|
Post by dave1 on Jun 30, 2017 12:22:12 GMT
How often do locking fitters carry out checks on signal boxes and IMRs other than when they go when requested, is there say every 3 months or longer just for carrying out general maintenance.
Now this is just for IMRs as I'm sure if it was a control room/signal box the operator would report it. Lamps in the diagrams would the local signal officer change when needed or is there a team that go round checking.
|
|
|
Post by railtechnician on Jul 1, 2017 1:06:25 GMT
How often do locking fitters carry out checks on signal boxes and IMRs other than when they go when requested, is there say every 3 months or longer just for carrying out general maintenance. Now this is just for IMRs as I'm sure if it was a control room/signal box the operator would report it. Lamps in the diagrams would the local signal officer change when needed or is there a team that go round checking. Dave, My recollection is that locking fitters did annual frame maintenance, i.e. a proper check of the locking, stripping down and regreasing etc. They would come out and change frame contacts and other components as requested usually following a failure of some kind or as a result of reports from signal maintenance TOs. I used to do the signal maintenance routine frame maintenance for all the frames on the Picc, all those on the original Jubilee including those on the Met as well as Hanger Lane Junction and Ealing Broadway twice a year. This routine maintenance was contact cleaning and checking the air valves and motors for leaks as well as full local and remote frame testing. In the case of calls to failures requiring valves and motors to be changed we would if able pass those jobs to locking fitters but we would do it ourselves if they were unavailable. As a control room TO it was up to me to ensure that diagram lamps were changed when they blew although sometimes one could spend most of a shift changing all those bulbs that had gone unnoticed and/or unreported by the signal operators. It was also up to the control room TO to deal with failures of control room equipment and circuitry. As a both a fully qualified signals and comms TO I dealt with anything and everything in the control room and the associated relay rooms including fitting and installation minor works and of course every shift as a permanent night TO I also liaised with my field colleagues doing the remote testing of signalling at the IMRs where they were working doing point, signal, track and frame maintenance. All in all a very rewarding job which I enjoyed on 'light duties' in my last couple of years before retiring.
|
|
|
Post by dave1 on Jul 1, 2017 6:37:07 GMT
RT,
Thanks for clearing that Annual maintenance makes sense unless something has gone wrong and slowly the number reduces as they bring in the new TBTC style.
The older rooms use what most of us are used to but again as they move to new rooms and control rooms less bulbs so unlikely to have to change anything like that. The old IMRs most be full of bulbs that are blown but as they hardly ever get worked manually other than perhaps when the locking fitters are there I suppose no one really worries.
|
|
|
Post by Nortube on Jul 2, 2017 10:33:06 GMT
Some IMRs had LED lamps that replaced the tungsten lamps on the diagram. However, from what I recall, it was generally rather hotch-potch. I'd have to look at photos of the diagrams to confirm, but on some boards it appeared that the LEDs were only fitted individually to replace a blown bulb and not retrofitted to the whole panel.
I assume that a similar thing was done on other diagrams, such as in Control Rooms, in later years. It certainly makes sense using LEDs as they should be a lot more reliable and rarely need replacing. Although initially time consuming and expensive as a one-off, it would certainly be of benefit to replace all bulbs with LEDs on a diagram at once.
I think one of the problems was getting LEDs fitted with the correct base (screw or bayonet) to fir in the same space used by the existing bulbs. These days it is common for LEDs to be available in all sorts of bases as a direct replacement, but at the time that was probably rare and indeed, some replacement LEDs may have been a manual modification of an existing base. This is simple enough to do, albeit time consuming.
|
|
|
Post by railtechnician on Jul 2, 2017 18:01:07 GMT
RT, Thanks for clearing that Annual maintenance makes sense unless something has gone wrong and slowly the number reduces as they bring in the new TBTC style. The older rooms use what most of us are used to but again as they move to new rooms and control rooms less bulbs so unlikely to have to change anything like that. The old IMRs most be full of bulbs that are blown but as they hardly ever get worked manually other than perhaps when the locking fitters are there I suppose no one really worries. Well it's all down to the line signal manager and how disciplined his maintenance staff are. Our signal manager on the Picc was a hard task master and certainly in my time as a signal lineman I would suggest that Picc signal maintenance were the most proactive of all the lines, of course not all lines had a signal maintenance staff, the Picc at the time did all the Picc maintenance, District maintenance from Chiswick Park boundary to Ealing Broadway, Jubilee maintenance from Charing Cross to Stanmore and Met maintenance from Finchley Road to Preston Road boundary as well as Earl's Court Control Room, Warwick Road relay rooms, battery room and trackside power room maintenance. We were subject to the most stringent testing to gain our IRSE signalling tester licences whereas linemen on the District did little more than change a trainstop to obtain theirs. IMRs were of course visited frequently, every six weeks for point maintenance (of course places with more than 3 or 4 ends got visited every six weeks for each group of three or four ends so places like Acton Town each IMR got visited multiple times for point maintenance in a six week period), every 13 weeks for signal maintenance, at least once per annum for track circuit maintenance, several times per annum for room maintenance (sweep up, polish the tiles, tidy the prints etc), twice per annum for frame maintenance. On all such occasions we checked / replaced bulbs and / or reported the need for a new stock of spares, reported 'blowing' frame air valves and air motors etc. The rooms were of course frequently visited during signal failures, to correct TD, PMCs etc. It is simply wrong to assert that blown bulbs were overlooked and if today's linemen are doing the job properly they should be maintaining bulbs just as religiously as safety signalling! Of course Picc signal linemen also dealt with comms whereas as all the other lines relied upon SE&C for all comms maintenance. We also used to do our own routine change of many signal items as well as any minor new works, signals, electrical and comms. IMRs should be worked manually every time signal maintenance of any kind is done at a site, I used to test a whole frame even if I was only changing a trainstop, a shunt stick or maintaining a crossover, I always did both local and remote frame tests before signing my check certs as completed.
|
|