More Preparations

 Tuesday 14th July

C & M have made us a grand new workbench which we have moved into the workshop today. This will be a great addition to cope with all our work in progress

We'll soon fill this up!

With the Diesel Gala rapidly approaching it has been decided that we are going to open up the S & T workshop with some demonstrations of signalling stuff!

Some of the critical systems for operating a safe railway will be on show. The first of these will demonstrate the token system which enables  only one train to be in a section between two stations (signal boxes) at any one time. 

Two of these token machines are set to represent one in each of two adjacent signal boxes and a token has to be carried by the train crew to activate signal control on arrival at end of section - fine details of this system will be explained should you visit  the Gala.

You will see on the right hand side of these  photos are  bell units. These are used by the signalman to communicate codes - this will also be explained with the bells working.

Track circuiting is also going to be explained with the use of a model train set up on the bench - here it is being set up by Mike and Andy

We have also been reconditioning signal motors and which have been languishing in storage for a long time and our now much stronger electrical team has got these working.  Here is one on the bench

And George has been exercising his artistic talent by highlighting the cast letters on the cover plate in "gold paint"

Now back to this Tuesday where there has been a lot of problem solving going on.

Firstly four of us off to Cheltenham to replace the green lens in the spectacle plate of section signal 22 which has fallen out

 

Sam is putting in the replacement glass up top. We needed the extension ladder to get decent access - a bit awkward here so a bit of ballast shovelling to get a stable base for the ladder

Glass lens now securely installed 

We called in at CRC signal box to resolve a problem with stiff/sticking levers which we think was probably being caused by tightness in the locking frame. So some oiling has been applied . Hopefully no problems during the Gala!

Back at Winchcombe in the signalbox one of the track circuit indicator lights on the track diagram has failed - this has now been replaced.

That's all for now

Curly

Cable Tidying

 Tuesday 16th June

I have to apologise for the lack of S &T blogs recently, but I have been absent from the railway for domestic reasons. 

Paul D has sent me a couple of pictures of Tuesdays activity in the yard at Winchcombe. Some of the cable drums with significant lengths of 10 pair  cable are rotten and in danger of spilling their contents. So an attempt is being made to re-spool the onto better drums. 

Looks like a 5 man job!

Curly

Tidying Up

 Tuesday 24th March

Having successfully  completed the replacement of new cabling between CRC and Bishops Cleeve Station Road bridge - we have decided today to tidy up trackside by removing the now redundant "coffin" joint enclosures . These are fairly substantial brick built structures which required a good bashing with a sledgehammer to break up

They have a tinplate metal cover held on with 4 stud bolts. Here's the before during and after:

All remaining visible cabling has been cut off and removed. We ended up with probably 1.5 tons of bricks and concrete to take back to Winchcombe for disposal. 

John P and myself did this while the rest of the team went back to Gotherington to complete the replacement and commissioning of the point motor

Curly

A Bit of Training

 Tuesday 10th March

A great turn out today with 10 of us attending at the S & T workshop at Winchcombe for what was to be a day of demonstration,  fault finding procedures  and education.

Initially Peter W presented a slide show to explain how the electrical circuitry of  token machines worked:

And then a practical demo of the machines in action. To do this a pair of the token machines have been wired up to operate on the bench and Peter W and Andy D volunteering to be the signalman  at Winchcombe and Cheltenham to show how the tokens worked in practice.

With a very interested audience!

And as if that wasn't enough excitement , there followed an equally interesting presentation on telephone technology given by Mike S on the BT 700 handsets used on the railway and how to maintain them.

Then off to Winchcombe signal box locking room where a Strowger " telephone  exchange" is installed for a working demo

 We now have a lot of electrical knowledge between us, boosted by our new recruits Martin H and Mike C - this bodes well for fault finding in the many and varied systems on the railway. Kevern O continues with the setting up of the acceptance lever system between Toddington and Broadway and a SPAD warning system. More on this in the future when I understand a bit more about it!

I have been a bit tardy in publishing the previous weeks work so here is a brief summary of March 3rd.

A bit of Finishing Off at Cheltenham with a good turn out with 8 of us. Some work still to do at the new pointwork to set up the detector linkages to the point motor

Peter W checking that we have power to the unit

And two more bits of track bonding to finish off - Martin on the drill unit

The electrical work has now been completed  and all the stage one cabling replacement  project is complete. Testing has been carried out and,  except for a few small problems which have been ironed out, all is working well. 

Congratulations to all involved for carrying out a complicated project which was completed on time for the new running season.

Curly

PS

While we were in the Winchcombe locking room being Stoweraged  I took a photo of the locking trays which I think you will find interesting - here is a fine example of the mechanical lever locking that keeps the signalling safe. Worthy of a bit more training for us here to understand all the interlocking sequences  - one for the future!

Note the electrical locks connected below.

Making Connections

 Tuesday 24th Feb

Work continues with the cabling upgrade project. All the connections at the new lineside cabinets must be completed so that testing of all the systems can be carried out next Tuesday.

Mike S and Mike C have now completed connecting at Southam, Cleeve foot crossing and Station Road bridge

All looking nice and tidy! All this new cabling has now eliminated approx 14  "coffin joints" which have had high fault potential. Here is one of them with its rusty lid sitting on a brick built enclosure

Mike E has continued with cable connections at CRC so we should now be ready to do all the testing next week with all relevant signal boxes manned  for a while.

Then back at CRC some more work to do at the replaced pointwork. Quite a bit of track re- bonding using the motorised twin drilling machine. New recruit Martin applying the pressure

Bit more work required next week to set up the detectors on the point motor.

We also need to complete the re-connection of the point motor and do some track bonding at Gotherington next week. 

Curly

Re-fitting CRC Point Motor

 Tuesday 17th Feb

Now that the replacement pointwork has been installed at CRC Hunting Butts, the point motor has to be put back in position, bolted down and re-connected.

This involves the drilling 4 20mm  dia holes through the sleepers and soleplate, fitting the spreader bars (the yellow one is brand new), and connecting the 3 detector bars. Ran out of time here so the adjustment and testing will have too be done another day.

A bit of a problem occurred in Winchcombe signal box this morning - the Winchcombe/Gotherington token broke in the token machine. The small end was eventually fished out and a spare one was found and the machine reset

All sorted before the first train appeared!

On Wednesday John P and John B installed lineside boxes at the CRC distant signal and at Bishops Cleeve Station Road bridge. Plenty of cable connecting planned for this weekend.

Curly

Wednesday Supplement

 Wed 11th Feb

A few photos courtesy of John B who was helping with the cable laying under B/Cleeve foot crossing on Wednesday and heading northwards .

Through the tube:

Note the yellow ID tape on top of the cable to warn any future digging activity of the cable underneath.

And now the RRV laying the cable in the trench

Curly