26 June 2002 Wednesday

I went to the Dean Forest Railway to have a chat with John Hatton. I had heard that they were looking for someone who could assist on the UAX13 they had. In particular they wanted someone who could help with the cabling of a second A unit. I had a look around the exchange and the immediate site. I may be able to help.

3 July 2002 Wednesday

I went to the DFR and had an interesting day. We loaded a PAX onto a car so that it could go to a museum in Milton Keynes. Then we sorted the UAX diagrams. Then we considered what needed doing to add the second A unit. I had lunch by buying it from the dining car. A good day as we got a decision as to what to do with the new A unit.

10 July 2002 Wednesday

I spent the day at Lydney putting in the mult cables and fanning them out on the rack end.

17 July 2002 Wednesday

We put a mains cable along the dining car first and then had a look around the telephone distribution network. Then it was back to the cabling in the UAX. I got the common services teed over and half the group selector mult cable fanned out.

24 July 2002 Wednesday

I worked on teeing the group selector mults during the morning and on getting the mains cable through the last two feet to the drier in the dining car in the afternoon. A pig of a job.

31 July 2002 Wednesday

We got the hand drier working in the canteen coach and then went back to the exchange. I finished teeing the group selector multiple. Bernard brought in a couple of boxes of bits of which I had a few including a relay contact tension gauge.

7 August 2002 Wednesday

We changed a faulty hand drier first and then got back to the exchange extension. I terminated 40 of the final selr mult and got the lev 8 cable terminated on the group selr banks.

14 August 2002 Wednesday

I went to work at Lydney, carrying on with the extra A unit.

21 August 2002 Wednesday

I carried on with the f/S mult terminations which are proving to be very time consuming.

28 August 2002 Wednesday

I terminated the last of the final mult and I did the signwriting and I ran in and fanned out the group selector levels to IDF cable. Bernard didn't come as he was having laser treatment on his eye.

4 September 2002 Wednesday

We changed a faulty phone and then got back to tapping out the final mult and clearing some rubbish tied across to 802 for some unfathomable reason. We also got onto taking the group selector levels out to a block on the IDF.

11 September 2002 Wednesday

We got the new rack fully teed and the power on and started testing. Looks good. We have to put a couple of phones on the unit to really check it out.

18 September 2002 Wednesday

Firstly Bernard and I went to the Town station to move a telephone. This needed ladder work and cable running round the outside of the building. We used the train to shift the ladders down the line and back again but we shifted ourselves by using the car. After a late lunch we got the two initial 800 phones working in the exchange and tested out the VMB strapping. It seems fine so Bernard will carry on while I am away.

9 October 2002 Wednesday

Bernard didn't come in as his wife is ill. I fault found and strapped VMBs on unit 1 and on the way home dumped three big batteries at Monmouth dump.

16 October 2002 Wednesday

Bernard and I finished the VMBs and did a fair bit of fault finding. We still have a couple of faults which can wait now for some time in the future.

23 October 2002 Wednesday

We spent the day on checking the MDF. It now has tidy records.

30 October 2002 Wednesday

I went to the DFR and got on with sorting out level 4.

6 November 2002 Wednesday

We spent the day recabling to the restaurant and 9681 carriages as both cables had gone faulty. Quite a hard dirty day and my overalls got filthy.

20 November 2002 Wednesday

We spent the morning on the clocks and the afternoon sorting out the phone in the 9681 coach yet again. This time the phone itself was faulty. I dropped off a couple of dud batteries at Monmouth.

27 November 2002 Wednesday

We fixed the clock in the cafe car and refixed a light to the ceiling. Then I got some records up to date while Bernard restrapped the i/c selector vmbs.

11 December 2002 Wednesday

We spent the morning on connecting up a security light on the loco shed and the afternoon discussing the arrangements for putting phones outside the exchange for use by museum visitors.

18 December 2002 Wednesday

I spent my day at the DFR adding a power socket to the Severn and Wye room and moving furniture inorder to make a table available for the phones in the museum.

Page provided by John Bathgate This page was last updated on 9th August 2013