Urgent preparations today to remove all the point operating equipment at the north end of Winchcombe station ready for PWay to attack sleeper renewal up to Greet Tunnel and the re-siting of the pointwork starting tomorrow (Wednesday).
Seven of us in attendance today ready to wield the spanners to attack the usually well seized bolts. However, we were extremely lucky with this. Most of the bolts holding the equipment to the sleepers are fitted from underneath with the nuts on top, so if the bolt turns there is no option but to clear away a whole load of ballast from underneath the sleeper to fit a spanner. This luckily happened only once!
Here's some of the action
These points are operated by an electric unit which is a bit of a beast to handle - it took four of us to manhandle it with the aid of planks onto the rail mounted trolley
The connections to the electrical detection unit and the point motor were "chopped" and the cables removed
We had quite a load of parts to take back to base for cleaning and re-conditioning
And finally here's a shot of the brand new signal arm in preparation which will adorn the wooden signal post at Broadway. This is best quality teak!
Curly
Interesting blog and so glad you are fitting a wooden arm to the starter at Broadway. Regards, Paul.
ReplyDeleteSome of the parts have already been cleaned up and had half a coating of red oxide by me today
ReplyDeleteIt will be a real Ann teak post...
ReplyDeleteHope you left enough for us to do next week Jorj !! You will have noticed that there are always more signal parts to renovate - they have a habit of mysteriously multiplying just when you think you are getting on top of it! Keep up the good work.
DeleteMack - a good one liner suitable for a single track railway!
Delete