McKenzie & Holland signal

 The shunt signal controlling the Yard Exit at Boat of Garten South SB  (no.27) has been replaced by a refurbished ex Highland Railway  McKenzie & Holland rotating  disc type signal. This signal has been in our store for some time awaiting restoration. I am happy to report that this has now been completed and the signal has been put into use as the yard exit signal No27. The signal can be viewed from the  south end of platform 1 or 2. It is suggested that the signal came to the railway many years ago from Pitlochry yard. The photographic evidence we do have does suggest this to be true.

McKenzie & Holland rotating disc fitted at Boat of Garten South Box. Fitted with electric LED lamp.

McKenzie & Holland rotating disc showing a proceed aspect. 

As found in the storage area in need of a lot of work to restore it to working condition.

From the railway archives, a picture of what we believe is the same signal fitted as the exit to Pitlochry yard. 

There is lots of other small restoration jobs like this that we would like to do. If you would like to get involved please get in touch.

Telegraph Pole Route Work

 With the help from Permanent Way colleagues, we have finally got round to changing two telegraph poles at Kinchurdy which had rotted at ground level. This was not a particularly difficult job but was quite time consuming.  The new poles are two feet taller returning the line wires back to their original height, reducing the strain and taking them back out of our passenger’s view from the carriage window when travelling on the train. We are very fortunate that the railway has accumulated healthy stock of telegraph pole components such as cross arms, porcelain insulator pots & spindles which should allow us to maintain our pole route for years to come. The Strathspey Railway is now one of a very few heritage railways which has a fully operational telegraph pole route in the UK.

Preparation works at Boat of Garten before heading to site.

On site the pole is notched to take the cross member, a hat is installed to protect the top of the pole from the weather and reduce the rate of decay.

The end result, new pole up. 1.5m into the ground for stability and 0.6m taller than the old pole making the wires level to the other poles and reducing the tension in the lines.

We still have a few more poles that are in need of replacement, if you would like to get involved with these renewals please get in touch.

Spring Report supplement

 Work has continued and the Indicators are finished in the South Box at Boat of Garten. 

Lunch time train passing the Home signal with it’s Great North of Scotland finials 

The south end of the Blockshelf with the signal indicators working.

Replacement release indicator for the North Box.

This is what you can see on the operating floor. Pease remember, there is lots of unseen work to this project. One of the big things is the full use of our pole route between the signal box and the signals. We might have to add more wires in the future!

S&T Spring Report,

 As mentioned in the last Blog, we have turned our hands to getting some of the maintenance tasks done. Aviemore was requiring some timber replacement on the rodding run to the carriage shed points. This timber is on the first compensator crank and was cosing a large loss of motion. Resulting in the points not operating as designed. The old softwood top timber was removed and replaced by a good condition hardwood timber that had been cut out of a points timber. With this work complicated, the movement was recovered and the points are now working as they should be again.

Old compensator crank with the split timber.

New timber with everything completed.

One of the other things that we have looked at is the problems with the visibility of number 1 and 2 signals. The home signal from Boat of Garten. It was decided to remove this problem by installing arm repeaters for both signals. New equipment needed to be installed to detect the position of the arm. Thankfully we had already installed a cable that was suitable for the task from the signal to the signal box. We were able to acquire two midland railway arm repeaters and installed them on the block shelf. 

One of the new arm repeaters con box’s that have been installed on the signal post

In the signal box the two new arm repeaters.

Again signal arm repeaters with home showing an off.

Unfortunately some of the signalling equipment was damaged at the beginning of the season with a lorry cutting the corner of Spaylodge crossing. Landing on the points rodding run and bending the rods and breaking the drop lug for the FPL. This resulted in the crossing deck needing to be lifted to reveal the complete rodding bar. Three lengths identified as beyond serviceable and replaced. Plus a new drop lug found and also replaced. To help prevent any further damage troughing has been added to give some protection. With all these repairs the points are working well again.

Not a very good view of the damage but you can see the broken rod.

In an attempt to protect the rodding more. Troughing has been added to reduce the risks if an accident is to occur again.

Dalfaber ABCL received it quarterly maintenance in March as well as its Annual test. No real issues have been identified other than the white lines are fading. 

Dalfaber ABCL missing some road markings.

Back to Boat of Garten the pole route cabinet at Boat South box has received some work. A new felt roof and a coat of paint to keep it going for the years to come.

The refurbished cabinet.

With the never ending battle with the trees blocking the view of the Home signals at the South of Boat of Garten. It has been decided to install two arm repeaters for these signals. With this work it has also identified yet more equipment that is getting on in age and need replaced as it is beyond economical repair. At the home signals ALL cables have now been replaced. Con boxes have been wired up. A new cabinet has been installed at the pole route to receive the drop wires from the pole route. New drop wires have been added and installed for these signals extra circuits. Under the South box replacement buz bars have been installed Old one removed. New cables run to the pole route and new cables to the block shelf. Arm repeaters have been installed on the block shelf and wired up.but not yet turned on. This job is not yet finished but is almost done.

Up in the pole route new dropper wires have been installed.

Under the box new buz bars, battery cables, battery’s and cableways have been installed.

Up stairs the new arm repeaters have been installed but still to be connected up.

Looking at this picture I have forgotten about the new bells. At the left end is the new key token bell and at the right hand end you now have pegger bells between Boat South and Boat North. This takes away the need of phone calls and speeds up the operations. 

The home signals has received a bit of work with a fresh coat of paint and two Great North of Scotland finials added. It certainly finishes the signal off well.

Signalling Completion

 Winter time has always been a different time of the year to do anything outdoors in the Highlands. Hard frosts, frozen ground. Snow on the ground, all this slows us down. 

We have continued and have got on with a lot of the finishing jobs. The interlocking has now been completed and tested by independent testers. Who have reported back with no issues. Which is a tremendous achievement. It has taken a lot of hours to design, develop and implementation to achieve this goal. Which no one will see or realise that it is there.

Overall three new locking trays have been added to the existing locking. Several tappets have been removed and replaced with new. New notches have been cut to interact with the locks. Redundant locks and bridals removed or modified. New locks and bridals crafted together using cold rivets in the traditional ways, creating the locking of the signal box. Thus helping the signaller do his job correctly, removing the risk of human mistakes being made. 

With a lack of original electrical lamp units being available, we have had to be creative with what we have available to us. Each light unit houses a Ba15D LED lamp. Which is also fitted into the original lamp unit of the Main arm signal above. Happily we can report that this arrangement works well, with a good light displayed in low light situations. 

The main arm light can be seen in full daylight conditions, but the ground signals can only be seen as light levels deteriorate.

Lamp proving is provided by the back lights on each signal, which are clearly visible from the signal box window, even on a bright winters day.

Inside the signal box things are nearing completion. The new diagram is in place, a fresh coat of paint has been applied. Just a bit of house keeping to be completed before the trains start running and the box’s come into use again. With all this work now been completed, we can run trains in an Up and Down direction on the Down main or the Up loop now. Thus giving the railway much more flexibility on how to run the railway and stable trains in the station.

We will now be turning our hands to some remedial maintenance around the railway. This work is nowhere near as exciting work, but all in all still necessary. As I say most times if you have any free time and would like to Join us, be it for a cup of tea or to learn something new. Please get in contact through the company’s website.

First Train to Acknowledge New Signals

 First Train to Acknowledge new signals.

With the running season finished at the end of October. It opened up the opportunity to disconnect the old signals on the up line and bring the new ones into use. This has worked out to our advantage with having our friends from Scottish Woodlands on site with various machines. They have been running various course for there staff, gaining experience and operating hours on there machines. With this they have been carrying out various tasks over our railway which has benefited the railway greatly. One training exercise that was carried out was the removal of the old signals, wooden table with detector and wheels still attached. Which was expertly executed saving us lots of time and effort. The second training exercise for them was Manoeuvring in the confined space, back filling the hole that had just been created. Again expertly done, saving us lots of time, bring the project on rapidly.

The old Shunt Signals and associated equipment waiting for removal.

Out with the old! Removed carefully by Scottish Woodlands. Put to one side to be Brocken up another day.

Site cleared and prepared by Scottish Woodland, allowing for the new connections to be made.

New connection rods in and connected. Detection swords marked and then cut. Points are now detected and proven to be correct before the signal can be pulled off.

In the middle of all this work, the Pway ballast train arrives from Aviemore. At this point three of the four signal wires have been completed. Which is why one wire is dropping. But it is the first train to be signalled with the main route. 

With all the work completed on the ground, this is how the driver sees the new signals. Top left, across to the Dn line bottom left, shunt onto an occupied up main. Main arm, into the unoccupied up main. Right hand shunt, into the North Yard.

There is still lots to be done yet. Interlocking changes to be completed, signal lights to be wired up. Diagrams to be updated. The signal box to be cleaned, and the yard too. If you have any free time and wish to help out, please get in contact through the strathspey Railways website.

October S&T Round Up

 

Welcome to the next instalment of the S&T Blog. Lots have been going on, but nothing that shouts out ‘look what we have done!’ Well have a read and see what you think. 

5025 passing the new signal post. Before the arm went on.

To start with we have had two callouts to deal with signalling issues on the railway. Both being with Dalfaber level crossing this summer. One for lighting damage. On a non running day, only our Pway colleagues were affected by this one. Nothing too spectacular. Just the normal problem with Diode track circuits. When lightning strikes the rail the diode goes pop! A simple fix, just a change of component, test and everything is back to normal working. The second, unfortunately. Was an alleged incident of miss use by a motorist. With this, the company’s written instructions were put into use. With a caution given to the drives as they enter section, to approach at caution and stop if required. This was in place until the crossing had been functionally test. Proving that the alleged incident is of no fault of the equipment and that it is operating correctly. The Data recordings were read proving that the crossing operated correctly at the time of the alleged incident and saved if it is required by the courts. The Police attended to download the video recording from the CCTV, that watch the crossing.(This is a Highland Council asset). With all this done normal working was resumed.

The old diode to one side with the new one installed in its heatsink. A cup of tea then back out to install it. 

At Aviemore Lodge our telecoms team have made a visit and have been enjoying digging holes and filling them in again! This job had come about quickly after Open Reach bringing forwards the job of installing fibre to the railway. This is after all the lightning damage that happened in the village at the same time as our problems with Dalfaber. This trench is for the conduit to be installation that will house the fibre under the railway and joining onto the conduit that goes to the lodge connecting use into the network with in Dalfaber estate. This investment will help improving the integrity of the railways systems for the future.

Trench dug to receive the new conduit.

 

One of the cable chambers being modified for the new conduit to be connected in.

Back to Boat of Garten things have been progressing well. The most noticeable being the completion of the new Down direction signal, complete with its new finial on top. This finial was kindly donated to the railway and it was decided that a fitting place for it would be on the top of our new signal. It is originally from the London & South Western Railway. Still it looks great on a highland railway post!

The next day 5025 passing the now completed signal

With the lift bar being completed in the last blog. The next task was to get it all connected up and working correctly from the signal box. Now believe me this was no simple task. Lots of time has been spent fine tuning the movement of all components. Some rodding stools required to be adjusted. Extra stools added where more support of the rodding was required. Cranks adjusted to remove bindings and give better balance. Missed split pins installed. The vertical crank under the box, stoke adjusted so that the movement made by the signal lever is increased to match the movement that is required to lift and drop the lift-bar. In turn, inserting or removing the bolt that locks the points. It is now set up properly and working well allowing us to move on to the next part of the project.

46464 passing on the down, with the completed FPL and lift bar.

Moving onto the signals, all the signal wires have now been run! From the new signals, back to the lead off table in front of the box. Under the box the vertical wheels have been installed, with wires from the lever tails to the lead off table. Everything is now ready for the final connection to be made at the lead of table. This will be done after the Scotsman has made its last visit for the year, on the 1st of November. 

The three flat wheels waiting for final connection.

The decision to wait until after the Scotsman has finished has been made. As it would affect the safe running if done before hand. As the existing signals will need to be decommissioned. Equipment removed, bench removed to allow for the new detector to be connected. Once this is done we will be able to bring the new signal into use. Once the interlocking is done.

The old signals and equipment in the way of the new.

Under the box, new locking trays have been added and some changes have been made to the locking already. Allowing for the points rodding to be swapped onto 20 lever. Then the new FPL to be connected to 19. Then testing could begin. All this done, while continuing to maintain safety and control over train movements.

Three new locking tray added ready to receive the new locking.

So that brings us to the end of the blog for now. As ever if you fancy joining in weather it be with us or any of the other railway departments. Please get in contact through the railways website and we look forwards to seeing you in the future.