Detector Connecting

 Tuesday 5th April

This will probably be our last visit to Toddington to finish off the re-connection of the signals and detection.

But first of all a bit of shovelling to remove some excessive ballast by the signal box. Some retaining boards have been protecting the point rodding from falling ballast but these are now in danger of falling in . 

So we have removed several barrow loads of ballast and the boards are no longer required.  (Sorry no 'after' photo!)

Then back to the detector at the station end of the new crossover. The concrete mounting is now well set so the shuttering can be removed, the mounting nuts tightened and the ballast tidied up.

Then to connect the detector bar to the wire controlling the adjacent starter signal. First step is to cut the wire.

And then fit a thimble and connector to each end (having trimmed each end to the correct length)

Malcolm's fingers again taking the brunt of it! A phone call to the signalman to pull off the signal and all is working perfectly.

An aerial view of the completed installation

We finished the day with some tidying up of the site - spare concrete blocks, stools and rodding etc - loaded on the pickup for storage back at Winchcombe. There were only three of us today -- me plus Malcolm W and John B here reviewing the day!

Curly