Tuesday 22nd Aug
Another jaunt to Broadway for us today. A bit more unfinished business at the wooden signal post at platform 1 south and continuation of the mammoth task of mechanical locking.
But first a view of the wooden post in all its glory with the scaffolding removed. The only remaining task up top is the fitting of the lamp case - we can do this off the ladder when we bring the right bolts for the job!
And just to prove that it works here's Peter B lifting the balance weight
Meanwhile down below we have to fit an angle bracket to bring a signal wire out towards the track. This produced a fair number of expletives because the attachment of this had to be made to the steel boot. Four 1/2" BSW tapped holes required in true heritage fashion. First of all we broke a drill with just enough of a flute sticking out to eventually remove it with an adjustable wrench - phew!.
A bit of an awkward position with the ladder in the way but John P succeeded valiantly:
Then Keith L achieved his tapping badge after we managed to find some tapping grease among the kit in the signal box- what a difference a bit of grease makes .
And then the angle bracket in position - just a splash of black gloss required to smarten it up:
Meanwhile back in the locking room Malcolm was busy doing some trial fitting of an electric lock to determine where the bolting has to go to ensure correct alignment with the vertical tappet blades. There are sixteen of these to fit to the bottom rail and will be connected to the tappet blades with couplings which are currently being made in the machine shop at Toddington.
And finally , we now have the rodding stools back from zinc plating - all looking rather fine and weather resistant - as soon as track and ballast are in through the station we can make a start at laying them out
Curly
Platform 1's South starter does indeed look good. The locking will be the long job, I take it. At least it will be work out of the weather over the winter! The stools do look nice with their galvanising, but a chip will start the rust process all over again! Anyway, lets not go to the dark side and I do add a hearty well done on all the work so far. Regards, Paul.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally, rodding rollers were fitted to concrete 'I' section stools and there must have been dozens of them made redundant on the national system in recent years. Is there any reason why it was decided to make (and galvanise) new metal ones?
DeleteWe have got all the concrete T-section stools ready for the four, three and two roller sets, etc for outside platform limits. The fabricated ones which will run along the platform will be much easier to instal in the ballast without having to dig large holes - they will be secured in a shallow hole in the ballast with a serving of concrete.. We had them galvanised because they have been fabricated from mild steel and would soon look pretty rusty- we want Broadway to look the business !
DeleteLet me add my congratulations/thanks for all the very-high-quality work - it all looks fabulous!
ReplyDeleteNoel