The Electrical Volunteers Report Sunday 8-5-2011.

[asbibby]

A full team consisting of Jonathan, John, Len, Clive and myself turned up to tackle the various jobs which had been outstanding for a few weeks.

Jonathan and Len went off to check the fire alarm call points in BBS and The Trackside, whilst I checked what needed doing on securing one of the electrical plug points on platform four.

John sourced his lunch from the buffet before contacting the Bobby in Bury South signal box to obtain permission to refix the electrical plug point underneath platform four. I had informed BBS Station Master what we wanted to do and with all the permissions granted we collected up our power tools, plugs and screws and made our way to platform four.
Clive set about drilling new holes in the stonework as the original fixing screws had sheared off, new holes were drilled, new rawl plugs tapped into the holes and with new screws fitted the electrical plug point was back underneath the platform edge, protected from the rain.

Len and John were asked by Irene to replace a screw bulb in the BBS shop, eventually they found a suitable bulb.

The next outstanding job was down at the Carriage & Wagon shed at Buckley Wells, we took with us four newly refurbished carriage plug leads, our hand tools, zip ties and securing chain.
On arriving in the C & W shed there were four carriages that required work, we had replaced most of the carriage plug leads previously but they needed some glue filled heat shrink sleeving fitting over the heavy duty heat shrink sleeving to prevent water ingress.
We managed to complete two carriages, replacing some short screws and cleaning up the outside carriage covers before applying new silicon sealant and refixing the covers. There are four of these leads on each carriage, one of the carriages had a rotten wooden pattress so a new one was sourced for the C & W staff to fix to the carriage body.

Lunch was then taken back at our workshop in BBS.

The weather was holding up quite well against the forecast of rain so we all headed off back to the C & W shed to tackle the remaining two carriages. These carriages are in for extensive bodywork repairs, one of the carriages was completed as the ends of the carriage had been made good, Jonathan and myself took off the leads to give to Len so he could fit the new glue filled heat shrink sleeving using our hot air gun.
The other carriage had another rotten pattress so again one was sourced and left to the C & W staff to fit later.
A total of sixteen carriage plugs were changed, four on each carriage this information was then inputted on our maintenance database in our workshop.

We then made our way back to our workshop with some moulded MK2 carriage plugs which we had found in C & W, these will be cleaned up and eventually fitted on the MK2 carriages as they come in for maintenance.

Clive and John stripped down the Smiths electrical clock which Ray Butcher had given to us to refurbish, the movement which allows the time to be reset to the correct time had seized up, after stripping it down the mechanism was freed up, more work needs doing on the clock before we can put it on test.

That was it for another busy day for the Electrical Volunteers, what is in store next week?

[marflow]

Just to clarify:
The 'Ray Butcher Clock' being refurbished is a 2nd one. We're just cleaning it up for possible use in The Trackside.

The 1st RBC has been fitted with a stepper motor and is controlled by a micro. The clock can be installed high up and the controller low down so that the clock can be adjusted without ladders or scaffolding. This clock is now tested (accurate to better than 1 sec in 8 weeks) and awaiting woodwork from the joiner's shop. It is probably destined for the Loco works.

Our drum clock on platform 3/4 (February 2008) is still working well as is the old slave clock at Rawtenstall (May 10)