KSE Signalling Project

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...

As remarked upon previously, the ex-Pesspool Junction frame was missing a couple of key components: the longitudinal tie bars that fasten to the vertical stanchions and support the quadrants at floor level. The steel bar, cleaned up and ready for initial marking out. We sourced some suitable steel bar, in long enough lengths, and brought it up to KSE a few weeks ago. Quite a lot of careful measuring and recording was required, as not all the lever quadrants are the same! Those that sit above the stanchions have their holes offset slightly to the left of the frame (by 3/8"), whereas the others are all nicely spaced. Some of the variations in the hole spacings can be seen here in the various quadrants Another key difference we only spotted as we started to mark out, was that the quadrants above the inner pair of stanchions also had an offset towards the longitudinal centreline of the frame! Fortunately there was time to rectify this before any drilling took place! The discrepancy ca...

The fitting of the steps of the S&DR Signal Box signifies that we are fast approaching the final stages of the build. We have yet to complete the wheelchair access platform at the top of the steps which will allow access to the ‘box from the newly constructed footpath.  Some cosmetic work at the foot of the steps will have to wait until Tim and his redoubtable signalling team have installed a plethora of point rodding, pulley wheels and bell cranks, all of which, will eventually determine exactly where we need to place the first step.  We hope as many of you as possible will visit over Easter when you can see at first-hand the work we have been doing.

 ...or Moleing ^-1 ( to the power of -1: my phone can't do that easily! ) A Day in the Life of the Moles of KSE. First up was getting trolleyed... in order to shift the spare location cupboards out of the way and into storage, we needed trolleys. The rubber-tyred trolley was heavily laden with previously-cleaned and painted components. These were transferred to storage, pending installation. But to make space for them, we had to first move all the NER CD lever pivots... So, with one trolley reclaimed, we had to find a rail trolley. And empty that, too! It was then a case of tipping the three location cupboards onto their sides, onto the hand trolley, one at a time, to move them close to the track. They could then be pushed up to the location cupboard store, where they were unloaded in the reverse of the operation. These cupboards will come into their own as we develop the Phase 2 signalling with the junction box. Finally, it was time for some mole-related works! A quick clean up of...

As progress with the box continues, we've reached the stage for the locking room floor to be completed. Way, way back in the early days of the box rebuild, we positioned 3 large timbers ro which we could (eventually) fasten the cranks for the point rodding runs and the vertical wheels for the signal wires. This was done at a very early stage to make life simpler: getting them in place now would have proved far more difficult! The timbers in position, sat loosely on the pairs of rails that tie the floor, the lead out bench and the box structure together However, there was no pressure (then) to actually fasten them down to the pairs of rails. Fast forwards to the present... Bob wanted to get the rest of the floor in place downstairs, which required these timbers to be fastened down in their final position. We knew this was coming, and had developed an idea for a captive bolt, whose head sat between the two rails, allowing the timbers to be fastened down without the need for reaching ...

It's been a little while since we built up some wooden benches to take the wire wheels we've recently been cleaning up, so we thought we'd tackle another 4. As well as testing them out for comfort! We use threaded bar to clamp the top to the legs, but to do this, we need holes that go all the way through. This has the additional bonus of preventing the timbers in the ground from splitting. Once the holes are drilled, threaded bar is pushed through, nuts and washers applied (ensuring the washers are positioned so as to look good...) before it is all tightened up. Three of the benches are seen here, almost ready for the Moles of KSE to set to and bury them. The left-hand-most bench will take the double dolly reading into the headshunt (beside the signalbox) or along the Tebay line. The next one that can be seen from the left will take the flat wheels for the wires from these signals so that the wires pass underneath the track. On the right hand side is the final bench of the ...

Well, as a matter of fact, a large proportion of the flat wheels we have in stock actually DON'T go 'round and round'. They're seized with rust after many years of storage in various places.  So, work is required to free them up, to dismantle them for cleaning, checking over, fitting grease nipples and painting, before they can be used. So what exactly do they actually do? The wheels allow the wires from the levers to the signals themselves to 'pull' around corners... from the signal box to the signals, logically the best route would be a dead straight line. But there is track in the way, other structures and the need to avoid trip hazards and keep the wires together. So, when you set out a run, sometimes you have to take the signal wires under the track, and turn through 90° to get to the correct signal, possibly via mechanical detectors (more on these soon...). You have already seen we have installed various wooden benches for these wheels. The wire joins end ...