This week, the theme of not-having-a-theme continued, with progress on five distinct projects.
Firstly, the steel door belonging to the south side of the operating floor at Hotchley Hill is finally ready to be re-installed. Persuading the new cover plates to fit properly in the hole over the lock proved surprisingly difficult - as there is barely enough space when everything fits square and flush. The doors were not built consistently square or flush in the first place! Nonetheless, it is now all together, complete with a new lock fitted in a mirror image of the north side.
Second, the cupboard for Asher Lane cabin has been painted, white inside, brown out, and is only waiting for an opportune time to fit it.
We fetched an old insulated soleplate from the yard, and cleaned and patched it up, ready for use in the station area. In case it isn't common knowledge, this soleplate is a strip of steel, which fits on top of the sleeper at the "pointy" end of a set of points, to provide confidence that the rails won't shift around with age and wear. To prevent this permanently shorting-out our track circuits, the soleplate has a split in the middle, where the two sides are bolted together through insulated packing. The old insulators had completely perished, so we dug out some new ones, ready for reassembly.
Then, we felt like a spot of painting, so the hoods and surround from the new Ruddington Home signal were wire-brushed, and primed. They join a mounting stack of prepared parts.
Next week is a second Saturday, so we ended the day by getting ahead of ourselves, and putting some effort into tidying up the cabin (again). We are expecting the arrival of some 'new' furniture, for which we need to make room. While shifting things around, we are also taking time to gradually shift to using better containers. Plastic bags and cardboard boxes seem like a convenient option, but decay, leaving their contents in chaos!
As you may guess, I was more occupied than normal yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. My apologies for the delay!
