As you may now be well aware we have taken a while to get our beloved rodding safely under the tracks and over Evesham Road Bridge, but today was the day.
As we progress, levels and alignments need re-adjustment to get everything moving smoothly.
So one of the first actions today was to install a pair of single rollers in the six foot to give additional support to the rods going across the tracks :
and encase them with concrete in the previously constructed shuttering boxes.
Last week I promised a picture of one of the pre-cast supports that will now be used from the Bridge up to the points - so some serious holes to dig in the ballast:
A couple more of the steel supports to assemble, - - all we need to fill the gap up to the bridge, here's Len W fitting them together
Now all the supports are fitted and concreted in - Carl S giving them the perfect finish with a trowel
A view of the rodding looking back over the bridge towards the station:
Carl S took advantage of the fine weather to creosote the ballast retaining boards before fitting them back on the bridge:
And Keith L rounded off the day with a bit of gardening to fill in and tidy up round all the excavations:
The gang viewed from the bracket!
And the completed rodding over the bridge.
Plenty more of the same to come!
Curly
Excellent update and pictures. Soon have the rodding connected to the south points.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Paul.
Thanks for the update Curly! I was wondering - the ends of the cranks move in an arc centred on the fixed pivot point. That means that the end of the rodding must move laterally a bit (in addition to the movement in the direction of "push"). How is this dealt with? Is there enough flexibility in the rodding so that it bends a bit, or are the rollers quite slack inside the U channel of the rodding so the whole run can slide across a bit?
ReplyDeleteYes, there is a bit of lateral movement but there is enough clearance and slack to cope with it. We have had a go with the levers and it all works fine.
DeleteWill you be repeating this process for the North end points ?
ReplyDeleteYes. There will be four lengths of rodding for two sets of points and two fpl's. Quite a lot further going north from the signal box so the blogs may start to get a bit boring!
DeleteWill try to varyit a bit when we start the signal wiring!
Thanks for the reply. Are you going to wire up the main semaphores going towards Honeybourne or will you just use (not sure about the terminology) shunting signals ?
ReplyDeleteBoth. All wired up. There will be a total of 8 wires - 4 going up platform 1 wall and four going up platform 2 wall. Quite a lot of drilling for rawlbolts will be required to support the rollers. The spacing between the rollers will be between 15 to 20ft. For signals that are further away from the signal box it is preferred to have a smaller spacing to reduce the amount of droop of the wires. Stakes hammered into the ballast usually with a serving of concrete will be used outside the platform limits.
DeleteThere are a total of 7 signals four of which are ground/shunt signals. Two are mounted at the base of the direction indicator, one is mounted on the platform 2 starter signal and one (yet to be installed) will be in the 6ft between the Headshunt and Siding. Note that the direction indicator signal requires two wires giving us the total of 8.
Curly, your blog reports are never boring! they do make fascinating reading for those of us that are trying to understand the subject and who are not able to get to the line for a regular "fix". You could just put in the pictures and give the location of the picture, we would still be happy to have more reports and pictures than nothing for weeks on end!
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work the S&T team, looking forward to the signal box at Broadway working and bells tin-ting a ling away...
Regards
Paul & Marion.
Yes, definitely not boring. It’s an area that is totally underreported, I’ve personally learnt a lot so keep them going guys!
ReplyDelete