A shortened report today as blogger had to leave at lunch for a hospital app. Nevertheless here is a summary of Broadway North in the pictures I managed to take.
Firstly, to make a change from point rodding (but only for a short while!) we have to sort out the routing of the signal wires along platform 2 ramp and across the barrow crossing. This has to be done before the tapered slabs are put back in place - the overhang restricts access for fixing the pulley blocks. John P starts off by finding the best place at the end of the ramp:
And George B poised with the plastic tube through which four signal wires will pass through:
But first a bit of ballast removal by Keith L:
And the tube set in adjacent to the rodding. The sleeper at the side is only a temporary measure. Probably have a concrete base here for a steel plate to sit on and span the rodding:
In the next picture with a pair of wires temporarily fitted, the roller block has been fitted upside down to bring the wires down to pass through the tube. There will be a similar block at the other end of the tube so that the wires will lift up again to clear the rodding stools:
Looks OK from here - a bit of tube alignment to centralise the wires:
Meanwhile, back to rodding. Now that both lines of rodding have been inserted a bit of re-alignment is required to straighten them up. So a bit of raking out of the ballast needed to ease the stools over. Keith L and Carl S taking some exercise!
Looks OK from the North end
P & O running round between operations:
A single roller support is needed to support the length of rodding that passes through the 4ft, both for the fpl and the headhunt point blade - so a bit more ballast removal and a shuttering boxes required for concrete blocks. All this probably completed in my absence later in the day
Cranks have been bolted to the sleepers in the 4ft for both fpl's :
I will catch up with the rest of the day's work next week.
Curly
Great progress, considering it's still only August! Although I guess there's still a ton more things to do - but a lot of that will be inside, in the box - so getting a lot of the outside work done in the 'good' weather is a big plus!
ReplyDeleteNoel
Great update Curly. I have always found the workings of the signal boxes interesting, and also the maintenance of the infrastructure that is associated with them. Your bogs clarify things that I have often wondered about but didn't want to seem dumb and have to ask. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Paul.
Thanks for the update Curly. Hope the hospital appt went well. I'm a bit surprised that you're bothering to put the signal wires in a plastic pipe. It will be quite difficult to incorporate that into a concrete block - why not just use the concrete block and make a "tunnel" for the signal wires with the steel plate on top of the rubber and concrete blocks? The plastic pipe makes sense on the other side of the crossing where there's not need for rodding to go through.
ReplyDeleteA plastic pipe is the best way of doing this. The pipe you see is now in position and stable in the ballast and any concreting will butt up to it. More importantly in the event of the wires rubbing on the plastic they will not degrade - contact with abrasive concrete, etc is likely to advance corrosion and wear - wires will droop a bit during thermal expansion and it is difficult to keep them clear from fouling in all conditions - so I think plastic is best!
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