Wildlife Security And Rigidity

Tuesday 12th July

Only three of us in action at Broadway today. Rather wet outside so we concentrated on further work in the signal box locking room. Malcolm W and John P continued fitting the brackets which support the planks to blank off the rodding tunnel. There will be many slots cut into the planks for the point rodding and signal wires to pass through eventually.

It looks pretty impregnable - and here's a rabbits eye view from the outside

Richard C finished off the cleaning of the locking tray slots and then fitted countersunk headed bolts to the beam which supports the lower trays. This is necessary to prevent the brackets joining the upper and lower tappet blades from fouling the bolt heads -

The rest of the tappet blades will be re-fitted next week.

Whilst the locking tray assembly is pretty rigid it is essential that it will not flex or sag, so three support pillars have been fitted - these have a fine adjustment screw at their base and sit in cast iron shoes which will be secured to the floor. Not much chance of movement now.

Not sure what the total weight of the whole lever frame and locking assembly is but am guessing we are talking several tons now, so good support is essential to prevent mis-alignment of the locking system.

Curly