Preparation Work at Toddington

 Tuesday 4th Jan

Just two of us plus Malcolm W in today for a visit to Toddington to do some preparatory dismantling ready for some of the major rail replacement work. 

The point motor (for points no. 22) north of the station is planned for removal once all shunting moves have been completed. So to expedite this we have dug out the ballast underneath the sleepers to make spanner access to the bolt heads. (Yes, the dreaded throughbolting!). A liberal coating of release oil has been applied to the nuts so hopefully when we return to unbolt it there will be some yielding!

We then moved further up the track to the North siding which is to have its trap point removed. This means that we need to remove the detection unit and all its connections, about 50 yards of point rodding, a compensator unit, a set of angle cranks and associated linkages to the point motor and finally dig out all the concrete mounting blocks and stools.

Having removed the point rodding Malcolm and John P wrestle out the stools with the aid of a crowbar and brute strength:

The detection unit being disconnected:

A short pause in operations while one of the shunting moves passes with a rake of coaches:

I'm sure that there is going to be a lot more hard graft from many volunteers over the next few weeks. We have to get everything done by the beginning of March!

A happy  New Year to all our followers. 

Curly