Signal Box
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Not quite finished - mock steps to small door and top layer of roofing felt to finish the exterior
Unable to get a Westinghouse lever frame, a visit to Chingford Model Engineering Club and a measure of their frame lead to the development of the companies lever frame. The block bell is a fake and came off ebay. It is made from an old BT bell but since a pair only cost £11 it is perfect for us.
CONSTRUCTION
To get the correct dimension the box was drawn in CAD. These drawings were used for ordering the doors and windows.
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Easter weekend saw the start of contruction of the signal box. We excavated down around 4" before casting the concrete slab. The slab has 6mm steel mesh in as reinforcing to hopefully stop it cracking. The right picture shows the cast slab. Under the sheet are the six windows and minature door. We have also ordered the timber which includes 3" square posts for the corners.
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To get the character of a signal box we wanted to main criteria - Proper widows/doors and solid corner posts to represent the traditional frame construction. While we were ordering the two doors and six widow sets we also got the joiners to manufacture roof trusses. The trusses were constructed from plywood and saved a lot of time.
After our May 07 open day we realised that if we continued with our lever frame the poor signal man would soon be worn out pulling levers for 3-4 trains per minute. With this in mind we have decided to build a small power frame instead to control the points and signals up the south side of the garden.
If you fancy building a signal box like ours please feel free to look at our drawings. If you do use them a donation to St Francis Hospice would be much appreciated especially as there is over 10 hrs of work to produce these.
I have tried to update the drawings to take in to account of modifications we made during construction. If you use these drawings you do so at your own risk. What worked for us may not work for you.
