More Routine

Wednesday 19rt April

Your blogger missed Tuesday this week but managed to make up for it on Wednesday. Am reliably informed that work continued with the wire brushing and straightening of the point rodding . There was also some trial fitting of the fixtures on the wooden signal post - a bit more work to do here yet with the positioning of the angle crank. This will require drilling and tapping of the steel boot which will probably wait until the post is installed at Broadway. The balance weight position is now fixed:

Malcolm W and myself carried on with point rodding activity - we are now about halfway through the pile. Unfortunately the galvanising paint has had to be re-sourced so we are still waiting to paint them. Once painted we are going to store them outside on the concrete slabs at the back of the yard at Winchcombe. In the meantime they are being stored in the MSC shed to prevent any further rusting - (hardly room to get in there now!) I won't bore you with any more pictures of point rodding but here is my estimate of the quantity of rodding we will need at Broadway for the proposed layout.

Northwards two  runs of 180 yards from the signal box to the first set of points and Facing Point Lock  ( Siding side)
Northwards two runs of 250 yards from the signal box to the second set of points (platform 1 headshunt side) and Facing Point Lock.
Southwards two runs of 250 yards from the signal box to the points and Facing Point Lock
Grand Total length 1360 yards which equates to 226 lengths of rodding (and about 160 rodding stools to support it all). We reckon we have enough to do the job.

Malcolm has been busy cleaning and  painting the cast SW signs and drilling mounting holes in the rodding posts . These are urgently required for the foot crossings on the extension.

 

Finished off today by applying dark grey undercoat to lamp casing, pulley wheels and signal detector base ( my back had had enough of bending over point rodding!)

Transport is being sorted out to move the first 4 signals ( long enough lorry with crane lift) to Broadway. It is hoped to do this within the next month.

STOP PRESS: Just had a phone call from Malcolm W to say that the galvanising paint has arrived (Thursday) - so a new painting experience next week then!

Curly