Just a couple of internal Pictures which we meant to take when we were last there, I popped back and here they are
A general view of the Blockshelf, Track Circuit Diagram and the finished Concentrator complete with 700 series phone.
Thats about it for now, as I said earlier- Its the end of a 10 year project, now about those Paxes?
Mike S
Jus before the August Bank Holiday we got involved in the new Signal Box at Broadway.
Most of the Signal Post phones are mounted on the side of the Trackside Cabinets so it was just a nut and bolt job,, but these things are rarely simple and two of the fixings were fine but the third had to go through the front internal timber so the bolts we had got specially wernt quite long enough!
The Concntrator unit itself had been in stock for some time and gradually we ironed out the dusty gremlins and interconnected it down into the Locking Room and thence to the external Cable Heads
There is one location a bit different from the others , its a 706CB ( standard apart from having no dial) and it sits in rather a handsome heritage correct pull down cabinet
In fact heres a pic of my original 3000 type prototype which was taken in Sept that year.
The present versions have all been vastly improved and upgraded to almost entirely solid state thanks to Keverns electronic skills and a bit of my dodgy woodwork!
So thats that project completed so now to pay more attention to the Strowger paxes, hoping to keep them working for a few years yet!
Oh nearly forgot, the Team pics, here's (from left to right) Paul, Mike and Kevern) Dont forget young Peter who took the picture!
Tuesday 11th July
I missed the installation of the steps for the token exchange platform at Gotherington due to hospital visits last Wednesday, but a picture has been e-mailed to me.
So here it is with Malcolm W posing for the collection of an imaginary token!
A good substantial installation. It is now about a foot closer to the track than the old one which should make exchange much easier.
Curly
Tuesday 27th June
A very brief blog today to report that the new steps required for the token exchange platform at Gotherington have now been re-purposed from an old set found languishing at Toddington. Some cutting up and welding by our colleagues in C & W have produced these:
From this:
Just primer and black topcoat to go and we should be ready to fit next Tuesday. Only drilling and bolting required.
Curly
Monday 19th June
Our mission today was to install the new token exchange platform at Gotherington signal box. This is a steel fabricated structure to replace an old wooden unit. The main reason for this is that the old platform was too far away from the track , meaning that token exchange was difficult.
So....5 of us off we set off from Winchcombe with the platform already loaded on the railcar trailer.
This had been lifted onto the trailer by the telehandler and placed in such a way that it can be tipped off safely by hand at site.
The sequence of events was as follows:
Quite a heavy lump!
Then the levelling up began with a significant re- distribution of ballast and with the rear rh rear leg set solidly on a concrete filled brease block. So the measurements for the shape of this platform fitted the profile of the slope here pretty well.
The boards for the platform had been pre-cut and creosoted - now they needed drilling to place and bolting.
Tuesday 13th June
I'm afraid I haven't done much blogging recently for one reason or another, so here's a brief summary of recent activity.
Today we have been restoring part of a bracket signal which has been stored on top of a container in Winchcombe yard. This needed the telehandler to get it down.
So a great deal of angle grinding to remove rust and a push to get green primer on before the end of play (four of us managed it)
The container is on the left in the middle photo above- so now that it is clear of stuff this is getting a bit of attention to ensure that it remains watertight. Been here since the dawn of our railway storing many bits of signal.
A bit of repair work has been carried out at Broadway where there has been a problem with some of the point rodding bolts rubbing on the underside of a rail. This potentially causing a track circuit fault. So the rodding joint has been moved to between the tracks . Suspect that this has happened as the track has settled slightly. The two John's in action here.
A pre-steam gala job : Because the signal box was going to be open to visitors it needed a bit of a spruce up. Not much has happened there for a while and most of the lever handles were getting a bit rusty - so a bit of polishing was needed . Let's hope that it will see some action next season!
Also , during our clean up campaign in Winchcombe yard we have uncovered some extra length signal box levers. These are the type used in Gotherington signal box. So we are cleaning these up and will fit them in the spare positions there.
Speaking of Gotherington we hope to be installing the new token exchange platform there next Monday while we have access with the diesel railcar - so watch this space!
And finally the replacement of some faded spectacle plates on the ground signals at Winchcombe
Curly
Tuesday 11th April
No trains running today so we took the opportunity to complete the re-routing of the signal wire to the outer home at Winchcombe (on the approach to Greet Tunnel).
The 24 stakes on the opposite side had already been positioned and given a concrete 'boot' by last Thursday's gang.
They have been beautifully aligned to mirror the curve of the track
We are using the existing wire which is in good condition - so the first task is to unbolt the brackets holding the wheels to release the wire and then lift it over the track
But first we are fitting new roller blocks to the new stakes
and lifting the wire on to its roller at each position.
This then leaves the fitting of some new wires to connect up across the track at each end. Here is the modified connection to the signal using the vertical wheel
And across to the horizontal angle crank on the opposite side
Once everything was connected up and re-jointed Neil C went back to the signal box for a test pull. After a bit of adjustment it worked perfectly with no significant addition effort on the lever.
This just left the removal of the old stakes which were relieved of their concrete with brute force using a combination of pick axe , crowbar and sledge hammer. John P managed to avoid hitting Malcolm W !
Some of the other work carried out last week was the re-connecting of the electrical cables at Little Buckland which had been removed during the re-stressing and re-levelling of the track between Laverton and Broadway.
These cables are the connections for the track circuits, signal lamp and signal detector.
The cables needed to be buried trackside so a bit of high energy ballast digging was required!
And the week before that we had an emergency job to stabilise the block holding the point rodding compensator connecting the pointwork at Toddimgton south. This block had been observed moving under stress making point operation problematic.
So we excavated round the offending block and surrounded it with an additional dose of fresh concrete.
Tuesday 21st Feb
Today at Winchcombe we continued with the groundwork needed to re-route the signal wire to the outer home signal on the approach to Greet tunnel . This to free up access down the embankment to the trackbed south of the station.
Just to remind you this needs the installation of a vertical pulley wheel at the base of the signal , a horizontal crank and two horizontal pulley wheels.
So, stage one was to fill the hole we had previously dug at the base of the signal with concrete to mount the vertical pulley on its steel plate
We use a length of nylon rope to set the height so that the wire will clear the ballast under the rails
Opposite this on the other side of the track an angle crank on a steel plate bolted to two large concrete blocks has to be let into the ballast. Luckily we have the assistance of a mini digger to excavate a rather large hole to drop this assembly in.
Then a repeat of this for the second horizontal pulley on the opposite side of the track (this position is between the bracket signal and where the access track comes down the embankment)
(excuse my thumb!)
That concludes today's work .
Before we disconnect the existing signal wire we need to install a series of stakes along the opposite side of the track to carry the wire -a job for next time.
Just a quick review of last week. You will probably have heard that approval has been given for the construction of a proper workshop for the S * T Dept in Winchcombe yard (exciting news!). So there has been a significant effort (courtesy of Neil C with the telehandler to clear the site and relocate/scrap many pieces of railway "memorabilia" that have found their way to storage here over the years!
We look forward to a start of the earthworks
Curly
