A Bit more progress under the box

Tuesday 26th
Five of us descended on Broadway to do a bit more fitting in the Signal Box locking room. There are a lot of parts to be fitted here, many of which have already been brought from Winchcombe - so we needed to clear some space for the main event which is the fitting of the C-channel girders to the steel   channels which had been previously concreted into the locking room floor.

The two shorter lengths on the left hand side of the picture will support the angle cranks which will operate the point rodding and the longer beams will support the pulley wheels which will direct the signal wires out through the tunnel. Nothing here is lightweight and heaving these beams around to drill the holes was labour intensive. Malcolm and John P have the privilege of using our new magnetic drill to punch the holes in the girders:

Meanwhile Carl S was fitting two of the signal wire adjusters. These are fitted to the signal box floor behind the levers. The securing bolts are particularly awkward to fit with now very limited access from underneath:

The completed unit from above:

We finished off by fitting the covers to the locking trays. The tappet  blades which are connected to the cams have been fitted -  more details of the locking system in due course.
 Because interchangeability was not the strongest point of mating GWR components we are glad that we took the precaution of pre-assembling and matchmaking all the main components of the assembly in the MSC shed at Winchcombe,  although a certain amount of "fettling" has still been necessary on site! Here is John P struggling to fit one of the locking tray covers.

Curly