KSE Signalling Project

After the initial rush to progress the frame installation ready for the S&D 200 celebrations at Kirkby Stephen East (an excellent event held over the August Bank Holiday in 2025), it was now time to paint and ‘fettle’ the levers in readiness for their operational role. I n most cases, it was just a case of building up layers of paint, in various colours to suit their intended function… Demonstration Section However, after painting, lever No. 9 (facing point lock for No. 8 points, at the station end of the headshunt crossover) had developed a problem with its catch-block deciding to stick in the raised position! Catch-blocks are heavy and designed to drop into a notch when the lever is in either the normal or reverse position and prevent the lever from accidently moving. If the block doesn’t drop by gravity, then there is a risk of the lever being left in mid stroke. Since painting, lever No. 9 had developed a sticking point whereby its catch-block wouldn’t drop back down. ...

 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 ...

  In the middle of a bleak, cold and damp winter, the signal box has proved to be a good place to warm up and carry out various painting jobs! The warming up has tested out the chimney and fireplace nicely! The levers have progressed to their final undercoat, with a good variety of colours on show. For those who wonder about the choice of colours: these relate to the levers' functions. Red - signals (shunt, subsidiary and main aspect) Yellow - distant signals Black - points Blue - point lock Blue over Black - points and lock combined (motor points, in our case) Blue over Brown - release (for a ground frame) White - spare lever The levers have been rubbed down and undercoated, with warmer weather required before the top coats can be applied. The fire in the box isn't enough on its own to produce a good finish. All available space has been used, with a trestle table set up behind the levers, windowsills covered and the slab of wood for the block shelf also pressed into service. T...

Following on from the previous two posts concerning Central Division signals, we now have Part 3.. This concerns a trip Matt and I made, up to Fighting Cocks Station, near Darlington, to meet up with Norman Hugill. The original (Central Division!) signal from the station has been returned there, to (hopefully) be re-erected as a reminder of the line. However, for the time being, it lies in its component parts, and includes various parts we have not seen anywhere else! Particularly of note is the landing and the balance lever arrangement. Both of which we need to duplicate in order to complete our signals at KSE! We duly headed up, armed with tape measures, pens and a clipboard. The arm. First of all, we discovered the original wooden arm was only 4' in length (which would give 3'6" beyond the post), although it does look shorter than most from the photos in situ. Secondly, the edges were all rounded off, which answered a question I'd had rumbling around in the back of ...

No rest for the Moles. We've been putting off digging for the next benches that require installation, owing to the need to get the box progressed with the frame, in readiness for the big gala... Whilst the weather is good, we could no longer put off the digging, and set to with the largest excavation. Just outside the box, we squeeze a bench for most of the signal wires to run on flat wheels, carrying them underneath the 4 lines. In the same place, we have to get wire stakes in place for the other signal wires, ducts to feed on to the Junction box as well as leaving enough space for the drainage run. We moved the bench so that it was adjacent to the hole, using a small trolley. Timmy's help with the digging wasn't necessarily constuctive... If that weren't enough, the ground we had to dig, to the levels required, had a few 'challenges' to overcome. Such as big rocks, cement leftovers from the building works and a mound of rubble! Motivational encouragement was p...

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...

The ‘Stairway to Heaven’ is almost complete after the finishing of the wheelchair platform and the fitting today of the first handrails, with just the platform handrails to do. This means that the signalbox is now accessible from both the railway and, for the first time ever, from our newly-constructed, wheelchair-friendly, footpath across the farmland at the rear of the ‘box which is a very pleasant stroll from the access point which is at the entrance to our engine shed. You could be forgiven for thinking that our progress has been somewhat slow of late, but the steps and platform have been a real trial for us as we try to keep our footing on the 60° slope of very friable soil and drill an accurate hole at the same time – an almost impossible task sometimes. For those of you who have followed our blog from the start, you will recall the almost impossible task of saving the surviving rear wall from collapse, but we did, and the nightmare job of swivelling the chimney through 45° insid...