20th February, 2025
The signalling team have been busy recently completing repairs to the points operating mechanism at the Engineer’s siding. The work involved modifying the layout of the mechanism and repositioning the cranks. The photo shows Richard Billington attaching the crank to the base plate with the new rodding in the foreground.
However the work proved very challenging with problems unrelated to the work itself. For example, the Wickham trolley was needed to transport tools and equipment to the work site but we lost a day’s work because the Wickham wouldn’t run. On another occasion we needed the portable generator to power a magnetic drill but the generator had a leak on the fuel supply – another day’s work lost!
A further loss of work time was caused by the Santa specials where the Wickham trolley was locked in the yard because of other rolling stock which meant that we couldn’t progress the work during December. We managed to complete the installation and test it on Thursday 6th February – hooray!
The recent storms put paid to one of the Whistle boards up the line on the approach to the Hunt Crossing – the photo is of the other board on the Chilcompton side of the crossing. So yet another job to make a replacement for the broken board.
All this illustrates the variety of skills needed to keep the railway running – in our case in the signalling team, mechanical engineering and fabrication, woodworking, electrical skills and knowledge, painting and a host of others.
In addition, we have started the annual preventative maintenance on the signalling equipment in anticipation of the next running season, checking the mechanical and electrical operation of the equipment both in the signal box and out on the track. Next, we look forward to the start of the new season and the opportunity to train two new volunteers to become qualified signallers.
The Signalling Team are on site on Thursdays. You will find other volunteer teams on site on different days. If you are interested in volunteering, speak a volunteer or email general@sdjr.co.uk