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 

Dodgy Cable and Rotten Board

 Tues 16th Dec

Off to Broadway today , among other important things, to replace a rotten wooden plank on the steps over the signal wires adjacent to the ground frame at the southern end of the station. Signal wires and point rodding  here are a bit of a trip hazard for the engine crew getting to the frame.

Now all looking much better with chicken wire fitted and a good dose of creosote.

The points at the north end into the siding needed some adjustment . These will remain clamped but if access to the siding is required the blade seating is now within tolerance but could do with another tweak when we have a crowbar to hand. 

Now, onto the main event. Unfortunately I had to leave early so wasn't there to record stuff, so thanks to colleagues for the photos and descriptions.

There has been a problem with failed track circuits at Broadway. Mike E  Kevern O, JohnP, John B, and Mike S headed up to the cabinet F at signal 43 where there is significant damage to rodent damaged track circuit  cables - not only sheathing but damage to the copper conductors

Of the nine cables that appear in the cabinet the only one - the armoured one from Broadway signal box - has survived animal damage ( any ideas which rodent/animal enjoys rubber!). There was also concern over crudely repaired cables with a layer of pvc tape - so all these were replaced and buried

There was quiet rejoicing when the relays in the cabinet were operating and all was back to normal in the signal box. 

We will now be checking all the other cabinets on this stretch of track 

Stop Press:

The replacement 10 pair cables for the Gotherington to Cheltenham replacement project have been delivered!

An excellent day's work by all concerned!

Curly

More cable preparationns

 Tuesday 2nd Dec

Several things happening today after a very useful morning briefing. A lot of stuff for us to focus on in the coming weeks.

Firstly Andy and Peter go to Winchcombe Box to resolve a problem with the Token Machine 

Then John P and Peter W dismantle point rodding which impedes the replacement of sleepers, adjacent to Winchcombe box,  by the Pway on Wednesday. We will re-connect on Thursday

The replacement of the cabling between Gotherington to CRC needs further investigation and planning. We want to have an understanding of the routing of the existing cable to avoid damaging it when we do the trenching for the new one. So off we go with some hi-tech Cable Tracing equipment that we have borrowed for a few days. This tells us the direction of the cable,   it's depth and its alignment. So a bit of track walking between the CRC down distant signal and CRC - plus a visit to the Bishops Cleeve foot crossing.

We have marked the run with white spray paint which I think you can just make out on the following photos. Most of the way from the distant signal to the RDA crossing the cable is approx 1.5 metres from the adjacent rail and is at an average depth of 0.4m.

At the Bishop Cleeve foot crossing it is consistently about 18" from the rail. Here is Mike S with the detector

Curly

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

 

Gotherington Distant

 Tuesday 2nd Sept

A quick visit today to Gotherington in the white pickup carrying the final parts to complete the restoration of the Down Distant (the longest pull on the railway)

Only the counterbalance unit to bolt on and connect the down rod. Unfortunately because the down rod is shorter than normal the casting has to be fitted about 6ft up the post making difficult to hoist and bolt on. However we have two strong guys namely John P and Neil C to complete the job!

This picture gives the illusion that the signal arm is slightly off but is in fact spot on 90 degrees.

A pull on the signal wire and all appears to move freely

This signal has a detector on it so now off to Gotherington signal box to check everything is OK.

Quite a pull needed on this lever to get a good off. A bit more fettling required!

Curly