Gothering Signals

 Tuesday 23rd July

There have been several trips to Gotherington in recent weeks to replace the wooden signal post and to recondition the adjacent ground signal.

The wooden post has proved to be completely rotten. Having carefully removed the fittings using the scaffolding tower, nothing more than a gentle push sent it toppling down!  Here is the result:

Now the challenge to remove the remainder of the rotten wood from the concrete block. A replacement metal post will be concreted in here. Peter B  is tickling out the stubborn pieces of not quite so rotten pieces:

And John P up to his armpit to clear out the hole - 2ft deep about as far as we could get - should be sufficient to concrete in the metal replacement . 

On completion of the clearance of the hole a team photo as Dinmore Manor pulls out of Gotherington in the  background.

The ground signal and its also rotten mounting woodwork had already been removed and a new section of sleeper fitted to the two "submerged" concrete blocks . 

The signal has been dismantled back at Winchcombe and is in the process of being cleaned and painted.

Curly

Upgrading a Lineside Cabinet

 Previous work to replace some track circuit feed wires after P-Way had cut and shut a few rail joints in the area revealed that Cabinet L at Gotherington was not in the best of condition, a squirrel having apparently attempted to build a drey in it.

Plans were therefore put in train to refurbish the cabinet.  On closer inspection the cabinet was held down to some bricks in concrete by some bolts through the wooden floor, the floor was rotten and the bricks loose in the ground, so the decision was taken to replace the cabinet.

A slightly wider version was selected, refurbished by Andy, George and Neil and fitted with legs which spanned over the existing cabinet brick base and cable access.  Once ready the cabinet was taken to site, the old one rocked over backwards and the cabling carefully removed intact and still connected.  Two holes were dug, one either side, for the legs of the new cabinet and the new cabinet was stood up over the cabling (carefully inserted through the bottom) and concreted in place.  The cabinet floor was temporarily lodged in place and the track circuit battery box left disconnected for now.  

Peter, Richard, John, John and Peter pose by the newly installed cabinet.

The following day Neil returned to the cabinet, shovelled the ballast over the concrete and tidied up, then set about re-organising the cabling inside.  The two main cables (one from Gotherington and one from Cheltenham) were neatly clipped to the back board, spare unused cores dressed to either side, the through connections disconnected and re-crimped one by one, and finally the local connections made off to a connection block. Then the local track circuit feeds and the track circuit battery box were re-connected and finally the floor board was offered up and cut around the cables.  I hope you'll agree that the finished result is quite an improvement on the top photo.

More Cable Protection

 Tuesday 7th May

A bit more troughing required on the Evesham Road bridge at Broadway today. Three cables have been laying on top of the ballast here which need to be better protected.

On the station side of the bridge the cables disappear underground , and at the other end they go across the tracks in the yellow protective tube. This is on the platform 2 track side that we are working.

So a bit of ballast 'tickling' to give a level bedding for the troughs.

And then the laying of the troughs

Then the cables are lifted in

And the lids put on:

A tidy up of the ballast and the job is done.

Curly

Cable Covering

 Tuesday 16th April

Back again to the viaduct today to finish off. The large cable passing over the viaduct is not fully protected at the northern end, so some additional troughs need positioning into the ballast

We took the route via Stanton "yard" with the blue pickup and drove slowly and bumpily trackside up to the viaduct with a load of concrete cable troughs - before the first train of the day.

Plenty of hands to dig away the fresh ballast and set the troughs in position

Job done with cable now well protected. John P, John B, Neil C and Peter W surveying the Job!

No wasted return journeys so we retreived a pile of cut-off dipped rail ends destined for the skip

The roof struts for our new S & T workshop are now beginning to appear in position 

in the Winchcombe yard

Curly

Team Bonding

 Tuesday 26th March

A good team out today in the diesel railcar ( avoiding the service trains I have to add!) to complete the jobs on the viaduct to enable the line to Broadway to be re-opened on Friday.

So...... with Neil C with the two John's P & B  Peter B and myself we set off to the viaduct.

 The main objective was to re-install the bonding wires at the  rail joints (made easier now that there are several welded joints of 120ft lengths on this section).

First the drilling of the pairs of holes each side of the fish plates for the bonding wires with the motorised drill

Then a bit of ballast shovelling to create a channel to fit the protective yellow tubing for the connecting cables for the track circuits. 

Then feeding the existing cables from the linesde cabinet in the background into the yellow tubes going under the track.

and then out through radial holes drilled into tubes

and then connected to posts on the rails - Neil spannering them up!

We heard the relay in the cabinet operating as the connections were made -so all is well!

Couldn't resist taking a shot of the track over the viaduct as we left - it is quite a site with the pristine ballast, etc

Have to say we are missing Malcolm W following his retirement from the railway - his many recollections of his experiences with our railway were legion!

Curly

Cheltenham Bracket Signal Completed

 After a lot of work by the team and the intervention of Covid we have at last replaced the bracket signal at Cheltenham.  The new bracket and dolls was erected in February, as per Curly's previous post, and then Malcolm and Neil scaffolded around the whole structure and working from the top down applied all the fittings.  The bracket finally being completed and tested on Thursday 22nd February. The completion of this project was quite a fitting 'last job' for Malcolm, our leader for many years, who retired on 1st March.  We wish Malcolm a long and happy retirement.  Below is a photo of Malcolm posing on the finished bracket.

Cheltenham Signal Renewal

 Tuesday 30th Jan

The bracket signal at Cheltenhan RC has succumbed to the ravages of the weather,  so the time to replace it has now arrived.  We have been preparing a complete replacement for it over many months in Winchcombe yard ( well documented in previous blogs).

The CRC signal has had all its fittings removed a fortnight ago and was lifted off its concrete block last week ( unfortunately no pics). Now been offloaded in Winchcombe yard with only its dolls and upper ladders attached 

There is a huge number of fittings on one of these bracket signals - about 150 individual pieces (including split pins!) - here's a selection

Cleaning these up for possible future use will keep us busy for a while!

Thursday 8th Feb 

The replacement bracket signal was taken from Winchcombe yard and offloaded onto its concrete base at Cheltenham.

Scaffolding now to be erected and all fittings to be attached. 

The flanged base of this post is quite a bit larger than the old one and overhangs the concrete block so some shuttering was required to infil the void underneath.

Neil C levelling off:

Curly