More Cleaning and Painting

Tuesday 29th Oct

An excellent turnout today with twelve of us  - just about room for us all in the mess coach.

We continued with the painting and re-assembly of the replacement Cheltenham bracket signal - not room for many more hands in here!

Got it together at last - a good job all the parts were matchmarked because a bit of twist and bolt holes need pulling into alignment. Are we pleased?!

The fittings removed from the soon to be installed Broadway bracket needed a bit of paintwork touching up after the rigours of bolting and unbolting. Screw threads also needed a good clean up and greasing.
I believe the decision has been made to transport the signal by rail to Broadway - and use the telehandler to  erect it. Watch this space.
Here are some of the fittings now ready for action

Next main task for the  CRC bracket was to find a suitable steel baseplate which will have to be welded to the main post. This post is currently in a pile at the back of the yard, will need the telehandler to get it out ready for cleaning and painting. Not sure yet if the  bottom end of it will need squaring off prior to welding.
Keith L found suitable plate and trailered it in for examination

Unfortunately there was some confusion over the size of the plate and hole spacing to suit the existing foundation block at CRC so John H and Jim P were despatched to CRC to take measurements. This subsequently meant that this plate would need cutting down to size - however, pilot holes have now been drilled on the correct centres, and the edges marked up for cutting.

Various other cleaning and painting activities were going on including a cover for one of the point machines stored in the yard - this is fibreglass and has a split in it which needs repair to keep the rain out - George B cleaning it to remove all loose "muck"ready for the repair kit

And Carl S cleaned and painted the side covers for this point machine

Our telecommunications experts Mike S and Paul D spent most of the day in Churchward House removing all the computer and telecom wiring and sockets  from the offices ready for installation of the new system.
Paul de-commissioning some plastic trunking:

And Mike disposing of the rubbish

Another sub-team set off to Toddington to complete the replacement of the ground signal lens plates that was unfinished business from a few weeks ago.

So  all in all a day of mixed activity

Curly

Preparations at Broadway

Tuesday 22nd Oct.

Rather short-handed today with four of us plus the boss.
I understand that the round of fire extinguisher checking/replenishment was happening today so Carl S and John P went off to Gotherington Signal Box by train to bring the two extinguishers back to Winchcombe - a bit difficult for the contractors to access.

Peter W and Richard C continued with the painting of the Cheltenham bracket signal parts - nice sunny day for a change.

After lunch it was decided to depart to Broadway to do some preparatory work for the wiring up of instruments in the signal box.
We had already mounted the block diagram unit on its brackets hanging from the roof, but this is not a very practical position to do the art work and fitting of the track circuit lights - so we struggled this down and mounted it horizontally on a pair of trestles ready for Malcolm W's artistic talents:

Once the artwork and lamps (LED's) have been fitted we can remount it ready for wiring up.

Some of the plungers have already been mounted on the blockshelf and the holes drilled through ready for the wiring. Today we had 3 more to fix (those generously donated to us by blog reader Aardvark!). They are being positioned over levers 39, 40 & 41.  40 & 41 are the levers for the main arms on the new bracket (still to be erected) and 39 is the North siding signal.
We are still have to find one more plunger.

Neil C has cut the entry cables to length in the locking room and mounted the connection blocks. Just a few connections to make now from these 20 pair cables!

And finally, a shot of the renovation of the signal box steps which have now been completed by George B - with  the shiny black treads re-fitted

Curly

PS  Relating to the question about the lock stretcher on Toddington points last week - this type was designed to pass under a slip/third rail. All the rods and stretchers here were purchased new. This is now probably considered a universal fitting - I am open to comments on this point!!

Point Motors and Brackets

Tuesday 14th Oct

Two groups in action today
Neil C, Carl S, Keith L and John P set off to Toddington to continue with the installation of the two point motors at the South turnout. The motors had been taken to site last week with a great amount of muscle power - they are pretty heavy.
All the new components are here loaded on the pickup ready to go :

The screwed rodding (M20) will be cut to length and used to secure the units to the extended sleepers. The large yellow tubes are to carry the connecting cables (safely) under the tracks to the adjacent lineside cabinet.

The following photos are courtesy of Neil C (I stayed behind to continue bracket work at Winchcombe)
Keith L halfway under a sleeper attempting to get a nut and large washer on! (camera lens a bit steamed up here I'm afraid)

And the completed installation with stretchers and detector rods connected

The fitting of the second unit wasn't completed today so will have to wait for the next visit.

Back at Winchcombe Malcolm W, Richard C, Peter W and Jim P set to with sorting and restoring parts for the building of the replacement bracket signal for Cheltenham. We found a pair of suitable length dolls in our stockpile in the yard - these have been de-rusted and primed (a morning's job for two of us)

Peter W and Jim P continued with the de-rusting and painting of the main structure

The weather was kind to us today so we managed to complete our painting objectives in bright sunshine

The Broadway bracket signal has now had all its fittings removed after their trial assembly and is ready for transportation to Broadway sooooon!

Curly

A Bit Wet

Tuesday 1st Oct

Not a lot achieved today - a lot of rain somewhat curbed the outside activity.
Carl S went for a bit of woodwork to prepare two "out-of-operation" crosses to fix to the main signal arms of the Broadway bracket.

Most of this could be carried out under cover in the C&W workshop - just needs coat of white paint to finish them off

All the down rods have been cut and welded to length so this completes all the work we need to do on it before it goes vertical.

As far as getting this signal to Broadway is concerned we can now dismantle all the fittings and then wait until transport is arranged - hopefully this will be done by the end of November. By rail or by lorry with hiab? To be decided.

In between showers a bit more progress is made on the next bracket for Cheltenham
 The magdrill is brought out to produce some additional holes to bolt on the four outriggers which will support the wooden platform

This is now dis-assembled for cleaning and painting. A few hours of wire brushing with an angle grinder to remove rust and loose paint

Two brackets have now been fabricated to mount the lamp cases for the call-on arms on the bracket signal. These will attach to the dolls using existing clamps - hope you can make this out here:

Curly