KSE Signalling Project

Hello blog fans! I hope that you're all well and managing to avoid this miserable weather. The signal box building team have been pulling out all the stops ( and some hair! ) since our last post and has at last succeeded in raising the stonework around the locking room door to the correct height to receive the lintels. This is really something of a milestone and has taken us a fair amount of time, but only because we have beavering away at the other three walls at the same time in order to bring all the courses of stone up relatively evenly. Once the mortar has set hard, we will mount the lintels and, for the first time in over 60 years, the ‘box will have an inside and an outside. We now have only a finishing course of stone to ‘top off’ the front wall to enable us to mount the first of the two ‘string’ courses which mark the clear division between the locking room and the operating room floor. Further progress is expected soon, and you'll be the first to know when it does.

Here is the latest update from team leader, Bob Tyson. We were blessed with a fine day on Tuesday and succeeded in installing the heavy sandstone lintel over the locking room window opening. In addition, we brought the facing stone up to the penultimate level of what will be the first ‘string’ course of decorative sandstone that circumnavigates the building. We still have to bring the rest of the stonework up to level and install the locking room doorway lintels which, looking at the abysmal weather forecast, will not be before next week. Rest assured however, we will get there eventually and you will be the first to know!

Work on the external stone wall had reached the point where, due to the continually rising height, it was no longer safe to lift and place material in the wall from ground level. As a result we contacted our usual scaffolders, Bell & Prime. Unfortunately, they were unable to assist on this occasion due to other commitments, so we contacted Westmorland Scaffolding and they were able to help us out at very short notice – many thanks guys. On Saturday, they were on site and, by lunchtime, scaffolding was up around the outside of the structure as seen in the pictures above and below. The final photo shows some of the team members, Bernie, Arie, Bob & Del. This was taken pretty much at the end of the day after having transferred some of the stone up onto the scaffolding deck ready for work on the wall to recommence this week. The scaffolding has created one minor issue for us – it impinges on the ‘Swept Envelope' which dictates the normal lateral and height clearances required

The majority of the blog's focus has (quite rightly) concentrated on the signal box rebuild by Bob and his team. However, there is a lot more to the project, and one section of that is how the signal box actually controls the points... For the crossover between the Tebay line and the headshunt / shed, this is achieved mechanically, using point rodding. The point rodding we are using takes the form of a channel, which is supported on rollers, which sit on top of concrete stools which in turn are set into the ground. The point rodding comes in 18' lengths, and we are setting the stools at 9' intervals to best support it and make sure the joints (which are fishplated) do not foul the rollers. There will be 3 rods involved for this: 3 levers' worth. It was felt that splitting the two turnouts on to individual levers would mean they were easier to operate (lighter to pull), and the third lever is the facing point lock on the Tebay line. These will be explained in greater det

The latest update from our Civil Engineering Team Leader, Bob Tyson: Grey skies yesterday saw us make a tentative start on more facing stonework concentrating on the eastern wall that retains the earthen bank, into which, the signal box has been inserted. We have deliberately used some quite large stones here to assist in resisting the ‘push’ of the bank – filling the core with a cement slurry to consolidate the inner and outer walls which gives us an immensely strong building. Continuing on up, the locking room window reveal is now finished and awaiting the placing of the substantial sandstone lintel on top which will, in turn, allow us to fit the first of the two decorative sandstone ‘string’ courses. As ever, the weather rules us, but hopefully our next session will see us raise the locking room doorway to its full height bringing us ever nearer to our goal. We'll continue to post more updates as work continues. Thanks for reading.