for the wiring. Today we had 3 more to fix (those generously donated to us by blog reader Aardvark!). They are being positioned over levers 39, 40 & 41.  40 & 41 are the levers for the main arms on the new bracket (still to be erected) and 39 is the North siding signal.
We are still have to find one more plunger.

Neil C has cut the entry cables to length in the locking room and mounted the connection blocks. Just a few connections to make now from these 20 pair cables!

And finally, a shot of the renovation of the signal box steps which have now been completed by George B - with  the shiny black treads re-fitted

Curly

PS  Relating to the question about the lock stretcher on Toddington points last week - this type was designed to pass under a slip/third rail. All the rods and stretchers here were purchased new. This is now probably considered a universal fitting - I am open to comments on this point!!

Point Motors and Brackets

Tuesday 14th Oct

Two groups in action today
Neil C, Carl S, Keith L and John P set off to Toddington to continue with the installation of the two point motors at the South turnout. The motors had been taken to site last week with a great amount of muscle power - they are pretty heavy.
All the new components are here loaded on the pickup ready to go :

The screwed rodding (M20) will be cut to length and used to secure the units to the extended sleepers. The large yellow tubes are to carry the connecting cables (safely) under the tracks to the adjacent lineside cabinet.

The following photos are courtesy of Neil C (I stayed behind to continue bracket work at Winchcombe)
Keith L halfway under a sleeper attempting to get a nut and large washer on! (camera lens a bit steamed up here I'm afraid)

And the completed installation with stretchers and detector rods connected

The fitting of the second unit wasn't completed today so will have to wait for the next visit.

Back at Winchcombe Malcolm W, Richard C, Peter W and Jim P set to with sorting and restoring parts for the building of the replacement bracket signal for Cheltenham. We found a pair of suitable length dolls in our stockpile in the yard - these have been de-rusted and primed (a morning's job for two of us)

Peter W and Jim P continued with the de-rusting and painting of the main structure

The weather was kind to us today so we managed to complete our painting objectives in bright sunshine

The Broadway bracket signal has now had all its fittings removed after their trial assembly and is ready for transportation to Broadway sooooon!

Curly

A Bit Wet

Tuesday 1st Oct

Not a lot achieved today - a lot of rain somewhat curbed the outside activity.
Carl S went for a bit of woodwork to prepare two "out-of-operation" crosses to fix to the main signal arms of the Broadway bracket.

Most of this could be carried out under cover in the C&W workshop - just needs coat of white paint to finish them off

All the down rods have been cut and welded to length so this completes all the work we need to do on it before it goes vertical.

As far as getting this signal to Broadway is concerned we can now dismantle all the fittings and then wait until transport is arranged - hopefully this will be done by the end of November. By rail or by lorry with hiab? To be decided.

In between showers a bit more progress is made on the next bracket for Cheltenham
 The magdrill is brought out to produce some additional holes to bolt on the four outriggers which will support the wooden platform

This is now dis-assembled for cleaning and painting. A few hours of wire brushing with an angle grinder to remove rust and loose paint

Two brackets have now been fabricated to mount the lamp cases for the call-on arms on the bracket signal. These will attach to the dolls using existing clamps - hope you can make this out here:

Curly

More Bracket Work

Tuesday 17th Sept

Again just a small perfectly formed team of 5 at Winchcombe today!
While we are waiting for the welding and machining of the remaining parts to complete the trial assembly of the Btoadway Bracket (need to ensure that everything fits before we dismantle prior to going  vertical on site) - we are going to do some preparatory work sorting out the main parts for another bracket signal which will be constructed to replace the one at Cheltenham which is in need of serious repair.
We have two of the main side assemblies which are about two feet longer than needed

So step forward John P with the large angle grinder to cut off the excess

A bit of searching then to find all the end plates, platform supports, doll clamps and bracing bars - plus a bit of drilling to match up bolt holes

All of these parts will need cleaning and re-painting.. George B has made a start with the priming of some of the smaller parts - the never ending re-conditionimg  of signalling equipment!

Curly

PS. I mentioned some time ago that  we were short of block shelf plungers for Broadway Signal Box - - a blog reader has very kindly donated donated three of these to us!   Re-cycling is alive and well - they have come to a good home!

More Painting

Tuesday 10th Sept

A lot on holiday today including the boss so a select band headed off to Toddington to continue with the tidying up of the two starter signals and the replacement of the ground signal spectacle plates.
We arrived at Toddington to be confronted by two huge Allely low loaders bringing Dinmore Manor and its tender back from its holiday on the Dartmouth Railway. Here's the tender being unloaded

Amazingly manoeuverable these machines with the rear wheel steering.

And the tender being eased back out of the way with a post!

Bit of congestion happening as a lorry with trailer turned up with a load of blocks for the new building

Not a lot to report this week - We have cleaned and painted both starter signal posts and their  balance weight arms north of the station. Both bases of these signals have suffered from the ravages of the weather as well so a clean and repaint needed with black gloss

Plus the replacent of the spectacle plates on the ground signals. We are leaving the replacement of the lenses until we have some expert supervision. To do this the backplate has to be taken off which entails disconnecting the linkage to which the detector is attached - we didn't want to risk locking up the points on a running day!

Curly

Tidying up at Toddington

Tuesday 3rd Sept

Six of us departed to Toddington to do some signal maintenance and to progress the fitting of the electric lock in the signal box (for the motor operated south pointwork).

Some of the signals at Toddington North need a bit of attention. The paintwork on platform 1 starter signal has got some unsightly damage and rust staining where the down rod has been "slapping" against the post when the signal arm bounces back against its spring loaded stop.

We decided the best solution was to fit an additional guide to re- align the down rod and prevent it whipping against the post. So the existing guide was re-positioned at the top and a new one fitted lower down (the black one in the picture.)

This left an unsightly ring of chipped paint which needed attention. We primed the damaged areas and returned after lunch to put on undercoat. We will return next week to finish the job with topcoat.

The North facing sides of all the posts here have a significant coating of black mould on them
  I think we will bring a bucket of water and copious rags to give them a good clean and slap on another coat of white gloss while we are at it.

The next task up here was to adjust the spectacle plates on two of the ground signals where the horizontal red stripes have wandered slightly towards the vertical. It appeared that some slack bolts have allowed the castings to slip a little which has affected the correct alignment. This one is at the base of the bracket signal.

And this one is the one that controls exit from the North siding

The red perspex lenses in both of these signals have deteriorated badly and are frosted over. We have some re- conditioned spectacle plates back at base which we will bring and replace next week.

Most of the afternoon was spent under Toddington box wrestling with the positioning of a bracket which attaches to the point operating lever to drive an electric lock. Access here is extremely limiting  - a bit more work required to get the positioning correct.
Couldn't get any meaningful pictures of the set up - here's the best I could do with Carl P contorting!

While we were at the bracket I climbed up to check the condition of the fittings just in time to get a shot of P & O approaching from Toddington

And heading off to Broadway with 2807 on the back.

Hopefully this should be the last week of topping and tailing as the repaired point work is due to be re- installed this Friday at Broadway.

Curly