KSE Signalling Project

 Progress towards connecting up the rodding run comes on in leaps and setbacks. A lot of time was spent on the design side, and various drawings done. As has previously been reported, there have been times when we've had to make subtle alterations!  The Bench in question. Not all the cranks are in the correct position here... In this instance, we have a bench that sits between the two running lines (Eden Valley and Tebay), and takes cranks for No.8 points, No.9 Facing Point Lock as well as levers 1 and 2 from the Bridge ground frame, giving access to the turntable road. This is very compact, and had to be altered as the space for the bench was not quite enough to locate the cranks as planned. The proximity between, and likelihood of an interference fit, can be seen here, with the cranks and connections. A tall base stands ready! To overcome tight clearances between two of the cranks, we swapped out a low crank base for a high one. This prevents any clash between the two cranks...

 With the wet weather having receded (a little!), we could no longer avoid, the next round of work to finish off some more benches. BENCH NO.1 The first bench to tackle was the one that sits between the Tebay and Eden Valley lines, near the footbridge. This takes 2 rods from the box (levers 8 and 9 to access the shed headshunt from the Tebay line), as well as 2 from the ground frame (to access the Turntable road from the Eden Valley line), through 90° to the main rodding run. We had previously dug the legs into place for this, so 'just' needed to dig out a bit and fit the top...   And that's where things got more complicated! We needed to drop the top of the bench down by 1" to get everything to line up at the correct height (the hardwood sleepers we use for bench tops vary in thickness...). This was fixed very quickly, using a circular saw and chisel to take out an inch from underneath the sleepers, where they sit on the concrete legs. The digging out involved moving ...