Those rare Hen's Teeth Discovered!

Tuesday 13th Aug

Back at Winchcombe this week to do some more work on the bracket signal fittings. Still quite a bit more to do before everything is sorted.
There are two balance weight arms to be fitted to each doll, but because we do not have the new castings for these machined yet (hopefully by Toddington machine shop this week) we have been fitting a single unit. This has enabled us to measure the lengths required for the down rods which attach to the spectacle plate. The lower end adjustable connection is shown here. It will have it's end bevelled so that the upper section can be welded to it:

The reference to Hen's Teeth in today's blog title alluding to the rarity of the lamps for the call on arms for this signal is appropriate generally but I can report that we have two of them which we have retrieved from the depths of our store of railwayana! They are in remarkably good condition - just  need a coat of black gloss to smarten them up.

Before:

And after:

The mounting of these is a bit of a mystery -  here is one being held in roughly the correct position. It will need some kind of fabricated bracket to attach it to the post:

The letter C is illuminated by the lamp via a 45 degree mirror inside the casing. The C is obscured by the signal arm until it is pulled "off".

Malcolm W spent a lot of time today preparing the signal wires which will connect from down below up to the angle cranks and from the angle  cranks to the balance weight arms. Each end of these has a thimble fitted which will connect using a small shackle.

At the bottom of the signal once it is erected there will be a set of four pulleys in a fabricated frame which will bolt on top of the signal base flange. These will direct the signal wires upwards.
This assembly has now been completed today:

And finally,  a plea. Some of the block shelf plungers have been fitted in the signal box at Broadway (sorry no pictures of them in position!) . We have three more of these ready to be cleaned up but are short of five -  so if anyone knows how we could acquire these we would be most grateful!

Curly