Peak Rail General Discussion

How about 'token catching post', instead!

 

I thought it was a 'cathing post' that wasn't really necessary.. LOL

 

Doesn't the signalman have to physically insert the token into a machine before he can release the signal?

 

all correct gents, the system is token *(and i blame iphone and beer for poor spellings the catching post is purely a means to prevent the bobby having to hang out the window and catch the token as is done now,some signallers arent six foot tall with giant arms built like bodybuilders and theres always the thought that either on a wet day someones going to slip on the balcony when leaning out to catch the token hoop or if the token hits the arm on catching one day a little too hard someones gonna have a bruised arm or worse, so were thinking ahead on safety grounds, the posts were quite common and several heritage lines still use them, the post is merely to benefit the signaller in not getting bruises or injuries from the collection or delivery of the token at speed to or from the passing train, once deposited the signaller still has to insert the key back into the machine as normal to effect another release of the starting signal, nothing has changed in regards of that, the signaller would simply collect the token in its pouch off the post when they go down to get the gates reopened or deposit it in the collection arm when they go down to close the gates, so the loco crew can collect it.

it may be your thinking of an automatic system such as manson or whitakers system that used to be connected into the locomotive, there were others of varying complexities that removed the signaller from the equation but these are long gone from society unfortunately, but this one is just a simple snatch and catch post

anyhow having looked back and spell checked meself !!! im sure youl find at least on spelling mistake above (blame my iphone

 

unbelievable, ive missed the E off One

 

Matlock station has won an award;

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Bes...ast-Midlands/story-23026832-detail/story.html

 

Monday 6 October 2014 at 7.30 pm.

For a requested £3 donation on the door, all welcome to:
"BR STANDARDS AT WORK AROUND THE COUNTRY - PART 3"

slideshow - Ashley Shimwell

The show starts on the Somerset & Dorset and then works northwards, region-by-region. No static shed shots, all locos are seen either at work or in stations.**********************************************

Tickets for the Pie, Pea & Chips Supper on 1 December will again be £6. I should be pleased to hear from anybody wishing to take up a 15-min slot for "YourPix"
after the Supper. The Slide Projector, Digital Projector, and Laptop will be available to show slides, film clips and digital pictures. USB devices preferred, because home-produced CD / DVD can often be difficult to open on a different PC.

**********************************************


All welcome. Presented by Peak Railway Association (Sheffield Branch) at
The Harlequin Pub (upstairs function room), 108 Nursery Street, Sheffield S3 8GG

Bus routes 47, 48, 53 and 87 stop near the front door.

Dave

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David Sharp
Peak Railway Association, Sheffield Branch

(E): d.sharp@sheffield.ac.uk
(H): 0114 274 5478
(M): 07950 787 231 (voice or text)

The branch programme, and directions
to The Harlequin can be found at:

http://www.peakrail.co.uk/SheffieldBranch

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

S&T

John has been busy relocating cables between darley and the distant with a view to increasing the availability of the current capacity , Ian has been undertaking maintenance and David , Ruth and myself have continued reglazing the boxes windows on Rowsley cabin. Nearly halfway there now

Also bumped into some colleagues visiting from the Shillingstone station project and had a chat about our signalboxes etcetera.

Managed to bump into the LMSCA gang who were just about to go on their AGM, fantastic work on the LMS coach. The yellow and black lining down the main side really does do it proud

At darley Rob continues to clear the soil away to allow the track to be relaid into Mr Briddons shed and the roller
Shutter doors are now fitted on the shed roads too

 

An update from the LMSCA on 7828

http://lmsca.org.uk/blog/2014/10/7828-sept-2014/

 

Bamford Box is looking good

 

Thanks boss, lot of hard work from everyone especially dave and Ruth,nearly half the windows have been done,at a rough guess another month or two and they should be done, probably the next job to get on with will be the ground frame at darley south yard,which Rob is also on with besides ourselves, while all thats going on theres the last round of testing at Riverside to get out the way before christmas, leaving next year free to concentrate on getting the base up for Rowsley box and hopefully before then depending on busyness qoutients from everyone is to get the wheel drive gear in the ground forthe cabin

 

Bit of news from the county newspaper mentioning the LMSCA

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/VID...ew-films-175/story-23184446-detail/story.html

On S and t we've been doing more testing work over the last couple of days and also holding another training course for Network Rail staff on token and block systems

 

A double update this time, firstly from
Myself about riverside and then from Dave about rowsley, its a very large update this week too so grab a coffee or a brew

A busy three days. Monday Ian and myself set about oiling and greasing up Riverside and charging the batteries up ready for the testing on Tuesday , we also looked at the detectors to make sure they could be worked Too as well as making sure things that should work work!!

Tuesday Testing at Riverside

Dave brought along another senior tester who lives locally and two student testers to assist in the testing and to learn the process of testing from start to finish while there.

On Tuesday things didn't start of well as the first circuit the treadle failed straight away. Luckily this turned out to be a dirty fuse and after cleaning was back working again. Testing then moved onto the points on the bridge and the signal. The signal detection on 10 and 12 worked fine but 11 proved problematic as the off indication couldn't be adjusted as much as needed on the contacts so off I trotted to rowsley to get a few spare contact boxes as the only other answer was to change it for a completely new one, not a small job either,

This we eventually managed but not before finding that all the spares Suffer from the exact same Problem that the shafts seize with rust stopping you removing and rotating the bands to adjust Anyhow that occupied a good two hours of the day by which time the testers had carried on and found some polarities on various insulated block joints needed to be swapped to achieve stagger , This we did next while more testing took place, then we noted the problems during testing with the batteries which turned out to be the voltage regulator having died. John has another and will fix this and he plans to also drive the phones off this so they too can be backed up off the one battery.

The rest of the testing continued using the battery and the departments generator at least kept things going and the signal circuit being inoperable yet again with the centre tapped feed provided by the voltage regulator having died it became strapped out so testing could continue.

and it was good to see electric locks pick And signals clear as they should be worked

By the days end we'd fixed the items found during the days testing but there was also two sets of points that needed shimming to correct the gauge and an issue with clearance and fouling points. Something not easily fixed with the size of riversides loop available, we elected by half seven in the evening to start testing again the next morning and I'd carry on fixing any issues then.

Wednesday

Wednesday morning I shimmed the point outside the box with a thin shim to correct that but found the bridge point gauged fine so no adjustment there. Then finished off altering the last of the polarities from the day before and the testers carried on testing

By the end of play on Wednesday not all the testing needing to have been done had been completed with all the time spent correcting faults so having discussed with Dave the way forward we'd like to get what's left done ASAP to sign the box off.

The plan Dave has is to again get others involved he knows, potentially one or two ICP's to oversee the process and would also like to get some Conversion testers in to finish the electrical testing and to get the student engineers back and involved in the testing as well so they get some training as well as assist our aims too of getting it signed off Soon.

There's one addition of an electrical circuit /alteration to add on 10 signal which also affects the ability to close out the cabin so Daves going to look at it and let me know the alteration so I can start sorting out the bits required to amend the circuit, an lcc contact needs fitting to 14 lock which I've part sourced today from the spares store,then I can crack on with getting it wired in with Dave .

I'm planning to be down riverside over the Santa period anyhow so this gives me time to get any remaining items required by the testers out the way and try and build the toilet at least

We also found the adjusting rod on 9 Lever that the nut on the thread was winding loose and loosing adjustment till it came adrift while testing, fortunately it's now re welded fitted and tested to ensure the lock picks freely and the contacts make when they should do,.
Plus there's a new ream of updated drawings to account for all the changes too to print and put in the cabin.


For now the cabin is as was. All facing points locked with the padlocks, the locks strapped up on the fpls but at least were getting nearer now to the end.

Once the cabin is signed off we need to look at the operational paperwork next and other outstanding paperwork items
For working alongside NR and using the divisible staff but we want to get the box out the way and working first by at least January before we move onto anything else

Dom


From David and Ruth an update on the Rowsley cabin window works


good weather/good day at Rowsley. Cut 12 panes for the frame standing inside the box: ~ so if weather is poor later, at least we can continue working. Then fitted the last 5 panes in the Rowsley end. Managed to cut 4 wood corner pieces and glue these (solvent-free adhesive) to the panes. Put some base coats of white paint on them ~ ,,, and they look okay.
The panes will need some cleaning up at a later date; and some more white-painting of the frames and corners.

Cheers
David

Lastly from myself the last of the token courses was run on Thursday with a group of four gents from Stockport, this time we decamped to the station busing at darley rather than the portacabin for a change, quite a bit of the day was spent topically remembering the old line before closure which the boss

 

Tonight (Weds) a repeat of Great British Railway Journeys - Buxton to Matlock, 7.30pm BBC4. I think it was filmed about 4 or 5 years ago.

Cheers
Dave

 

Ruth David and myself carried on this weekend with stripping out the old glazing and putty from rowsley cabin followed by several coats of paint on the window frames and this has been followed up by David having cut all the new glazing for the cabins windows ready for refitting the coming week, hopefully the plan being to get the two panels back in next time and that leaves the final two panels to complete before Christmas. I'm hoping (as I've booked loads of left over leave) to start fettling up the point operating boxes in the time before Christmas as well as a host of other jobs down the line.

Ruth has been giving the turnover frame it's final coats of paint and I've started to order the double sided lever badges (something unique to this type of frame. .)

The original badges have been removed and will be displayed separately to show their previous heritage when the box is finally positioned. I've also started to print up the box drawing and start framing it too

Elsewhere mr Briddon has had a delivery of a 101 year old bogie well wagon. Which should prove very usefull

 

Here be the beast, Midland Railway 1913, only two built, used in recent times at Crewe works for moving diesel engines around.

Dave

 

Wow, a wooden headstock, and a bush growing out of the well.... amazing how you can still find 100 year old kit on the railways.

 

Extract from Raildate 31 October 2014

10/11/14 North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society
St Thomas’s Church Centre, Chatsworth Road, Brampton, Chesterfield, S40 3AW
“The Railways of the Upper Derwent Valley”
by Ted Hancock
Starts 1930, £2 admission for non-members
http://www.nedias.co.uk

 

As I write yet again another update from my easy chair it's been a very busy weekend in all for the department;

Saturday started off quite wet really , David ,Ruth and myself carrying on with refitting the windows they'd completed last weekend and these are just awaiting the beading being finished to complete that side of the cabin,


we then moved onto removing the two panels from the other side and started to remove the glass and putty, in the background to this I'd gone into the workshop and started to fettle up the point operating boxes with use of fire and brimstone , more commonly known as the gas bottle torch and the hammer , the newer operating boxes work fine and all the nuts and bolts have undone fine and the drive pins have been changed over, however the older Westinghouse and Saxby version proved to be a pain as either the main pin or the body pin has seized and having spent hours heating Cooling and gently tapping it's still not moved an inch, I Darent give it some
Welly as it's the only one and too breakable to give it some pain so il slowly persevere with heating cooling and lubricating till it eventually gives, ironically the older machine has the better version of the protecting clutch( if the wire breaks it jams the machine to prevent the points moving by accident)- fitted as its on top and easily accessible where the newer versions have the pins inside in a right sod of a place to get to, that's progress for you

Ben has also very kindly this weekend machined up a load of beading for the front window which had proved to be rotten as was also part of the main sill on the right hand front, this we've replaced and faced off with a piece of hardwood which has yet to have its fancy fluting done with the router. But that's next time,we also kindly were given a circular saw thanks to one of my neighbours which came in handy for machining the rebate in the new sill piece.


On Sunday I called in at darley dale to change over a life expired relay base on the north gate release relay and also had a brew with mr Lathrope and mr Wooley had reported some
Leakage around the box stove (new stove methinks as the little old one hasn't done bad over the years since it was bought) before heading upto rowsley to carry on fettling with the windows and point boxes.

Pete was showing around two new volunteers Peter and Deborah around the railway and I managed to have a good chat with everyone from the loco department putting the J94 back together) to the HST ,LMSCA working on one of the mark twos in their shed for a good repaint and refettle and Mr Briddon working on one of his locos) to see what everyone else is upto for a change and also had a good chat about getting some wood sorted so Kevs friend can start getting on with machining up the finials soon

David had been busy between running the cabin at Church lane by rebuilding the shelving unit mr Horton had kindly donated to fill in the gap between the sink and the token machine.

Next weekend the work day will be Sunday, the plan is to carry on with the windows in the box as well as assist Ben in bending up some steelwork for the lamp brackets for Darley, Pete David and Ruth should be around so it should be another busy weekend to report about.

Sent from my iPhone

 

David's picture of the new windows in