Locks and Brackets

Tuesday 20th Dec

Another visit to Broadway signal box today to do further work on the locking frame.
It was decided to add four further support brackets give additional rigidity to ensure that the locking trays cannot move This should do the trick:

Then it was time to make a start with the positioning of the locks. The tappet blades have many and various notches from their previous life at Aller Jn Box (like this one for example)

It is quite a jigsaw to position them so that some existing ports can be used . We are trying to avoid cutting  new ones where possible because of the tedious work involved.  Locks must be precisely positioned to ensure that a locked lever cannot start to be pulled because of slack in the mechanism. 

Malcolm W has produced a locking scheme which we have been making a start with trying out today.

Here are some of the brass locks in position:

There are some more locking combinations to finish yet which may mean some  re-positioning but hopefully it will all fit in. Once all the ports have been established, the locks will be attached to locking bars, the new material for which is now here:

Quite a jigsaw before it's all done.

Just managed to get a shot of the finished Block Shelf which was brought over last week and is now lying on the floor behind the levers. The two brackets to hang this from the rafters are currently being  modified at Winchcombe. Another job for the new year to hang this.

Curly

The Post with the Most

Tuesday 6th Dec

Most of today was spent continuing the re-furbishment of the wooden signal post which we are going to instal at Broadway. The main problem was a significant amount of rot on the bottom end. This has now been cut out and a piece of good timber screwed in. To bring it back to full strength we are fitting a steel "boot". This consists of 4 pieces 60" long , tapering from 10"wide at the base down to 9". These are temporarily screwed on. Here's the first one in position:

Next stage will be to remove the plates and finish paint the woodwork. Plates will be screwed on again and tack welded. Hopefully the boot can then be slid off the small end and have all the seams welded up. Failing this it will have to be welded in position and suffer a bit of scorched timber!
Here's the "boot" with all four plates fitted:

Three quarters of the steel will eventually be below the surface. Plenty of painting and waterproofing to follow. This is turning out to be quite a lump!

Some of the fittings had been bolted on last Wednesday by Carl and Keith but still needed a bit of checking and adjustment to ensure that the Spec Plate was aligned correctly. The counter weight fittings will be mounted on the top of the boot ( some tappings will be necessary). It's all beginning to look rather fine:

Note that the finial has a black base. We have had a discussion about this because a comment on a previous blog noted that black finial bases were probably  a GWR practice. We can only conclude that there may have been some regional variations. All our GWSR finial bases I believe are white - anyway here's a black one for Worcestershire!
Curly