Connected and Disconnected

Monday, 11th June

Firstly, apologies to my observant blog readers. I got carried away with the detector connections last week to the Wooden post starter signal - this was of course wrong and should have featured the new bracket signal (yet to be installed approx a panel length south of the points). Will explain this in more detail when we put the detector in.

So, to today. Four of us at Broadway. No trains running so we are going to temporarily disconnect the ground frame rods at the south points and connect up to the rodding runs from the signal box. We availed ourselves of the P Way trolley to save a bit of carrying to and fro:

With the ground frame disconnected we could now line out the positions for the point and fpl cranks on the steel plates that were installed last week. Firstly four pilot holes by Malcolm:

Followed by John P on the magnetic drill:

Note that the orange connecting link (here connecting to the point stretcher) has an insulated joint to keep the integrity of the track circuit) :

We had the generator with us today so that we could use the angle grinder for cutting the several short lengths required for connection. And of course two more holes needed in each end - achieved using the "high energy input" hole punch.

And here we are all connected up. George was sent off to the signal box to pull the levers and after a bit of adjustment all works well:

We left ourselves a bit tight for time at the end of the day but managed to get the ground frame re-connected ready for Tuesday's services.

So.. .. when the time comes it will be a relatively simple task to changeover to signal box operation. Just a bit of tidying up and tamping required round the concrete blocks.

Curly