January slides into view

 I promised a few pics of whats been going on. Good work by Kevern O has been done towards equipping SPAD alarms between Broadway and Toddington, also on the Acceptance Lever system for the same.

 Here in the new Luxurious, a bit chilly mechanical workshop, Andy and Rich C have started  to better understand the Token Instruments.

 

Whilst over in the Electrical workshop, its slightly warmer!

 Paul D is starting to recalibrate our stock of Westinghouse Shelf Relays which are used to detect train movement in the Track Circuits, fascinating elderly units and we hope to be able to squeeze a few more decades out of them yet

Here he is checking the operate and release voltages and contact resistance, all now to be used to update the relay records and be sure they are good to go out again.

 

Suddenly our new Head Of Dept has appeared, Welcome Sam! 

 I'm not sure what they are laughing at,,, but I was the only other person there!

Elsewhere I hear today that the new Cheltenham to Goth Cable installation has actually started, all 4Km of it!

 I'm sure Curly will  be updating as the work progresses.

 I also hear that we might have another new recruit,,, another Mike I beleive.

Mike S

December, All in All a busy Month

 Work continued on the preparations for the Cheltenham to Gotherington replacement cable, part of the the exact route of the old Cable has been marked out. During a meeting with the digger contractor John B discovered Other Utilities buried around Cleeve Crossing so they will also be in attendance when we need to get there, we wont be popular if we hit anything we shouldnt!

Meanwhile back at the Ranch ( New Workshop)  Andy, Rich C and Mike E,  have been studying the insides of some of the spare Token Instruments and Mike S has been checking over the spare Track Circuit Relays. They are all working ok but lets be sure we wont know until we have checked them all and rotated them around from the spare stock.

 If you know them well the big coils are linked by copper Braid to the Terminal posts and because the braid was not tinned, just bare copper strands, they've been affected by damp over the years.  These are the Westinghouse Brake & Signal Co relays and they called them AFAIK "Shelf relays", looking at Pics of the "Relay Rooms" they were a lot drier and warmer than our Trackside cabinets and I suspect thats the reason.

Still in the New Workshop we have been pondering the best and safest way to move items like Electric Point Motors around for Inspection and tests, has anyone any suggestions, some sort of engine crane perhaps? Properly rated and tested of course.

Meanwhile up at Toddington we have finally reorganised and linked up  cable pairs right up to Broadway, another important stage in the preparations for opening. Kevern's magic watch said he walked 4 miles that day between cabinets, another stage completed!

Happy New Year to all our Readers, promise to have more pics and less words next time.

Mike S