KSE Signalling Project

The ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is almost complete after the finishing of the wheelchair platform and the fitting today of the first handrails, with just the platform handrails to do. This means that the signalbox is now accessible from both the railway and, for the first time ever, from our newly-constructed, wheelchair-friendly, footpath across the farmland at the rear of the ‘box which is a very pleasant stroll from the access point which is at the entrance to our engine shed. You could be forgiven for thinking that our progress has been somewhat slow of late, but the steps and platform have been a real trial for us as we try to keep our footing on the 60° slope of very friable soil and drill an accurate hole at the same time – an almost impossible task sometimes. For those of you who have followed our blog from the start, you will recall the almost impossible task of saving the surviving rear wall from collapse, but we did, and the nightmare job of swivelling the chimney through 45° insid...

As remarked upon previously, the ex-Pesspool Junction frame was missing a couple of key components: the longitudinal tie bars that fasten to the vertical stanchions and support the quadrants at floor level. The steel bar, cleaned up and ready for initial marking out. We sourced some suitable steel bar, in long enough lengths, and brought it up to KSE a few weeks ago. Quite a lot of careful measuring and recording was required, as not all the lever quadrants are the same! Those that sit above the stanchions have their holes offset slightly to the left of the frame (by 3/8"), whereas the others are all nicely spaced. Some of the variations in the hole spacings can be seen here in the various quadrants Another key difference we only spotted as we started to mark out, was that the quadrants above the inner pair of stanchions also had an offset towards the longitudinal centreline of the frame! Fortunately there was time to rectify this before any drilling took place! The discrepancy ca...

The fitting of the steps of the S&DR Signal Box signifies that we are fast approaching the final stages of the build. We have yet to complete the wheelchair access platform at the top of the steps which will allow access to the ‘box from the newly constructed footpath.  Some cosmetic work at the foot of the steps will have to wait until Tim and his redoubtable signalling team have installed a plethora of point rodding, pulley wheels and bell cranks, all of which, will eventually determine exactly where we need to place the first step.  We hope as many of you as possible will visit over Easter when you can see at first-hand the work we have been doing.

 ...or Moleing ^-1 ( to the power of -1: my phone can't do that easily! ) A Day in the Life of the Moles of KSE. First up was getting trolleyed... in order to shift the spare location cupboards out of the way and into storage, we needed trolleys. The rubber-tyred trolley was heavily laden with previously-cleaned and painted components. These were transferred to storage, pending installation. But to make space for them, we had to first move all the NER CD lever pivots... So, with one trolley reclaimed, we had to find a rail trolley. And empty that, too! It was then a case of tipping the three location cupboards onto their sides, onto the hand trolley, one at a time, to move them close to the track. They could then be pushed up to the location cupboard store, where they were unloaded in the reverse of the operation. These cupboards will come into their own as we develop the Phase 2 signalling with the junction box. Finally, it was time for some mole-related works! A quick clean up of...