May the 4th open day

Lots of progresse has taken place since our last update. 

 



For a start, the painting of the interior of the box is very near completion. The top half of the box has been completed by our fantastic team of painters mainly Dave and Keith. They have spent many weeks, sanding, priming, more sanding, undercoating and finally painting the box to give it a fresh look. Dave says, "We have tried hard to make the inside look smart, but still keep a feel for a working signal box. If the box was in operation there would not have been much time (or space) for decorators to get in the box, so it would just be touched up here and there when possible." So far, the top half of the inside has been complete and finished (above brown stripe) and today. work started on top coating the bottom half.

Keith says, "We are at a stage where the surface has been prepared well and the task of actually painting the inside will take very little time, more time is spent in preparation than in painting. It shouldn't be more than 2 weeks until we have the inside of the box back to normality, then work begins on the outside of the box before the open day in July."



Elsewhere on site, members have been busy keeping the gardens in shape. With Dave and Keith otherwise occupied, they have had little time for gardening, and, with all the rain and the sun, everything has put on a growth spurt. Jamie worked hard mowing the lawn as it was surprisingly long and took a couple of goings over with the lawnmower (working down in height). This generated a lot of cuttings and these have been left in our composter to break down for use around the site.




Neil was also at work in the garden, his day started by taking a trip to the local garden centre to get some garden canes so that he could plant out some French beans. Along side the beans, rhubarb is also growing. We are looking to add a couple more veg plants so that the members will be able to take home some goods, come harvest.

Grass after cutting

Once veg duties were complete, Neil started some general tiding in preparation for the up coming open days (tiding was needed regardless). Flower beds were weeded and plants dead headed and trimmed when over hanging path ways.

Yong member Josh continued work on the trolley seating area (originally built by the previous young members) and has nearly finished sanding it sown. A few ply wood boards need replacing, and once this is done, it can be painted and replaced on the trolley.

Young members project : trolley seating area

Ben also continued work on his project of renovating the boundary marker. Old paint removal has been completed and it has also had dust and oil removed. Next month it can be primed and then top coated.

A pump was also added to the water butt to allow water to be dispersed around the site with ease, and this will also save water, and less water = lower water bill = happy treasurer.

Peter continued work on restoring the Cowley Bridge Junction block instruments and bells (we could see our model signal box working in the not too distant future).

Over all, another productive work day. Don't forget our planned open days in July are Saturday the 5th, and Sunday the 13th, hope to see you there.

New Fencing and Interior Redecoration

The new fencing is almost complete, with just a couple of minor adjustments to carry out.

Temporary boarding has been erected where the new gates will be installed.  These will be fitted in the near future.






The old fencing was looking distinctly "tired" and so the new fencing will enhance the overall appearance of the site.  It will also add to the security.

The ongoing redecoration of the inside of the signal box is now well advanced.
The ceiling is complete and the windows, frames and door have been prepared, primed and undercoated.

The windows are due to be glossed on Tuesday the 1st April.  The outside of the wooden cupboards have been prepared and undercoated.  These are now also ready for the top coat of paint.

There is now just a small amount of preparation work to carry out on the lower walls.  These can then be primed, undercoated and glossed.

We are getting to the stage where things will take shape very quickly.  We want to get this inside work completed because we need to move to the outside of the box by the summer.

Dave

Sunday 3rd of March

Anther day at the box, and most of the day was used up by a meeting to discuss what the plans were for the cowley bridge biulding. Little work was done on site (a little tiding here and there). But Keith was cracking on with the box interior, the roof is complete and now he's working on the windows and walls.

In the near feuture, the fencing arround the box is to be replaced and improved.

New flooring will be installed in the box.

And in a slightly further feuture, the box interior painting will be finished.

At the moment the box is not at risk of flooding, there is pleanty of room in the old canal, and after the recent storms, everything is still as it was.

Another work day at the box.

As we are now shut to the public, due to the building developments, we are running PRIVATE members work days on the first Sundays of the month (the same as if we were open normally). Today, there were numerous jobs happening:



The first job was the painting of the inside of the signal box. This job is being carried out by our fantastic maintenance team, Keith and David, who give up many hours of their spear time. Their project in the winter months of the closed season is to completely repaint and renovate the inside of the signal box, whilst trying to maintain the feel of an authentic working signal box. At the moment they are working on the ceiling of the box. As you can see in the picture, development has been made since the last post, and the majority of the ceiling has been undercoated, to further this, a paint colour has been matched to the original paint of the ceiling, wood work and both colours for the walls. Once all the wall painting has been done, David and Keith will  continue with the outside of the box, which is a high priority as it is in a poor state. When we enter winter this year, Dave and Keith will look at repainting and renovating the frame, leavers and locking mechanism (not painting the locking), we are also excited with the possible addition of some full height leavers! Watch this space for more updates.






The second of the jobs being carried out today was general gardening. Neil spent the day weeding and doing some general tiding of the site and gardens. All plant beds are now clear of last years plants and are ready for this years growth. Our vegetable patch was also initiation today, as rhubarb was planted and is soon to be joined by some runner beans. This will give us something to look forward to in the autumn.






Finally, the main job of the day, was to clear the fence around the perimeter of the site as we are soon to have new, more secure, fencing installed around the Signal Box. This job was taken on by Gavin, Jamie, Peter, Josh, Tom, Ben and help from Neil. Anything we wanted to keep, i.e sleepers, slabs and cable, had to be cleared, and anything we didn't want, was left to be taken away.


In clearing the fence line, we also cleared the area where the Cowley bridge building will be located. This meant removing the slabs the small shed had been sat on and moving them somewhere safe (back of the site). We have also moved any unwanted broken pieces of slabs onto the site of Cowley bridge as this will be used as hard-core in the foundations of the building.

And we mustn't forget the most important job of the day, and that was tea drinking and cake eating, with a multitude of cakes, the 8 members who turned up were outnumber by the amount of cake.


We would like to take this opportunity to remind you again, we are not open to the public, regularly, on the first Sunday of the month, however, we are planning some special events later in the year. Also, if you are a member planning on attending one of our work days on the first Sunday of the month, please contact someone as we have to use the back entrance to the site.

Renovations Begin...

With the signal box now closed to the public for the duration of the adjacent building works, the internal redecoration of the box is well under way.

The ceiling has been scraped down, sanded and prepared for repainting.  Knotting has been applied to any bare knots and touching in of all bare wood carried out.  Decorators caulk and filler is now being applied where required and then a full undercoat will be applied.  This will then be followed by a top coat in the appropriate colour.

The old fluorescent light above the lever frame has now been removed.  In due course this is to be replaced by two period angled tungsten lights.

The ceiling is obviously the worst area for creating mess, as everything falls down from there.  When complete we can work our way down to windows, walls and door.  By the time we re-open the interior of the box will hopefully look very smart and will last for a long time.

Dave

The Great shed move

On the 26 of December, the members of Romsey signal box turned up to 'make their move' on the shed. The shed needed to move to allow the construction of the new building which will not only house Cowly bridge junction, model signal box, but will be our meet and greet building. In the month leading up to the move, members Gavin, Jamie, Ray, Keith, Dave, Neil,Peter and Tom spent time moving the compost heap, clearing the area, then levelling and paving it ready for the big day.


The day started by clearing the shed and then dismantling the shelving which had been built into the shed when it was first erected. After this the lean-3 was removed and the shed was ready to depart. To save time, instead of dismantling the shed, moving it, and reassembling it, the members jacked it up onto 2 trolley jacks and 'simply'


wheeled it to its new home. After a few close encounters with a shed (and a well earned lunch break), the shed was very happy in its new location. But now the team were against the clock to reassemble the shelving, reattach the lean-3 and then re-load the shed with its contents before it got dark

After forgetting how the shelves had come out, then trying multiple combinations, the shelves were finally reassembled and the shed was almost ready to be reloaded.
Following a bit of elbow grease and alto of lifting, the very heavy lean-3 was finally positioned alongside the shed ready for re attachment, once this was completed the movement was complete. The members could now breath easy as the shed was repositioned and all that was left, was to sort through  the contents of the shed, decide what we wanted to keep, and then reload the shed.


So, now Romsey signal box can now proudly, we have the most travelled shed in Hampshire, if not England.

 (Keith is hiding behind the camera, don't think you can hide that easily Keith!!!)

Laying down the foundations and a lock out !

Even before the day started, we had problems. Due to the progress on the site, we will be loosing access to the site via the main gates (on the main road) in January. However, Christmas seem to have come early as the gates were already padlocked shut by the contractors. Therefore, we only had pedestrian access to the signal box today. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize for any inconvenience caused by today's events, but it was outside of our control.

Once we had 'broken in' to our own site, we could start work on the days proceedings. Today, the foundations were laided down for the relocation of the small gardening shed. As mentioned
before, the shed has to move to allow the building of the cowly bridge housing. After many month of perpetration involving cutting of brambles, moving of the compost heap and many barrows of soil, the ground could finally be leveled and slabs laided.

The actual shed will be moved at a later date, but this progress would not have been possible without help from Gavin, Jamie, Keith, Dave, Ray and Tom.Also today. Neil worked on the vegetable plot by turning in leaf molsh. Later next year, rhubarb will be planted closely followed by runner beans.George and Jamie sorted the BBQ and supplied food to the members.

And Dave provided some (a whopping 36!) scones which were a great way to end the day along with Keith's delicious Victoria sponge and Jamie's muffins.

The day ended with the members grouping round the fire and having a cup of tea and a cake looking back on the signal box's progress from being just the signalbox, to today, where many active members come on a monthly basis to maintain the box which now has some beautifully maintained gardens and artifacts. It is these members that have allowed this progress to take place and means that we do not have to spend open days just getting the site tidy, it is self maintained. 

But of course, none of this would be possible without the generous donations and presence of the visitors that come to view the box. We would like to thank you for visiting throughout the years and look forward to opening for the arts festival and the big re opening in 2015.