Bonding Complete

Tuesday 18th June

Nine of us turned up at Broadway today with several tasks on the list. Firstly the remainder of the track bonding to complete.
The motorised drill is barrowed to north of the barrow crossing (a bit heavy to manhandle all that way)

With Neil C conducting operations to show where all the connections needed to go round the pointwork

And Peter W, Carl S and Keith L fitting the wires - the job was completed in time for a late lunch

Jim P and myself set to with the protective paint to continue coating the point rodding along platform 2. We got as far as the second compensator before rain stopped play. We should have just enough paint to get up to the end of the platform so the view for the  travelling public should be suitably enhanced!!

Meanwhile, back in the signal box locking room John P has removed the covers from the locking trays to apply some lubrication to the brass locks on the locking bars and the covers taken outside for a coat of black gloss paint:

The electric lock locking bars now need their final fitting having been cleaned and oiled.
Now that it was raining outside we set to to finish this off :

This means that beneath stairs is now complete except for the copious amount of wiring inside and out required to connect everything up.

Above our heads another piece of "equipment" has to be installed - The Block Diagram. Two brackets have been fitted to the roof on which the diagram will hang. To ensure that it will fit with the minimum of fuss, a lightweight template has been made and hung up:

Then this quite heavy piece of woodwork is lifted into place and secured with two bolts:

This is just a temporary fix to ensure that everything is OK. It will come down again for the artwork and fitting of indicator lights (led's?) for the track circuits. Not sure at the moment whether the artwork will be painted directly onto the white board or on a separate piece of white paper to be stuck on. This next picture gives a better idea of the scale and colour of this construction:

We are not sure but we think that this diagram once adorned a box at either Honeybourne West Loop or Evesham Road Crossing, Stratford (both originally on this line) - so a good bit of heritage salvaged to work again!

And finally, the Signal box steps -
the project of George B. The steps have now been undercoated:

And the treads primed and undercoated ready for final painting:

Curly