Tuesday 8th June
John P and myself in today with Malcolm W today with a couple of jobs on the list and good weather in prospect.
Firstly a jaunt to Toddington to bolt down a lineside cabinet. You may remember from previous blogs that the cabinet just north of the road bridge (platform 2 side) was in a very unstable state. This has now been replaced with a reconditioned one and re-wired by Neil C. However, it still needs bolting down to the concrete blocks on which it sits. A simple task I hear you cry! But..... because the bolting uses studs with nuts buried in the muck underneath the blocks, it needed pick, shovel and handwork to gain access to get the nuts on. John P was the ferret!
This was the interior of the old cabinet
And here is the re-wired replacement with the new track Circuit feed equipment fitted - much tidier!
And securely bolted down.
Back at Winchcombe we embarked on another ground signal replacement. The one we removed from the PWay siding has now been re-conditioned and will replace the one we are about to remove. Here is the freshly painted one:
The one to be removed adjacent to the rear doorway of C & W (ground signal no. 26) sits on the end of an extended sleeper and is again through-bolted with long studs with a nut on each end. So more burrowing was required to access for spannering to stop the nuts from turning. Got the four nuts off at the top eventually
And slid the unit along the sleeper to release it from the detector blade - you can see this at the side of the sleeper here:
Then re-fitted the refurbished one
We left all the dismantled parts on the bench for the Wednesday and Thursday gangs to clean up! A lot of coagulated grease to get off - we think that this signal had been in position for about 30 years (since the track was originally installed at Winchcombe). Luckily the 20lb weight came off this time without too much drama!
End of day shot of P & O departing Winchcombe for Toddington:
Curly
