KSE Signalling Project

A high-intensity, all-action day on site saw three members of the team heaving, wrestling, levering, wedging, propping, bolting and finally concreting all ten lengths of supporting rail for the leadout bench into their final resting places. This was quite a big job, as I’m sure you will appreciate. Those lengths of rail will go where they want to go, not where you want to put them, and they really took some persuading. The next job will be to brick them into the walls on which they are now resting, completing an immensely strong and stable base for the installation team to build upon. Very shortly, we will be wrestling with the even longer lengths of rail that will support the brickwork over the leadout slot, but that is another story.

With a shed-load of building materials delivered and stored on site, we have today recommenced work on the junction box. The base of the north-side lead-out slot has been precisely aligned with the adjacent running line to the S&T's requirements. It has been lined with flagstones and will not require any further attention until we have completed a similar construction on the south side of the box. Work on this has now begun, with the rough placement of some of the railway lines that will act as supports for the huge lead-out bench timbers that Tim and his team will fit in due course. We still have a long way to go, but "from little acorns mighty oaks do grow", and with your continued help and support, come hell or high water (and we do get plenty of high water up here!), we absolutely will resurrect this building. So keep watching!

 ...sadly not. Or maybe, thankfully not! You may remember back to various updates and blog posts about the North Eastern Railway, Northern Division lattice bracket signal, designed and built by McKenzie and Holland for the alterations at Hell Beck... Well, there is more of an update: we've now put the structure back together! The individual component parts (T-piece that forms the landing, 2 dolls and the main post) had previously been repaired, cleaned up and painted, but for various reasons could not be reassembled in time for our great Signal Planting Week, back in 2024. So since then, the main post has sat, looking rather isolated and a little forlorn. Scaffolding was erected for us by Bell and Prime, in such a way as to be able to be used to lift the components in to place using chain blocks, pull lifts and so forth. We knew the weights of the individual components, and then allowed a margin beyond this when specifying our requirements.  We had the RAMS set out before star...