Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Telephones, Telephones

Whilst a lot of the workers are up at Broadway having fun with things mechanical. There were still four others around Winchcombe getting on with clearing away the old cabling- thats Carl and Keith. Paul and I had decided that an inspection, particularly of the lesser used Signal Post Phones would be a good plan before the intensive Santa Season. Particularly the two at Gotherington where the Concentrator System may well be the only effective communication in the event of a problem  either with the line or the train, even Vodaf... don't work everywhere on our line!

The result was that we had to change a phone at G20  whoever would put a poor old Sweeney phone (706L) in an unheated cabinet and then leave it there for ten years!,







 It did work when last tested in April Now I suspect the damp has got at the old carbon Transmitter Insert- there's little point in changing them as the carbon granules are all over 30 years old. So we change the whole phone with an electret type, when we pulled it out we found a mouse had tried to have dinner on the handset cord so it was a failure waiting to happen. Then it was over to Winchcombe to look at W3/5 Tunnel North and the W36, the Outer home which were all OK
Much later in the day, Paul got a lift in the rail-car "Malcolms Buggy" driven by Neil whilst they were pulling out old cable and so he was able to check out  the phone at Tunnel South (W2), all working but no incoming ring. Hopefully we can get back to that next week and Santa will complete all his trips without a problem





Since the last report, the 5th and final Concentrator, for Broadway, continues in new build in Kevern's workshop. I gather it is close to Final Test but presently we have a problem with the bench power supply, anyone got a spare 50v one laying around?

Watch out for Santa

Mike S

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11 comments:

  1. St Blazey 192529 November 2017 at 12:52

    Thanks for the update, of which, are always interesting and enlightening. With up and coming advent of Broadway opening, it is so easy for us 'out in the sticks' to forget about the day to day running of the railway. As you say, "Hope Santa delivers all his drops o.k." Regards, Paul.

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  2. Terry30 November 2017 at 10:18

    My mother used to be a cleaner at a GPO workshop in Gloucester in the 1980's and in the early 1980's I often worked as a volunteer at Toddington.

    The GPO decided to have a clear out of their stores and my mother managed to get a big box of the old bakelite black telephones that otherwise would have gone into the skip. I brought these up to Toddington and donated them to the railway so suspect some of those are still being used ! Terry

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  3. Mike S30 November 2017 at 13:16

    Thank you for the comment, We still have several of the "black Bakelite" ones aka Tele 332's. I have been preparing them for use inside the Signal Boxes as there is a feeling that they are more in keeping with the style of the boxes, however I do also need to be very sure that they are reliable hence the delay. They might get a long soak test during this winters shutdown in which case I will post pics in due course. You see, you never know who reads a blog or where it might end.
    Thanks again

    Mike S

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  4. Paul & Marion Sucksmith4 December 2017 at 02:38

    What sort of power requirement is needed as I often get transformers from old vending machines that are 240 in and 2 x 24 volt out but rated at 4 to 5 amps. let me know.
    psucksmith@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mike S4 December 2017 at 03:01

    Thank you Paul, I suppose to be most useful ie for strowger testing, we would be looking at say 5amps. But for the concetrator testing we only need about 1 amp

    Do you also get any useful capacitors, even putting them in series might do the trick?

    Mike

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    Replies
    1. Paul & Marion Sucksmith4 December 2017 at 07:31

      We don't seem to get any capacitors these days, they are on separate lower wattage power PCB's and seem to be very difficult to remove from them. I could email pictures of some of the transformers and their voltages etc if that will help? just need a separate email address.

      Delete
  6. Colin7 December 2017 at 05:03

    Would you like a 48V 5.3Amp (8 amps with cooling fan switch mode power unit, it would need putting in an enclosure which I could do for you if this would be any good?

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  7. Mike S7 December 2017 at 08:59

    That sounds most useful, where are you in UK? I guess that you might just have to visit us!

    Thanks for the offer

    Mike S

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    Replies
    1. Colin8 December 2017 at 03:03

      I run an electronics engineering company in Banbury.
      Do you have an E mail address for direct contact.

      Delete
    2. Colin8 December 2017 at 03:03

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. Mike S8 December 2017 at 11:30

      Thats amazing, we do have an ex S&T member who lives nr Banbury and he may be able to transport for you otherwise is 07855311445
      Mike

      Delete

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