The West Somerset Railway on the Web

The WSR Signal Engineer Kevin Weston explains...

On Thursday 3rd July, the S&T department once again met at Blue Anchor to carry out phase two of the work on the point rodding. This phase of the work was planned to take four days so as to allow for the amount of work involved. Parts of the existing rodding run were found to be life expired and in need of replacement. The work also allowed new fittings to be installed.

Day 1. The point, facing point lock and protecting signals were disconnected by 10 am on Thursday 3rd July. Handsignalman then took over the operation of the point under the instruction of the signalman. This allowed the S&T department to work unhindered by the passing of trains. The first job was to dismantle and remove all the rodding. Several lengths of hollow rodding were discovered which had to be replaced with solid rodding. Once the rodding had been removed, the re-alignment of the roller blocks and the compensator cranks could start. The compensators are mounted on large concrete blocks which are dug into the ground. It was not proposed to move the actual blocks, but to mount the compensators on a different place on the blocks. The new alignment was marked out and the compensators moved to align with this. Some of the blocks had to be leveled due to ground subsidence over the years.

Once these were installed correctly, the long, and sometimes tedious job, of aligning the roller blocks started. This was done by "gangers eye", one man would be on the ground looking along the alignment of the rollers and given instructions to the persons moving the blocks. Four of the existing blocks were replaced with large concrete "I" section blocks that are required to be dug into the ground. These were placed at equal distances along the run and should help to prevent any future movement.

Day 2. The alignment of the blocks continued throughout the day. Once the blocks were in place, we could begin to install the rodding. Since the blocks have been moved and some new rodding used, the overall length of the run had changed slightly. The overall length of the run is about 300 feet but the rodding has to be installed to an accuracy of 1/8 of an inch, this is the maximum amount that a set of points is allowed to be open for the passage of a train. It can therefore be seen that even with the use of an adjustable rod, there is very little room for error.

Day 3. While the main centre of attention for the railway was the Thomas weekend at Minehead, the S&T department continued (almost un-noticed) the work at Blue Anchor.

All the blocks had been aligned and half the rodding was installed. Today, the rodding run was completed. Overall, the rodding for the facing point lock had to be extended by 12 inches and the rodding for the point had to be shortened by 10 inches. The department's welder had set up a temporary workshop at the back of the signal box, well away from the public areas. Using two portable workbenches and a few improvised tools he was able to complete all that was asked of him, despite the ground not being level.

Day 4. Everything was now ready to be set up and tested. With the rodding now installed, final alignment was completed and all the blocks securely bedded in. The rodding was connected and test in the afternoon. The point has two separate connections, both must be aligned with each other to ensure correct operation. By 3 pm everything was in working order and signed back to the operating department.

This project is our third to be carried out at Blue Anchor in the past two years, and the first one which has not been carried out in the middle of winter, a fact much appreciated by all concerned.

Kevin Weston also took the pictures...

Click on the thumbnail below for a bigger picture.