Leverage

No, not in the blackmail sense...

To operate the heavy signals and points, the levers in the box are pretty long, and travel a greater distance in order to move the point rodding or wires only a little way. A nice bit of physics / mechanics in action...

As you may recall from previous posts, we have been stripping and painting (in primer) the 22 levers for the box, ready for their installation. These have had the lower sections painted in grey enamel to match everything else under the box and aid maintenance / inspection.

We have also been cleaning up and preparing the pivots for installation, along with the plates that link the levers, lever tails and pivots. These had previously been painted in red oxide, but the oil holes for the bearings themselves were pretty solidly caked! Fortunately, removing one split pin and applying a bit of force resulted in separation. It was then a straightforward job to drill out the excess paint from the oil holes, remove any loose primer and polish up the pins for reassembly in situ. Throughout all this process, we kept the sets together, as it appears there was considerable variation in their manufacture.

Below are photos of the lever pivots / plates..

As all these different tasks have been going on concurrently, some pieces were sat waiting installation for longer than others, and some photos will seem out of place / time, in an effort to show the procedure of putting the levers into the box!

The pivot castings' mating surfaces were cleaned up prior to installation, to ensure they sat nicely on the base castings of the frame. These are secured by two bolts which locate in slots, allowing the base of the individual levers to be set to ensure their verticality. We have not yet made this adjustment...

In some cases, the bolts had to be put in place before the plate was fitted, as otherwise access was impossible: this was for the Type of plate allowing tails forwards and backwards: useful for push-pull levers.

The following photos show a snapshot of the work being done to the levers themselves, and their movement up to the box.

At this point, the levers (having been brought up on a trolley), were fed in from above, with their catch blocks already tie wrapped in place. People below then located the lever into the slot on the plate, and put a further pair of bolts in to secure it.

The following pictures show the levers being fitted to the frame in the box. This was done in four steps:

1. Steve carrying a lever up the stairs, to be inserted from above!
2. Posting the lever through the correct slot! ..then supporting it whilst lining it up downstairs.
3. (Which actually happens at the same time as Step 2, but occurs downstairs!) Watching for the descending lever, grabbing it and lining it up with the plate.
4. Bolting the lever into position

The order in which components were fitted depended upon what was finished first, or what was picked up, as there was no benefit to starting at one end and working along.

But before the big reveal, let us rewind a bit. In the build up to installing the levers, the frame's quadrants required painting. Black, for a change from all the grey!

The last few bits of (temporary) metric studding were replaced with 1/2" BSW bolts to match the rest. This involved lifting the floor hatches for ease of access: these have now been upgraded to prevent sag when under load. From the photo, the locking trays can be seen just beyond my knees!

It was then time to sweep and hoover the floor and quadrants to get rid of the general construction muck and dirt that had been brought in on boots. Any paint splashes, caulking and residue from sanding back the surfaces was then vacuumed up as well, before any remaining dust was left to settle. It was finally time to wipe the quadrants down with degreaser and rags.

Painting was a slower process than I'd thought, and my back was expressing its displeasure at my contortions, necessitating several pauses! 

The block shelf brackets and stands for the lever description board are positioned adjacent to their final positions... and out of the way for the painting.

By the end of the day, all the paint was on, and the interior of the box transformed once again!

Now for what you've been waiting for... The "WOW" factor!

Up next - Signals!