Just the four of us in today, Len, John, Clive and myself, Jonathan was away on a jollie.We had a quick look at a vacuum cleaner from the Trackside that was not working, a special screwdriver is needed to strip the unit down, to get at the electric motor, all designed to stop the amateur tampering with their kit.
We will see if we can obtain a correct type of screwdriver.
We got ready to install the Christmas lights at Heywood Station, but after loading all the lights, tools and step ladder onto a trolley, we had a visitor inform us that the three phase supply had gone off in the Standard four workshop.
John and myself went to investigate, armed with some hand tools and an AVO meter that reads AC up to 1000volts, this was needed as the three phase supply is measured at 415volts. The three phases tested out OK with the correct voltage readings in the 415volt control box, but when the green button was pressed the relay was not operating. The fault was traced to one of the emergency stop buttons which had been accidentally pressed, they are located all around the workshop, these are essential to cut the supply to the machinery in the case of an emergency with an operator.
Once the emergency button had been released the green button on the control unit operated the relay controlling the 415volt supply and everything worked fine.
Clive and Len located a krone box and wired up some connections for a future job.
Lunch was then taken prior to taking all the Christmas lights and ancillaries to catch the next train up to Heywood Station, unfortunately for us the train terminated at Bury Bolton Street Station, due to the trains running late.
So it was back to the workshop, the Christmas lights will have to wait for another week.
John and Len went to the carriage & wagon workshop to deliver some empty cans for their use and to see if they could recover any old carriage plug leads in need of refurbishment.
We stripped down some Station lighting lamp heads which had been left outside our workshop, these are sort after by us and will be used on future Station lighting projects. All the old fluorescent electrical fittings were stripped out and the angle grinder used to get rid of over fifty years of rust etc. from the units.
These will be cleaned, painted and fitted with new electrical lighting over the winter months in our workshop.
We scoffed John's chocolate sponge cake, washed down with a good strong brew, before calling it a day, back next week.
Thanks Peter i will have a shufty.