8/7/2010 Work Day

The SCRR gained another block in its signal system on the 1.5 inch line. Rich, Bob and I went back into Pine Grove and broke the block on the inner loop about 300 feet from the tunnel and added another pair of signals. The reason to add blocks is to give an engineer a green (or yellow) light sooner to speed up operations. The process is that we cut the rail to enlarge a gap between rails so we can isolate the electric signals. We also break the trackside cable that carries the power and the signals forward and backward to other semaphores. We wire a connection box at ground level and route the wiring into the new box. Then we add the semaphore connections to the terminals and finally test the system to ensure the signal is working correctly and sending and receiving correctly to the other semaphores. Finally we attach the semaphore, add a few mothballs to the box to keep out the ants and button it all up. Usually takes about two hours or so to install a new semaphore if everything goes as expected.

We then tested the one inch line to see if the club diesel could operate through the Summit turnout that Don and Dan had worked on last week and had a piece replaced during the week. I am happy to report that it worked flawlessly.