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Wibbly – Wobbly Mock-Ups

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Things are a little quieter at the moment as we wait for our joiner to install the windows. So, our attention has turned to trying to reconstruct the tiny fireplace that we believe sat in the corner of the signalbox. All we had to go on was a semi-collapsed pile of soot-stained stone and the archway of bricks underneath that theoretically supported it. As you can see from the first photograph, the arch itself was in a terrible condition with bricks falling out like rotten teeth, so a comprehensive repair was undertaken to remedy this (Photos 2 and 3). We know that many signalboxes were heated with a cast iron stove, but the soot stains on the chimney we can see with the one photo we have of the building convinced us that a proper fireplace was the way to go. The arch bisects the corner of the ‘box meaning that the fireplace it supported did the same and, after building a rough mock-up, we realised just how tight the space for the chimney was going to be – especially bearing in mind tha
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Bench Planting, And Other Ripping Yarns..

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Having removed all the old concrete components that made up the original compensator bench (as detailed in our previous entry....), it was time to assess what we could reuse, how we could use it and where, exactly, it should go. At the same time, we were also using another pair of recovered concrete legs to form a new bench to take the 2-lever Bridge ground frame (which controls the crossover to the turntable road). Having assessed what was in place already, we decided pretty early on to replace it and upgrade it at the same time as the S&D 200 work. On the face of it, this seems like a case of making more work for ourselves at a time when we have a lot to do. However, the effort required to get the existing installation up to scratch was significant, and tying the two projects together will lead to a much neater finish, as well as being easier to maintain and use! Rough hole / trench dug to receive the leg for the ground frame bench Not only does the ground frame have to sit on th
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From Loose Stools To Benches (Part 1)

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Having previously discussed the placing of stools in the ground (to support point rodding, I hasten to add), we now move on to benches. These have legs in the ground and wooden tops... for the cranks and compensators to sit on. By the very nature of the forces involved, these are heavy lumps that need to be well planted so that they don't move. If we have loose benches, we will have points not moving far enough, and lots of wasted effort from those working the signal box. The bench in its native habitat: snoozing in the ground On site at Kirkby Stephen East, we have been lucky to find several LNER / BR concrete bench legs, with concrete tops and concrete ties between the legs. These are steadily being recovered for further use, which sounds lovely and simple. Until you come to dig them out! I will now try to recount some of the challenges we face with this task... Upon exposing the top, the original bolts which hold the separate concrete slabs together can either be undone (if you
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NER Northern Division Lattice Signals

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This is a very challenging blog post to actually write, as there has been a lot of research and work that has turned up new aspects to the story. I shall try to put this together in the order in which we’ve discovered the details! When planning out the scheme, we weren’t sure if the gantry would be able to feature in Phase 1; and upon learning it wouldn’t, we needed a signal to route trains into either the Tebay platform or the Bay platform. In amongst the equipment on site when we got involved was a selection of steel lattice posts (as an aside, there *were* wooden lattice posts trialled by the Midland Railway…). These were all North Eastern Railway, Northern Division signals, that had originally been on the Newcastle to Carlisle line. Brampton had been mentioned as their original location, but that was not important at this time. Besides the three straight posts was a bracket signal, sat on top of the concrete sleeper pile, which looked to be a good bet; albeit requiring some consi
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Sliding Sash Windows – Part 1

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Monday saw 99% of the stonework completed with only a small corner unfinished because my arms are not 5 feet long and I could not reach, so we will have to raise the scaffolding as soon as possible. Rick, our amiable joiner, was on site with his tape rule and notebook taking preliminary measurements for the construction of the sliding sash windows that will form the next stage of our build. We also set about humping mountains of stone off the scaffolding boards in order to clear the decks for a rise in the scaffold of some 5 feet. Trusty tape measure in hand.. Derek ‘Del Boy’ Payne in the meantime, finished the rather tedious task of pointing the rear wall making it weatherproof for the first time in years. With a temporary lull on our hands until the scaffolding is lifted, our attention turned to the inside of the ‘box generally, and the fireplace in particular. Absolutely nothing remains to give us a clue as to what it looked like but, looking at other remnants here and there, it is
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Cabinet Reshuffle

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On Saturday, we carried out a cabinet reshuffle in the yard. Previously, we had recovered a number of location cupboards to house signalling equipment. These had been stacked on top of the concrete sleepers, out of the way, awaiting attention! Saturday was to be that day... Before: the snoozing politicians await the cabinet reshuffling in the car park. In preparation, Sue arranged for WPS to lift down the location cupboards (locs), and place them in the car park. A team set to, to strip out all the old wiring, recover reusable components, and leave a blank canvas upon which we could work. Work underway! For the current scheme, we require 5 cupboards, and these were identified during the course of the day, and marked up accordingly. We then had to sort out the correct doors for the locs, as we'd removed them to make shifting the cupboards easier... had we marked them up first, it would have saved a bit of time!! Inside a loc.: this is what required stripping out. We separated out th
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Completing The Second ‘String’ Course

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A glorious spring day on Monday enabled us to set in place the final pieces of the upper string course of the signalbox with a team of 6 volunteers persuading the large, heavy, awkward, expensive, contrary, will-not-cooperate lumps into their final position! This marks another milestone and brings us very close to completing all the stonework – with just the corners of the two string courses for our stonemason to deal with and a small section in the fireplace corner to finish. When this is done, hopefully later this week, Rick, our joiner, will measure up for the heavy timber framework that will eventually contain the sliding sash windows and also support the roof. While Rick constructs this, we will pursue a myriad of other jobs including finishing pointing the back of the rear wall, fitting the remaining floor joists, setting out the chimney breast and fireplace and clearing all the remaining stone off the scaffold so that it can be raised. The list is long and seems to get longer, r
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