Thursday 19 January 2017

Action on Two Fronts

Tuesday 17th Jan

Working on two fronts today. John P, Carl S and Keith under the guidance of Neil C continued with re-cabling at Winchcombe. The objective here is to instal an armoured mains cable from the station up to where the mains operated point motor will be installed for the re-positioned pointwork. The point motor that we took out was operated from the lower voltage line side battery pack. Managed to get a shot of the gang before the rest of us went off to Broadway to collect the balance of concrete trunking required to set the cable in (a total of approx 70 lengths required)


We needed 40 troughs from Broadway - here we are moving them for the 4th time!


A good load for the pickup


We took the opportunity to carry on with a bit more of the mechanical locking jigsaw under the Signal Box. Neil C has constructed a pair of substantial "benches" that we can stand on to make access to the upper part of the frame easier: 



We have now identified all the positions for the brass locks, subject to bit of checking.  The combinations of what locks what has  been established by Malcolm W and is quite a complicated system to arrange the locking bars connecting the locks without running out of channels. Will give a better close-up shot of the set-up once the locking bars are fitted.



Paul, Len and me behind the camera trying to get our heads round "normal and reverse" locking. Top edge taper on the lock for locking the lever in its normal position and bottom edge taper on the lock for locking the lever in its reverse position. Hope I've got that right! There's gong to be a lot of cutting and filing of slots for the locks in the vertical tappet blades - to be continued.........

We have now brought the two brackets that will support the block shelf from the roof of the Box. The brackets we think have come from Norton Fitzwarren and have now had some extensions welded on and have been painted black:



And the finishing touch to the lights in the signal box - looking good with their shades fitted :

 
Curly



6 comments:

  1. Looking good - apart from the fact that the ceiling should be white, not light stone! The colour was changed in the 1930's. Is that a smoke detector up in the roof? If so, that open fireplace is going to keep it busy every time the fire is lit!

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    1. Will have to have a word with the interior decorators!
      The black "funnels " in the apex of the roof are ventilators - you can see the external part of these from some of the shots of the box on the Broadway Station blog.

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    2. No, not the vents (which should be the same colour as the roof, not black!) I meant that flat white thing screwed near the apex of the roof just past the second light fitting. It certainly looks like a smoke detector!

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  2. Delighted to see the progress that S&T are making with fitting out of the Box. Don't be disheartened by the defeatist talk from the Boardroom about delayed opening because of staff shortage! What happened to 'Can Do' Leadership?

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    1. Thanks for your encouraging remarks. We are poised like coiled springs to get on with installing the signals, cabling, point rodding and stools, signal wires, and ...... looking forward to it all. It's also great to be learning about how all the mechanical and electrical locking is set up.

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  3. The smoke alarm could be a heat detector instead if there was a problem going off, I would disguise it so not to spoil any period filming in the future. Also the lampholders could be brass instead of white and flex can be twisted brown, can buy new. I know its a few pound more, but why spoil for the sake of it. There are other issues on the electrical side being an electrician I can see which I would have done different, being that I have worked on period property before. I don't wish to pick holes, but seeing the white flex and lampholders I just had to comment.

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