[John Webb]

Dear David,

The colours used externally are the Midland Railway colours the box was still painted in in the 1950s, which is what we've restored the external appearence to. The NRM told us what colours to use - but I wasn't involved in that as we had the outside done by professionals to comply with grant conditions. I'll try and find out what they were if you like.

The internal colours are based on what we found when the internal woodwork was cleaned up. The internal paint is a special 'intumescent' fire retardent paint used at the insistance of English Heritage, I was told. The nearest colours to what had been there were 'Magnolia' for the upper part of the walls and maroon for the lower part - skirtings are black. The furniture (cupboards, table and the 'locker' bench seat) have been done in a gloss 'plum' colour - we could not
easily tell what they had been painted originally.
The ceiling is white, by the way.

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

Not a great deal visible of what we've been doing, now that the major structural works are complete. Much of what we've been doing in recent months isn't very visible, like fitting microswitches to the levers so the simulator knows what position each lever is in.

Outside the box work has started to link up a signal or two:

And I've been busy renovating a 3-aspect signal head, as reported elsewhere:

Before above and more recently:

The renovated signal will be used to replicate signal 16:

This was used to switch trains from the Down Slow platform back onto the Up slow to form a passenger service back to London, and was used as an alternative to putting terminating trains into the Up slow platform. Note that the Red aspect is at the top of the signal so it is still as close to the driver's eye as possible.

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

Thanks all for your positive comments.

We've still got more than half the levers to fit switches to.

Just a reminder we're open 2-5pm 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month - but 10am - 5pm on the 12th and 13th September - 12th likely to be busy as that's when we are formally opening the box. I shall be there both days in September and always on the 2nd Sunday.

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

An update on the last few months:

The three aspect head has been mounted in the garden and connected up. The area behind has been tidied up as a picnic area/train viewing platform.

How it looks from the box. The semaphore signal is now 'wired' up and can be operated from a spare lever in the box.

Inside the box, with the levers fitted with microswitches, we can now connect up a lot more of the indicators, but as seen above a number of these were missing the coloured filters.

But a visit to a local theatre sorted that out, together with some work to produced diffuser discs from 2mm perspex.

Finally, during the Heritage Open days, we had the small layout on display that we've been developing:

Not yet fully signalled, but work continues slowly on this while we concentrate on the full-sized box.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

We have two major 'movers' who work together on the landscaping - one does the 'hard' landscaping such as the picnic area and the other the plantwork. They organise various other members to assist them in keeping things trim - works well and leaves others like myself to get on with the interior of the box.

I'll have a few more pictures soon included our 'crowd control' ground position light signal!

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

2009 - A short report on our first year of public opening:

2000+ visitors - interestingly the feasibility study done before restoration reckoned we could exist on 500 visitors a year!

Awarded the top prize for 2008 by the local St Alban's Civic Society for our restoration work - particularly for the 'community involvement'.

Contact established with other museums in Hertfordshire.

2010
Work goes on mostly 'behind the scenes' to improve displays and demonstrations. In particular work is underway on a new computer simulator to allow extended demonstrations (to those who want them) which will eventually allow the running of a segment of the 1970s Working Time Table to show how busy the box could have been!

This is the first Interface board to be constructed and will connect the 37 working levers to the computer so that the simulator knows the position of each lever from moment to moment:

The LEDs will show the position of each lever and are an aid to fault-finding.

There are 74 lever connections, 24 for the track circuit dagram lamps, approx 48 for the block instruments and 75 connections for the various signal repeaters and the like. Unfortunately the computer only has circa 100 inputs/outputs with limited drive current on the outputs, so the interfaces have to carry out multiplexing/demultiplexing techniques on the inputs/outputs respectively. They will also provide drivers on the outputs to ensure the computer is not overloaded and more importantly it is isolated as much as possible from spikes and other electrical interference generated by the operation of the instruments.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

The computer interface construction has been completed:

The small blue board is the 'Computer Breakout board' - the cable from the computer input/output socket is connected to this.
The upper board is the interface between the four block instruments to the left and centre; ICs used on the right drive the track circuit diagram lights.
The middle board is the interface for the levers to the computer.
The lowest board is the interface to the various signal indicators.

There are about 2000 soldered joints in total on the three boards!

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

The assembled interface:

it will reside in a cupboard under the Train Register Book desk:

together with power supplies and the computer that will run the simulation.

Now to connect up the 200+ connections from the instruments on the blockshelf and the levers!

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

A long-delayed update - partly caused by instabilities in my photobox album (hence the loss of a number of previous pictures), so I've set up a new album in photobucket, which has been recommended by several people.

The new interface and simulator:
Computer - 2nd test with interface - a general view:

Over a third of the wires are run in tested and now connected to the interface.

Simulator main screen closeup:

This has 'block instruments', the track diagram, indicator and lever repeaters.

Out in the garden we now have a line up of four 4-aspect signals, one of which is now fitted with a Position 1 Junction Indicator (Feather'):

Other recent acquisitions:
Midland Railway Ground Disc:

Note the finger indicating which track the signal refers to.

Midland Railway Ground Frame:

A longer term project for some of our volunteers, I think!

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Thanks, everyone, for your encouragement.

Tony - we're only publically open on November 14th 2-5pm, having switched to our Winter openings of once a month.

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

Sorry for the lack of updates - partly through ill-health and holidays and partly because wiring and the like are not very photogenic!

Wood troughing is gradually being put round the site to take cables to power signals and lights - with the darker evenings we need to improve the path lighting, althought the recent extension to the down fast platform at St Albans City Station means we get some useful overspill from the new lights on that!

A control system has been put together to operate the 4-aspect signal sequence demonstration but awaits more troughing to allow it to be connected up - also the original 24Watt bulbs need to be changed for 5W ones - partly to keep the power consumption down and minimise the wiring needed and also to avoid dazzling the visitors when they are looking at the signals.

The new interface to extend the signalling demonstration in the box has been slightly modified following initial tests with the controlling computer; we hope to have it running regularly early in 2011.

An original Midland Railway ground frame donated to the box has been renovated and will eventually be used to operate the ground discs we have as a further extension of our garden-based displays.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

A brief update.
All 18 multicore cables have now been laid in to connect levers and instruments to the new simulator - just got some 120 connections to make at each end of the cables!

The control system for the 4-aspect signals demonstration is complete and checked out and the small relay boards for each signal are under construction.

Outside about 90% of the wooden cable troughing is in place and wiring-up of the various lights will start soon. We were very lucky with the wood for the troughs - Network Rail decided to dump a large quantity of old fencing material next to our site which was ideal!

We have decided where the Midland Railway ground frame will be sited; we shall build a replica frame hut to keep the weather off it. We shall also resite

Opening Dates for 2011 are now settled and have been posted seperately in this forum, although we may extend opening times next Winter as visitor numbers have remained encouragingly high this year.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Update on the last few months - absolutely nothing photogenic at all, I regret so no pictures!

Work is well underway on the new computer/simulator and the related connections to the levers and instruments. We have been able to "run trains" on the fast lines for the first time, but a number of problems shown up have now to be solved by software or hardware changes.

In our small museum work continues on sorting out and displaying many items and getting them labelled appropriately.

Outside in the garden the new cable trunking is in use with our path lighting now on a time-switch and improvements to the supply to our semaphore signal lamp. Work goes on to clear the area for the ground frame and hut we intend putting up.

For our new demonstration of colour light signalling the sequential controller has yet to be installed and connected up to the four 4-aspect signals we have in the garden.

John Webb
Member, St Albans Signal Box Preservation Trust

 

[John Webb]

At long last an update we can easily illustrate!

Yesterday we 'lit up' the first part of our 4-aspect colour light signals (CLS) demonstration.

The picture above shows the first CLS showing 'Red' and it's Banner Repeater showing 'signal at stop'.

shows the CLS at 'Double yellow' and the Banner Repeater at 'clear'.

We now expect to have the demonstration fully working by Easter (Open Afternoon on 24th April). We'll also post a video on YouTube when complete.

At our February open day we saw our 5000th recorded visitor since September 2008 pass through the box; he was a ten-year old lad from St Albans and he went home with a certificate, a couple of our model wagons and other goodies to mark the occasion.

A new flat-screen monitor has been installed to better show off the videos we have of the box, and rearrangements of our museum exhibits continues.

John Webb
Member, St Albans Signal Box Preservation Trust

 

[John Webb]

The 4-aspect demo is now fully working:

All green

'Train' has passed signal number 2 but remains in the 'overlap' beyond 2 - so signal 1 remains at red.

The train has passed signal 3 and signal 4 ('approach controlled') has just started clearing for the diverging line at the junction ahead.

The signals are fitted with 5watt car tail-lamp bulbs rather than the original 24watt double filament lamps - this enables us to use lighter cabling for the signals without resorting to 100 volts and using the signal head transformers. (We want to stick with extra-low voltages around the garden for safety reasons!)

Inside the signal box our control box for the signals has it's own mimic diagram:

John Webb

 

[John Webb]

On Saturday 30th April we had been invited to attend the John Keble Church MR Show. So we went with new display boards and other bits and pieces:

Close-up of the boards and our GPL signal on it's new base:

Unfortunately amongst things that I forgot to take was the spare battery for the camera, so I regret I can't post pictures of any of the layouts that were there - quite a shame.

 

[John Webb]

On Sunday 3rd July some 70 Preservation Trust members and invited guests were present to watch Lord Faulkner, Chairman of the Heritage Railway Association, unveil the plaque comemmorating our National Railway Heritage Award given us last year for the restoration of the St Albans South signal box:

The plaque and box in slightly brighter weather the following day:

Update:
Besides the unveiling mentioned above, a minor milestone was passed this week when the last of eighteen twelve-core cables was connected up to the new simulator interface. We now have just a 100 or so connections still to make to the instruments and levers at the other end of the cables before the wiring is finished and the new simulator can be fully tested.

 

[John Webb]

Thanks for the thanks and congratulations.

It's not only been my pleasure to keep you up-to-date but as a Trustee with responsibility for publicity almost my duty!

A minor correction to my post #72 above - Lord Faulkner is President of the Heritage Railway Association, not Chairman.

Regards,
John

 

[John Webb]

HERITAGE OPEN DAYS 2011

Held on the 10th/11th September, we had first painted up our Multiple-Aspect Signal heads:

(compare with the photos in post #68 to see the improvement.)

One member laid on this collection of BR Totems from stations on the adjacent line:

(If anyone has the missing totem he'd love to hear from you!)

And outside, AlbanRail, a local company, were entertaining us with garden railway layouts:

Trouble was that only 330 people turned up compared to 600+ last year - the local council didn't get their publicity booklet to every house as in past years and this seems to be the major factor.

 

[John Webb]

284 Trains a day!

In preparation for choosing a section of Timetable to be programmed into our new simulator which goes 'On Line' next year, I've spent some hours in the last week looking through a 1975/76 Working Timetable.

On a typical Monday-Friday there were some 284 trains passing the St Albans South signal box. The maximum in any one hour was 24, between 8 and 9am, almost matched by 23 between 6 and 7pm. There was a minor peak of 14 trains between 11pm and Midnight caused by several parcels/newspaper trains running at that time.

Regards,
John Webb