KSE Signalling Project

With works around the outside of the signalbox largely completed, this Mole turned his attention towards the missing section of the rodding run. There are only 4 stools required here, so thankfully it wasn't too daunting. However, the terrain was 'challenging'! First up, stools were selected and moved close to the run, with exact locations (at 9' intervals) marked out. The next job was to scrape back the ballast, concrete remnants and anything else that sat on top of the membrane. This then required cutting to enable the holes to be dug, and the stools planted. The end two holes were dug first, with great care being taken to get the stools in exactly the right place. Measurements were made from the inner edge of the rail for these, and the tops set at the same height as the top of the sleepers. Our tape measure (named John) came into its own here. These stools were tightly packed in place, the membrane folded back around them, and then ballast packed on top to leave bot...

On Wednesday, we set about painting the inside walls of the signal box with two coats of breathable paint. This will allow any trapped moisture to escape, helping to keep everything nice and dry at the same time. John and Paul worked diligently on constructing the three maintenance access trapdoors that run along the front of the lever frame. These trapdoors will allow for periodic inspection and repair of the lever frame if required. We are now getting very close to completing the building phase of the signal box, which has been very satisfying. However, inspection of the pictures showing the beginning of the installation of the incredibly complex operating machinery - beautifully refurbished by Tim and his team - means that you can look forward to many interesting blogs yet to come. And let’s not forget: once we’re open to the public, you’ll soon be able to come and see us, and the ‘box, in the flesh, so to speak. 

The third day dawned with delays in getting up to Kirkby Stephen, but work kicked off rapidly, with the aim of fixing all the quadrants down properly, getting the steadying brackets attached to both the frame and the joists as well as tidying up everything else and triple checking what we'd already done. We had several holes that hadn't centred properly, so we marked out what needed to be removed, took off the quadrants affected, and set up the mag drill to correct the errors. None was greater than 1/8", and most just took a minute or two with a file. Quadrants lifted off to allow the mag drill to sit on the longitudinal tie bar. The steadying brackets attach to the underside of the stanchions and tie these to the joists. This steadies the frame and also supports the remaining sections of floor, which also have to be able to be lifted out, to allow access to the locking. This will be another job for the near future. For now, we have installed a temporary floor to allow saf...

The second day of the frame installation saw the primary focus being on bolting the frame down to the girders, so as to ensure nothing could be pushed out of alignment with the rest of our work above. The mag drill in position to drill the mounting holes for the stanchion. A great deal of eyeing up, measuring and double checking followed, to ensure the frame WAS, in fact, in the correct position. We then marked round the foot of each stanchion, as well as drawing through the mounting holes to give the location of the hole. The marking out is obvious, as is the lack of clearance for drilling... Sadly, the shape of the stanchions, depth of the holes etc precluded the use of the mag drill directly through the holes... So, once everything was marked up (and double-checked), we once again jacked the frame down to one end of the box, along the girders, to allow the mag drill to be positioned, ready to drill the holes we required. Because of the clearances, we could only drill half the holes ...

A slightly different set of blogs this time, so as to show 3 days' work to install the ex-Pesspool Junction frame. As detailed in previous posts, this is a North Eastern Railway, Central Division / I'Ansons frame which seems to (now) be unique, aside from several quadrants thought to still reside in the remains of Broomielaw box. Over the last year, we have been stripping down the various components for the frame, cleaning them thoroughly, and painting them as appropriate. Saturday morning saw all the separate pieces brought out from storage, and loaded onto the Pipe Wagon, for transport up to the box. Initially we placed the items in the best order for unloading, but when space became an issue, sadly we stacked the quadrants on top of some of the earlier pieces. Preparing the immaculate pipe wagon for the castings: the protection works to prevent damage to both the castings and the wagon The pipe wagon, complete with its load With the wagon loaded up with frame components, the...

Or, alternatively: Cast Concrete is Heavy! In previous blog posts, we have built and installed benches on site for the point rodding using materials that we recovered from on site. However, we require more benches than we had material to construct, so some new concrete bench legs were ordered, and delivered to site. These will allow us to complete the point control from the box as well as the groundframe. Freshly cast legs, as delivered So as to avoid making the place look like a builders' yard (as well as making it easier for ourselves when it comes to the installation), we shifted all the new legs to be close to their final locations. They aren't the lightest of lumps!! Some of the legs delivered close to their final positions ...But far enough away to allow us to dig the holes required! Whilst getting stuck in to moving the new legs, we also collected up a load of the damaged, recovered legs (and concrete tops). Some of the damaged legs can be cut down for re-use on other jo...