Week ending 5th September

Due to Monday being a bank holiday, the S & T week started on Tuesday. At Toddington North a large cabinet was installed next to where the bracket signal will go. This cabinet sits on four concrete spurs recycled from a garden fence in Cheltenham that was replaced earlier in the year. Once upright and level a pad of concrete was laid around the legs not only for support, but also to keep weeds at bay in the future. A job that needs doing when time permits, is to lay a concrete pad around all cabinets along the railway. This will help during maintenance or fault repairs, as entry will not be blocked by undergrowth.

Three signal wires were also run out between a set of wheels trackside opposite the indicator signal, and the base of the bracket signal ready for when the latter is installed (planned for middle of October).

Repairs have been made to a shunt signal (15b) at the end of the bay platform at Toddington. This was knocked by the coal loading machine a few weeks earlier and had taken on a slight forward lean and having its lamp case crushed. After digging through years of ash and dirty ballast to release the timber base, the chance was taken to replace the rotten timbers with new. Once upright and secure, a new lamp case was fitted, and operation from the signalbox checked.

The remainder of the week was spent at Winchcombe. First job was to manufacture another ten signal wire stakes for Toddington North. These start off as lengths of rusty point rodding that is of no use in its primary role. They are cut into approx 40 inch lengths and then have either two or four holes drilled at the top end for the fitting of wheel casts. (See photo).

The final touches were made to the ladders for signal posts T5 and T32 and are now ready for transporting to Toddington.

Other work completed this week (that will eventually end up within Toddington signal box) included cutting, drilling and cleaning 10 bars for lever-cam couplings, cutting and drilling angle iron for supporting both ends of the locking trays, signal repeater timber mounts stained, and fit bulb holders, electrical connector blocks, and foot screws to wooden bases inside lamp cases.

Week ending 12th September

On Monday we had the JCB in at Toddington North to dig a trench from the NHS point out to the distant signal, Broadway side of the viaduct, while at Winchcombe the Loadall was utilized in loading the railcar trailers with 3x signal posts, 2x ladders, 2x crows nests, drum of 20 pair cable, 6x concrete post blocks, 1x large steel plate, ladder support, cement mixer, 1 ton of aggregate and 6 bags of cement.

Tuesday the railcar was slowly driven out to Toddington with the above load. First job was to unload the signal posts, ladders, concrete blocks, ladder supports and crows nests at their respective places (these will be T5, T32 and the fixed distant signals). 2x concrete blocks were then bolted to the bottom of signal post T5 in preparation for dropping in the hole dug by the JCB. Planting of these three posts is scheduled for Tuesday 22^nd.

Ballast was removed from between two sleepers next to the route indicator signal to enable 4 signal wires to be passed under the rails and jointed to a wire sling. These slings are plastic coated and run around horizontal wheels to change the direction of run (see photo). Eventually these will be extended towards the bracket signal once this has been erected.

Two runs of 20 pair cable were also run out from the 'E' switch cabinet to the bracket signal cabinet, another from here to Signal T5 cabinet, and another from the signal box to the south ground frame. After trying various modes of unrolling cable from these heavy drums, Neil Carr has bolted two adjustable jacks to one of the railcar trailers. Once the drum has been loaded and at its starting location, each jack is raised so that the drum rolls freely but firmly fixed in situ. This can now be a two/three person task rather than four/five person.

During the rest of the week more cable was run out. First was a 10 pair from signal T5 to signal T32 and from T32 mid-way across the viaduct to where a small cabinet will eventually be sited. A 20 pair was then run from the 'E' switch cabinet through to the down distant on the far side of the viaduct. Another 12 signal wire stakes were cut and drilled, 2 lengths of angle iron were cut and drilled to make a ladder support for post T5, and repairs made to a large cabinet door.

Meanwhile, Malcolm Walker and John Simms continue with the locking mechanism under Toddington 'box.

Week ending 19th September

Having been away on holiday this week and the following week, instead of having the usual 'on-the-job' notes, I have taken these from Malcolm's log book.

At Toddington, signal wires were run out to signals T5, T30, T17, and T31. Various wire runs were then jointed.

At Winchcombe, 35x tappet blades were drilled and the cabinet door repaired last week was given a final coat of silver/grey paint. The valve type wire adjusters dug out of storage last week and stripped down were cleaned up and rebuilt. The three banner repeaters and plungers were brought out of storage only to find not one was in working order. Once cleaned up and painted, this will replace the signal arm at the north end of platform one Toddington T4). This will then allow the train guard and station staff to 'see' whether the newly sited signal T4 (now north of road bridge) is on or off. 

The work at Toddington 'box involved the drilling and fitting of the locking tray ends, grinding/filing and fitting 15x tappet blades, and cutting/drilling and fitting the rear locking tray retaining bars.

Week ending 26th September

Again notes taken from Malcolm's log book shows that signal posts T5, T32 and the down distant were 'planted' in their respective positions, T32 having concrete blocks bolted to its base first and the distant will have a pad of concrete laid around it for support.

2x cabinets were also planted, one at T5, the other at T32. A small shoebox cabinet was also planted next to the bracket signal cabinet to house a telephone for train crew use. A shunt signal T17 has been bolted to its concrete base at the foot of T4.

Within Toddington 'box, the final 8x lower tappet blades were fitted along with the grinding/filing and fitting of 2x electric lever locks for T13 and T17.

Week ending 3rd October

Back at work this week!  First jobs to tackle were to form a concrete base alongside the NHS for a shunt signal T30. This will eventually control the exit from the NHS onto the running line. A concrete pad was formed around the cabinet legs at T32 for support and weed suppressing, and a concrete pad formed to support the distant signal post. This would normally have had two concrete blocks bolted to its base, but when it was lifted out of the ground by Network Rail, it had a slight bend over the bottom six foot. The blocks were not a good fit when offered up by our team, so the post has been concreted into the ground.(see photo)

With all the concreting completed and after a late and shortened lunch break, a new telecoms cable was run out from the signal box to the Stow Road Bridge. This will replace the original which has a fault in it somewhere along its length. A large quantity of 1mtr concrete troughing lids had to be removed, the cable dropped in and the lids replaced. A further cable was run out from the road bridge to the 'E' switch cabinet.  A start was then made on the fittings to post T5, and by the end of the day (Tuesday) approx 2/3rds of these had been bolted on.

The following day had the final fittings up on T5, the crows nest and ladder were fitted and while a  final coat of white and black gloss were being applied, a new ladder support arm was fabricated, drilled and fitted. The scaffold tower was then taken down and re-erected around post T32. Ninety percent of the fittings were bolted on to this post leaving just the electric unit to be fitted. (This signal will be electrically operated because of the distance from the 'box - 1000yds). The crows nest, ladder and ladder support were also fitted but we ran out of time for painting so this will be done next week, weather permitting. And while all this was going on, Neil Carr busied himself connecting all the new cable runs into their respective cabinets. Plenty to be getting on with then!

One of the most time consuming but very important jobs undertaken back at Winchcombe this week, was the manufacture of 58x brass locks. These have had the 'locking edge' cut and filed ready for fitting to locking frame. Also, Neil has stripped down the three banner repeaters and salvaged enough components to rebuild one working unit. This has now been rebuilt and tested, and awaits a fresh coat of paint.