What a way to celebrate!

The members of the Romsey Signal box project had a successful weekend when they open to the public to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Sprat and Winkle line and the Model railway exhibition. Although things started off slow on Saturday morning, the visitor numbers soon picked up and we had a healthy amount of donations. Dave and Jamie's hard work also paid off as they have been working on sorting out catering at the signal box. The weekend served as a good test to see if things would be successful and we think it'll work best when we're selling cakes and snacks. Neil spent Saturday at the model railway exhibition telling people about the project and what's going on and Marion, Janet and David worked with the public.

Acrylic in the windows

On the site works side of things, Gavin and Jamie worked to put acrylic up in the lean-to. This still allows natural light to enter the work space, but this has now made the area much dryer (and warmer). Tom and Lucy turned up on Sunday and did some painting work. Tom started out working on the phone box at the bottom of the distant signal and then started work on the back door to the search light signal and a section of the ground frame. Lucy spent her time working on repainting other parts of the ground frame and helping elsewhere on the site.


Search light signal back door

"Should I cut the Red Wire or the blue one?" 

Steve and Stuart from the Signalling and Telecommunications group (S&T) were also on site Saturday to look at the searchlight signal that was donated to us. This is a rare  piece of equipment and will be going in one of our exhibits. S&T had a look at the signal in the shed and it appeared to be in an almost working state. There was one fundamental problem and that was that there was no light unit! The Signal head has now been moved to a more accessible location where S&T can work on the signal ready for it to be displayed when we reopen.

Another task that had to be completed was to sort out the cable in the ducting to the new building. When the ducting was installed, the instructions became distorted and things were not sent to the right places. Using some incorrectly placed cables, Jamie, Gavin and Lucy put in pull cords  to allow them to reposistion the incorrect cables. The pull cords have been left in so as to allow future additions to the ducting.

The new building was open at the weekend housing temporary displays. When we reopen, we plan to have this area sorted and Cowley bridge at the far end of the building. Everyone I spoke to was very impressed with the new building and said they'd like to come back and see the final product when we reopen.

There was also a couple of mini bus trips that ran on the open weekend, this was to celebrate the anniversary of the Sprat and Winke line. Although these trips were planned to be a special event, they were so popular, we are looking to run further ones in the feature. If you would be interested in going on one of these trips email Dick Hewett at  president@romseysignalbox.org.uk to make us aware of your interest and to find out if we have any planned.

We'd like to thank every one who turned up at the weekend and for all the donations that people gave. If you missed out, then you'll have to wait until we reopen in the summer (date TBC) and see the project in a completed state.

We haven't got any more special events planned this side of reopening, but if that changes, this'll be the first place to tell you. See you in the Summer, for now, back to work!