Stake, Chips And A Side Of Dowels...

Continuing from Stake and Chips, Matt toils on installing the wire run for operating all the signals mechanically from the box...

The run of stakes, from the box towards the signals furthest away from the station, is now almost complete. Attention has turned to the run that leads towards the station, located alongside the turntable road. We even discovered an original wire stake, buried as we dug in another bench leg! 

This smashed lump of concrete will not be recoverable for further use...

The blue string line has been set out so that we can see how smoothly the curve can be made, whilst following the track and avoiding hidden obstacles underground. Stakes can then be adjusted to suit.

The ongoing battle with removing the wire pulleys
from the recovered stakes can be seen.

The wooden dowel into which the screws are tightened can swell and jam very solidly in the concrete. Attempts to drift it out can result in the concrete blowing. So why bother removing the dowels, and pulleys, if all we're going to do is put them back again?

The pulleys were screwed into wooden dowels which had been hammered into the pre-cast holes in the posts. Some of these pulleys are broken; others the wrong type for what we're doing. So they all need removing before new ones can be affixed. As can be seen in other photos, we are bolting these in place, being careful not to overnighter and break the castings.


A future post will show some of the complexities faced with this run: the routing of each wire is being carefully planned to avoid conflicts and keep things tidy. We're also catering for the next phase of the scheme and the dual control elements for some of the signals...

We have a lot of flat wheels to dismantle, free up and paint. A test stripping of one (pictured below) to ensure we knew how it all sat together, prior to tackling the more seized wheels.


These will require considerable effort as well as heat: something we need to investigate further! Stay tuned for more progress and thanks for reading.

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