The Bay Tree Platform and Spinney Signal Box Winter
Another winter when we lost two days to the weather. It looks like we must expect these interruptions. However, Covid was mostly over as a less damaging variant of the virus became established and vaccines became effective. Back to normal!
Bay Tree Platform
The project took the whole winter; it was much more work than we anticipated and is a warning about future platform rebuilds. We began on January 22nd as above, clearing the old platform to create a massive dump of hardcore on a plastic sheet in front of the shed.
By March we had cleared away the old platform (at last!), made a start on the new brickwork and preserved / renewed the cable path to signal 12/13 at the platform end.
And eventually, by late May we had cleared the rubble and had a platform back. Special thanks are due to the principal bricklayers and slab levellers, Alan S and Dave M.
Dingly Power Supplies Replaced
The project was in the hands of Alan A and Andrew and was started over Christmas 2021. The top left picture shows them at work, with coats and woolly hats in January. The top right hand picture shows them in June, still at work, but dressed for the summer. The task was to replace laptop type power supplies individually plugged into the mains via multi-socket extension leads with a cabinet holding the power supplies each with individual trips if shorted. The cabinet also housed the variable resistors for the track circuits. The relay interlocking remains as Bob wired it. This was another task that proved more demanding than expected and it was late June before tools could be removed and the box fully handed over as seen in the last picture which shows the neat cabinet in the background.
Carriage Shed Track Work
Robin was in charge here. The job was to provide a new siding parallel to the shed.
This required a new point and bufferstop, the latter, a rebuild by Dave M, seen in the last picture showing it to Robin.
Improved Signal Connectors
One of the first improvements Alan A made on taking over the railway was to provide "Caravan Connectors" to plug in the signals enabling easy disconnection of signals for winter storage and easy plug in come spring. (Previously individual wires had to be unscrewed then re-screwed at terminal blocks.)
The old connectors were mounted on short wooden posts next to the signal and over time have rotted. Peter has taken on the task of re-mounting the connectors using metal posts and an early example is shown at the base of the signal on the right.
This is an on-going task and although several signals were dealt with this winter several more remain for Peter's attention.
And Finally, the Odds and Ends
We did a little re-sleepering: a bit of the up line from the last Dingly point to the start of the Bay Tree platform: the point outside Old Oak box; the points at the shed were fettled.