KSE Signalling Project

Progress has slowed somewhat as we are now concentrating on the huge jigsaw which comprises the outer stonework of the locking room. Our aim is to recreate, as closely as possible, the appearance of the original signal box using the same stone almost certainly from the same quarry that supplied the railway all those years ago. Each piece has to be carefully selected for size and fit to give a completely random look when, in actual fact, it is anything but. As can be seen in the photos, a start has been made on the locking room window reveal and this is beginning to give us a taste of what the finished structure will look like (Photo 1). We have also lined the aperture out of the locking room wall with flagstones which gives our signalling engineers a neat and finished opening to work with (Photo 2). As ever, many thanks to Bob for the update, Barry for the photos and all the volunteers involved for their hard work.

Last Monday afternoon (21st) saw a big step forward with the arrival of our good friends, Bell & Prime, to erect the first section of scaffolding for us inside the locking room. A quick shunt of the TSO enabled them to load up a trolley with scaffold poles, boards etc and move everything down to the site. Within an hour, the scaffolding had been erected and Tommy and the lads were away to their next job – many thanks guys. Yesterday, the team were back at work and Bob has kindly provided this update: Steady progress yesterday saw the internal walls finally reach the height of the operating room floor. Incorporated in the top two courses of blockwork are the sockets that will house the heavy timbers that will eventually support the floor and provide firm anchor points for the lever frame brackets.  Our next move will be to bring the external facing stonework up to a similar height allowing us to complete the building of the locking room window reveal and to mount the lintel over the

The latest update from our Civil Engineering Team Leader, Bob Tyson: Blessed with a glorious day yesterday and a seven strong team on site, great strides were made on our signal box project. A herculean effort by the team saw the best part of 200 concrete blocks unloaded from an adjacent flat wagon and stacked in the confines of the locking room ready for use. The next few hours saw the locking room walls rise to within inches of the operating room floor level and we also incorporated the lintel over the locking room window opening to give a true flavour of the actual building at last. However, constructing the outer wall from random sandstone will undoubtedly take a little longer, but watch this space!

The weather during the last week has certainly been an improvement on the preceding seven days allowing the team to make some good progress.  The front wall, and both the side walls of the locking room are rising steadily. Work also continues with externally facing the blockwork with stone matched to the original. On the eastern side of the signal box, a temporary wooden frame has been inserted into the space where the window will be located to allow the blockwork to be constructed around it.  The window sill has been fitted. In addition, ducting has been inserted into the wall to allow the necessary services to enter the building.  Meanwhile, on the western side, a similar approach with a temporary wooden frame has allowed Bob and the team to construct blockwork around what will be the doorway into the locking room. Very many thanks to all the volunteers involved.

The weather in the last 7-10 days has hardly been helpful for the team. However, as described in the previous post, with the first two bullhead rails in place to act as lintels providing access to the lead-out bench, work has begun in earnest to build the internal block walls for the locking room.  As the attached photos show, the team, led by Bob Tyson, has made excellent progress in spite of the Cumbrian weather doing its best to delay matters. All of this work is being undertaken by our volunteer team to whom we express our grateful thanks as always. In addition, we must also acknowledge the generous financial support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the lottery players for, without their contribution, this work would not be possible. In future posts, we hope to report on further progress with the internal walls and the use of local stone to ‘face’ them to give the structure its characteristic appearance.