A Bit more progress under the box

Tuesday 26th
Five of us descended on Broadway to do a bit more fitting in the Signal Box locking room. There are a lot of parts to be fitted here, many of which have already been brought from Winchcombe - so we needed to clear some space for the main event which is the fitting of the C-channel girders to the steel   channels which had been previously concreted into the locking room floor.

The two shorter lengths on the left hand side of the picture will support the angle cranks which will operate the point rodding and the longer beams will support the pulley wheels which will direct the signal wires out through the tunnel. Nothing here is lightweight and heaving these beams around to drill the holes was labour intensive. Malcolm and John P have the privilege of using our new magnetic drill to punch the holes in the girders:

Meanwhile Carl S was fitting two of the signal wire adjusters. These are fitted to the signal box floor behind the levers. The securing bolts are particularly awkward to fit with now very limited access from underneath:

The completed unit from above:

We finished off by fitting the covers to the locking trays. The tappet  blades which are connected to the cams have been fitted -  more details of the locking system in due course.
 Because interchangeability was not the strongest point of mating GWR components we are glad that we took the precaution of pre-assembling and matchmaking all the main components of the assembly in the MSC shed at Winchcombe,  although a certain amount of "fettling" has still been necessary on site! Here is John P struggling to fit one of the locking tray covers.

Curly

A bit more equipment installed

Tuesday 12th April
Five of us departed from Winchcombe with the blue pick-up well loaded with the remaining 40 mechanical locking cams, locking trays, some signal wire pulleys and point rodding parts. Still quite a lot more to follow in due course.

We spent most of the day fitting more of the cams, only another 7 to go. Tightening the mounting bolts and fitting pivot pins and split pins in fairly inaccessible places is a bit of a challenge but we escaped without serious injury!
Our final objective for the day was to mount 5 locking trays. These mount vertically below the cams and are seriously heavy cast iron beasts. It's a 2 man lift to hoist them into position while a third pair of hands attempts to locate 6 fixing screws .

There is still a bit of adjustment required to get all the slots correctly aligned, but the final view looks pretty splendid. Malcolm W will have a bit of work to do here to configure all the interlocking combinations required.

Another box ticked

Sitting in the signal box at lunch makes you realise what a splendid set of views there are - there's going to be some competition signalman duties here!

Curly

A Little more progress at Broadway Box

Tuesday 5th April

Three of us from S &T did a bit more work on the Signal Box today. There are 45 mechanical cams to be fitted to each of the levers in the frame downstairs in the locking room. These are fairly heavy lumps requiring two of us to juggle them into a rather restricted space. We decided that 15 of them in one day would suffice.

Theses cams operate the mechanical locking bars which will eventually be fitted in vertically mounted locking trays.

We also delivered the newly refurbished locker - it is very useful already as it houses the S & T tea making equipment!!

Couldn't resist taking a picture of the bridge span being lowered into place- another great part of the station taking place.

Oh and don't forget the matching desk:

Another 15 cams next week!

Curly

A Day of Mixed Activity

Tuesday 8th

Five of us at Winchcombe today with a range of tasks

John P and Carl S cutting and fixing the planking to form the platform for the
re-conditioned bracket signal which will eventually replace the unit at
Cheltenham Racecourse.

Richard C spent most of the day rubbing down and prime painting a signalman's desk. This
will be part of the furniture for Broadway Signal Box - only undercoat and topcoats to go!
The wood is in very good condition . Not sure where this unit came from though.

Kervern O and Mike S are in the process of upgrading the telephone system and are now
Installing the new Concentrator Unit in Winchcombe Signal Box. There is a considerable
Amount of re-wiring associated with this - quite a task!

Keith L with angle grinder re-conditioning yet another signal part - this time a 20 lb balance weight.
We should have most of the signalling equipment ready for Broadway now.


We all then went off to Broadway to fit the outstanding lever locks and handles to the lever frame. Not much else we can do there now until the box is officially handed over to us. We are poised like coiled springs to get on with it!

Curly C

Cheltenham Signals

Tuesday 16th Feb

Seven of us today at Cheltenham Racecourse Station.
We have almost finished the re-conditioning of the two platform starter signals - the posts have been
Stripped and repainted and all cleaned and re-painted fittings replaced. Just the ladders to finish with black gloss.

Neil C has reconnected the new 30 pair cable which runs the length of the new platform from the signal box to the bridge. All track circuits, signal repeaters , motor point controls up and working. The cable still needs burying along the base of the platform.

John P, Jim P and Len spent most of the day fitting signal wire pulleys to the base of platform 2, one every 25 feet - drilling and fitting 2 acres with rawlplugs to each one. A further 18 more stakes and pulleys need to be put in up to the new ground signal for the head shunt in due course.

A view of the new ground signal from Hunting Butts

We all missed our colleague Carl S today and wish him a speedy recovery.

Richard C 

The Levers March on

S&T visit Broadway 26th Jan

Today's first task was to fit the Catch Rods and Catch Rod handles to the levers.
We had previously match marked these so that we knew they should go together
without too much hassle and that all the colours matched.

Pushing the levers into their locked positions now gives the typical satisfying "clang"!

The next task was to fit the Lever Tail Wheels down in the Locking room. These are attached
To the levers as part of the signal wire adjusters which will eventually be fitted to the
floor upstairs. This allows the tension in the wires operating the signals which are located a
long way from the box to be adjusted to compensate for expansion/contraction of the wire.

We then fitted the brackets to the lever frame which will support the locking trays. More about this
in due course.

One omission from the last blog ( if anyone noticed it) was mention of the Yellow Lever ( no 45)
This will operate the distant signal.

We now eagerly await the installation of the electrics in the signal box so that we can continue
with further work at Broadway.

Richard C.

The Levers go in!

Tuesday 19th Jan - S&T invade Broadway Signal Box

Seven of S&T Tuesday gang descended on the Broadway Signal Box to
install the levers in the lever frame. John P and Len crawled through the
rodding tunnel and positioned themselves for the fitting and tightening
of the pivot pin saddles.

Under the expert guidance of Malcolm W we did a final clean of the bores and oil holes in the levers
and lowered them into the frame in the correct colour order (all the levers have already been finish painted in their appropriate colours)

We got about a third fitted by the first tea break

There are 46 lever positions in the frame but there is no lever 29 included. Only 24 of the

levers will be used in the initial phase of operation at Broadway.

By lunchtime we were nearly there after a finger numbing push to get all the levers in

Once the levers are in we had to fit the tread plate support bars - quite a fiddly job getting the

bolts in and tightened. Then the tread plates were slotted in - looks really smart!

The team admiring the result!

Curly C.