SVR S&T Dept.
SIGNALLING NOTES - Chris. Hall
We seem to be busier than ever: at the beginning of August we had a lot of digging to do to bury rodding stools to support a rodding run of 82m at Foley Park. By the middle of August our workload had increased because an expert had confirmed our diagnosis that the Down Inner Homes bracket at Bewdley South had serious wood rot and would have to be taken down. The original 1932 signal had lasted until November 2005, although its base had been grandfathered in B.R. days. Such high quality wood was unaffordable when we replaced it in 2006, using Douglas Fir, and the advice now is to use high quality hardwood and to treat it and surface paint it after all the necessary holes and rebates had been cut.
On Sunday 2nd August the aim was to dig in three concrete bases at the main line points at Foley Park as decribed in the last article, to support the drive cranks for the points and FPL (facing point lock). We realised that the age profile of the volunteer section of the Department now looked rather different than it did the last time we had some 'heavy gang' work to do. We therefore attempted to 'press gang' some members of the Locomotive Department to help. The attraction was a free trackside barbeque in very fine weather. This attracted Jimmy Norris, Will Pederson, Rob Smith and Evan Bradshaw. We brought a wooden mock up of the concrete bases (it is much easier to lift a light wooden mock up in and out of the hole to check it is the correct depth and is level than it is to have four people struggling to manoeuvre a concrete in and out). With myself, Martin Wood and James Marrion we were able to get the three concretes dug in by the end of the day. The spacing of the concretes was determined by the sleeper positions and their actual distance apart was measured to allow straps to be cut to length.
On Tuesday 4th August ¼ton of steel strip was delivered, comprising four six-metre lengths of 80mm x 16mm strip. These were delivered to our main stores, with thanks to Roland Bull for helping with the delivery. This material is used for straps and also for making up the short piece on GW insulated FPL stretchers (we have four brand new GW style insulated FPL stretchers in stock). We had used the last of our 16mm strip to make adapter plates - a strategic spare to allow a BR compensator (which is longer and narrower than a GW compensator) to be fitted in place of a failed GW compensator using the same fitting holes.
By 16 August, the straps and cranks have been fitted and we are able to measure the height of the rodding above rail level (3″) and its distance from the nearer rail (42") so that the next set of concrete bases can be positioned correctly. In the event, these concretes were moved further away from the rails in September. Photo: J. Smith
On Sunday 16th August the party was split: James and myself went to site and marked up the nearer rail every 4 metres from the main line points toe to the ground frame so that we could identify an exact position for everything on site from a painted mark on the rail no more than 2m away. The tappets for the ground frame were measured and marked up for the ports to be cut and the ground frame was dismantled as far as possible to allow it to be painted, taken to site and bolted in position. This would allow the surrounding brickwork to be laid. Suitable mock ups were added for the rodding and lock, which would each protrude through the brickwork.
The rest of the party went to Hampton Loade to terminate the 180 yard length of signalling cable that had been laid out on Tuesday 11th. I joined them at 1700, my task was to help at Bridgnorth with the token testing after the cables had been changed over. It is always interesting to have two identical tokens in your hands during testing and it concentrates the mind wonderfully. Once we had finished the testing, Gary was to take the class 14 to Sterns, for which a token had been left out, so I worked the box for this movement.
The new ground frame shown on 23 August bolted down to its plinth, in a rather rural setting. By the end of September, the new ground frame had been painted in light grey undercoat and a few weeks later in black gloss. The area around the ground frame was then cleared to allow access for the bricklayer. It now just awaits the surrounding brickwork before we will be able to complete its construction. Photo: C. K. Hall
On Sunday 23rd we took the 08 and a coach to deliver the ground frame to site and bolt it down on the concrete plinth cast by the contractor at the conclusion of the Falling Sands job. James and myself paid a short visit to Foley Park on Sunday 30th to paint the ground frame in light grey undercoat.
By 11 April the materials have been delivered to site and Graham Phillips has started the brickwork around the ground frame. Once the brickwork is complete, the ground frame will be fully assembled and covered with decking. Photo: C. K. Hall
On Sunday 6th September we split into two groups, one to examine (and hopefully replace) part of the 110V power cable between Bewdley Down Distant and Home signals. It now looks as if we will need to replace the whole cable. The other group, with assistance gratefully received from Will Pederson from Bewdley Loco, five of us in total, took on the rather tiresome task of moving the concretes already dug in about 800mm further away from the sleepers to leave space for the P-Way to tamp the points, which were pumping nearly 2" under each train. The rodding cannot be any further from the rails as the ballast shoulder (between here and the ground frame) which will hold the roller blocks gives way to falling ground towards the fence. On Monday 7th some broken bonds on the pointwork outside Kidderminster box were replaced, after a fault had been reported by the signalman.
The digging gang has resumed work after a break for soup and cakes. Two of the three concretes had to be turned round (the holes are asymmetric). It is 1530 on 6 September but two thirds of the day's work is done - just need to throw some ballast around to fill the holes under the sleepers. Photo: C. K. Hall
On Sunday 13th we split into two groups heading off to Foley Park again - this time to install a compensator pair and to bury a concrete rodding stool. The five-hole concretes (for the compensator) are 15" deep, 7½" wide and 54" long so we need to shovel quite a bit of ballast out of the way to bury them. We knew that the concretes had to be exactly 39" apart for the cast plate to be bolted down. The sleepers were wider at the base and thus hidden from view and placed 40" apart where we wanted to put the compensators. One bed closer to the points and the sleepers here were only 38" apart and so it would fit. We now had a concrete rodding base to bury - this is 24" deep, 9" wide and 22" wide. More shovelling and by 4p.m. everything is level and parallel and bedded in. There are thirty rodding stools to bury so we will need some willing helpers each Sunday for the forseeable future.
By about 3p.m. on 13 September we had bolted the plates to the concretes, packed and lifted the concretes so that they were level and bedded them in. Photo: G. Phillips
On Sunday 20th our Foley Park activities were diverted to measuring up the temporary signal so that the down rods could be welded and made up to the correct length at Bridgnorth. Welding the wrought iron end pieces to mild steel bar is not an easy task. The completed signal was placed ready for rail transport to Bewdley during the week.
On Sunday 27th we experimented with some redundant AWS mounting plates to see whether we could make up a 'home brew' rodding stool. Time will tell whether these will work satisfactorily but they will be useful as emergency spares as pretty much all of our rodding stools have been pressed into service for Foley Park. Will Pederson arrived at lunchtime and James, Will and myself went out to Foley Park to bury four more rodding stools. With no rail transport immediately available, two full lengths of rodding were carried out to site. When we returned, five prototype 'home brew' rodding stools had been made up by Aron, John and Fred.
A production line on 27 September for 'home brew' rodding stools has produced five to the initial prototype design. Photo: F. Cotterell
Preparation for the temporary replacement signal for Bewdley South was quite a large task: finding a suitable metal post and preparing and painting the post and fittings. The paid staff, the mid-week volunteers and a number of others who offered help (or were conscripted) managed this in double-quick time. There were many 'new' faces, too numerous to mention individually.
The team who dug the signal hole at BS were Matt Morgan, James Mort and Bruce Strong, expertly watched (I mean supervised!) by the Chief S&TE Paul Marshall. Alan Turner and all of the above were there throughout moving stuff around for the crane job, and Matt Wingfield joined the team on the day of the big lift. Fred Cotterell was the Lift planner and slinger on the day of the lifting.
The line from Bewdley North to the Up Starting signal at Bewdley South is under possession and a temporary signal is being erected. A patch has been put onto the signal box diagrams at North and South boxes to show the temporary signal. Diagram: C. K. Hall
Monday 28th saw the temporary signal erected, the hole having been dug the previous day as described above. The signal was lifted into place using the 30 ton rail mounted crane. A double disc reading to the Down Yard or to the Rock Siding was also lifted into place. Later that week, Graham Gardener, Brad, Paul and Matt stripped the old signal from the MEWP (mobile elevated working platform) - much fun was had at height (safely). Martin Crane brought refurbished signal arms and disc faces for the temporary signal.
By 16:00 on Thursday 1st October, the new signal has been erected and the old signal removed. Photo: Fred Cotterell
We are aiming to erect the permanent replacement signal for the Bewdley South Down Inner Homes during 2021 if the wooden post that has been ordered - this time green heart or purple heart hard wood with an anticipated life of upwards of 50 years - arrives in good time.
How things were: photos taken on 28 August 2005 record precise details of the original signal, which we will faithfully recreate. Photo: Jason Houlders
On 18th October an unfitted freight train was placed at our disposal and so we were able to recover the dismantled bracket signal from Bewdley Down Yard to Kidderminster and to deliver some lengths of rodding, some rodding stools and other heavy items to Foley Park. Bricks and water were delivered later that week with the cooperation of the P-Way department, for which many thanks.
On 18 October we have loaded the dismantled bracket signal onto a wagon for transport to Bewdley during a convenient gap in the train service. Photo: C. K. Hall
Hampton Loade and Highley have all suffered from problems getting the starting signal, all caused by a variety of problems with BSRs (block stick relays - which are energised by removal of a token and de-energised when the starting signal is cleared), gunge in electric locks, brasso in plungers and token machine contacts out of adjustment. Roger Phelps, Paul, Fred and the paid staff have spent many hours, including lates and weekends tracing these which seem to have settled down now. Thanks are due to our long suffering HL signalmen for bearing the inconvenience patiently!
On 26th October there was opportunity for a helpful chat at Highley with the P-Way about forthcoming winter work. The main to main crossover at Bewdley North was to be overhauled and two new half switches would be fitted to the connection outside Kidderminster box between 1EL and the Main in March 2021. Work on 12 points at Bridgnorth (to move the switches off the bridge) and 11 points at Hampton Loade (which can seize up in extreme hot weather) would be deferred to the following year.
An infrastructure planning meeting in April 2021 confirmed the intention to lay a siding at Foley Park during the Summer season in 2021 using redundant track and to procure and install the siding half of the crossover onto the main line. The ground frame will be released by the occupation key and further electrical work to allow a release during traffic hours will not, at present, be pursued.
By 26th October seven rodding stools had been buried and, after a delivery of some concrete rodding stools, we now have enough stools for the work. It looked as if a concerted effort over the coming weekends should see the rodding run to the ground frame completed, the ground frame brickwork built and the ground frame connected to the new points. These good intentions were defeated by Covid and work stopped in December.
We were only able to resume our activities in mid March but by Sunday 11th April we had buried all 14 rodding stools between the comps and the points and 9 of the 16 stools from the comps to the ground frame. Just over 50% of the rodding run is now thus complete and the brickwork around the ground frame is taking shape - it is all coming together.
On 11th April the main focus is on delivering nine nearly full lengths of point rodding and other materials using an 08 and brake van. Towards the end of the day two stools have been buried and the rodding installed and connected together. Photo: C. K. Hall
Fred has masterminded a big tidy up of the compound at KR with help from everybody and Aron driving the JCB. The midweek folk have been doing lots of tidying everywhere too and addressing one or two Health & Safety issues. Bradley, Geoff and Matt have reconditioned two signal motors and have started on a point motor. Geoff and Paul Rowley have continued lots of little renewals with the paid team all over the railway to combat wear & tear, mouse nibbles and decades of use. We have attracted some new volunteers who are all just waiting for restrictions to ease before joining us.
Later this year therefore we are hoping that the signal box diagram for Kidderminster signal box will show the new ground frame in its finished state.
How the signal box diagram should look when this stage of the work is complete later in 2021.
The old signal is lifted out on 9th March.
The concrete base was cast at the beginning of March. The metal boot has been manufactured by Bridgnorth and it fits like a glove! It is 24th March and all is ready for the lift.
The following day the signal is lifted into place and bolted down.
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