Simon was first into our workshop today, a quick clean up was required to enable us to make a brew before starting work. Simon and Paul one of the mid-week volunteers have been making steady progress on the re-wiring of Bury Bolton Street station, platforms three & four.Clive was on a radio club event in Wigan and Chris was attending a wedding.
Simon and myself went over to platform four to check out first our scaffold and how we are going to cut & then joint the the mains cable from the old distribution box to the new distribution box, this will require approx. seven metres of new plastic insulated 1kv rated cable and an appropriate jointing kit.
We were then joined by Jonathan, Len and John and after a brew and a cake Jonathan and Len went off to do the usual checks on the fire alarm call points at The Trackside and BBS station, everything was working OK and the findings recorded in the log books.
A discussion took place regarding training on the usage of our mobile tower scaffold which will be done in the near future, i am the only competent person at present in the electrical department who is allowed to erect and dismantle the scaffold.
Some parts of our scaffold have gone missing so we decided to make one last attempt to locate them on the railway, Len and John headed up to Ramsbottom Station to see if parts had been left up there, we checked Baron Street steam shed and the carriage and wagon shed but to no avail, new replacement parts will have to be ordered so that the scaffold can be used to it's full height again.
Lunch was then taken after we all met up again in our workshop.
We had previously in the day had a look at a reported fluorescent fitting which was not working in the gents toilets at Baron Street steam shed, after getting rid of loads of cob webs around the fitting it appeared that the connectors seemed to be at fault so a replacement fitting was sourced and tested back in our workshop in case we needed to change the complete unit.
John had a look at the problem and managed to rectify the unit whilst fitting a new tube at the same time, all is now working.
It is a pity that the state of this gents toilet facility at Baron Street is in such a state, it is not fit for purpose at present, the toilet ceiling is covered in cob webs, the paint is peeling off the walls, discarded toilet rolls litter the place, toilet cubicles are very dirty and the toilet basins themselves are in a filthy condition.
The ELRPS volunteers have their own toilet facilities in Tate Towers which are cleaned by ELRPS volunteers, i can only surmise that the Baron Street facilities are used by Riley & Sons Engineering & ELR full time workers and volunteers, who is responsible for keeping this welfare facility in a clean useable condition?
It was then back to the workshop for a final brew a slice of jam and cream sponge cake which John had kindly brought in for us to sample.