...and in Alresford

The shop manager decided to set up an office at Alresford in a location that was difficult to feed a cable for the required telephone service. No conclusion could be made on how to best route the cable; this dragged on for some time. For a while one had to stop going into the shop to read the railway magazines as one was running out of excuses for the lack of progress. Finally, some duct was obtained, laid on the surface alongside the cattle dock wall to the signal box, cable installed and service provided. If it was in the wrong place. tough. A week later, unannounced, the ever-resourceful Saturday gang buried the duct.

New boxes for old

Several years ago when the problems began to arise due to rabbit damage, we installed a number of trackside cable test points. These were located at easy to reach locations, near road bridges, so they could be reached by road, primarily to prove the location of cable faults. They had a secondary use as trackside emergency phone points. With the new cable, new phone points are being fitted. As their sole use will be as phone points, they are being located at the cable joints. Ten new boxes have been supplied thanks to the building department; these have been installed between Alresford and Medstead. The recovered old boxes are being recycled. Four are required between these two stations mentioned to make up the numbers, and the rest will be reused from Medstead to Alton.
Under the old system it was possible to give an exact location for nearly all the phone points; the new ones being located at cable joints are nowhere specific. Old number 9 used to be at Grosvenor Road bridge: the new number 9 is between a farm crossing and a bridge over a farm track. I expect P-Way know the correct names.
The traditional end of year number of phone calls for 2000 is in a new format, thanks to the marvels of computers.

To                    From                From       From         From
                        Alresford         Alton      Medstead    Ropley
Alresford               -                 2270          840            3792
Alton                 1041                  -              2249          498
Medstead          676              6220#            -              1403
Ropley               3881              932            1258              -
# includes 3122 calls from Butts Junction treadle

Missing Mutly

In the last issue mention was made of the missing dog at Ropley. However, the full story of its discovery has not been told. Some years ago the telephone cable for the loco shed ran from the signal box. When the inspection pit was dug between these two locations a person unknown diverted the telephone cable under the pit. Eventually the cable went faulty and both phone lines in the shed ceased working. Deciding to try and locate the faults the cable was traced from the shed. It went into an inspection chamber disappearing downwards. Going to the chamber the other side of the pit, which was far less than the six feet in depth mentioned in the article, the dog was discovered at the bottom of it. Deciding it was dead, a member of the loco department was informed. Faultfinding ceased for the day. When work commenced it was found that the fault was under the pit and as it was not possible to replace the cable, possibly it was not in duct, it had to be fed overhead from a different location

What’s next?

Two jobs are planned. The first is to rearrange equipment in the exchange at Alresford, removing items that are redundant; this started in January. This is a nice job on a wet day, which we seem to be getting an unfair share of. In a few months time is the task of pre-wiring the goods shed phones and connecting it to the internal system.

Issue 108 Spring 2001 The Piece That Passeth All Understanding

Somebody recently said to me “I read your piece in the magazine and I don’t understand any of it.” Well, Jim, that makes two of us. Never mind, because this one is slightly technical for those who like a bit of a challenge.
In the last issue mention was made of changes planned for the exchange at Alresford. This has now been successfully achieved, but first a bit of background. The current equipment was installed in 1985 and a 4 foot 6 inch wide relay set rack was part of the installation. Over the ensuing years different circuits were provided on this rack, some long forgotten and others best forgotten. For some time now the main use of the rack was the relay sets connecting Alresford to Ropley and the rest of the line.
Four circuits, each comprising of two large cans of relays occupied one shelf; much of the rest of the rack was redundant. Although it contained copious amounts of unwanted wiring its purpose was unknown. It would have been possible to rewire the rack but it was decided to replace it with a narrow one, which was in stoclç as it would allow floor space for different equipment for possible further developments. Unfortunately, due to the shortage of spare floor space, the new rack had to go where the old rack was; this had to remain in service until service was changed to the new one. With it so far?

Decisions, decisions

Thanks to the services of Den’s Welding at Medstead the new rack which was too high for the exchange room, was reduced in height and holes were drilled for the shelves. It was then shifted to Alresford where it gathered dust for a long time while thought was given on several occasions how to install it. Should the four pairs of sets be moved onto the new rack in which case they would occupy half of it?
In the early days when cable pairs between stations were limited, calls shared the same junctions to Ropley, the equipment automatically deciding the destination of the call and routing it accordingly. Although we now have extra cable pairs, the same call routing procedure remained. Calls to Medstead and Alton needed routing information to be added whereas ones to Ropley did not and, after looking at the number of calls made over the years, it was decided to split the calls. A pair of the existing all singing, all dancing relay sets could cope with calls to the eastern end of the line and two smaller less complicated sets, which were spare at Medstead, would be moved to cater for the local calls to Ropley.

Too much paper

This was a job that had been put off for sometime due to the perceived complexity and limited space to work in. Work started in January during the rainy
season and it was hoped to have it completed by April. The main problem experienced was the abundance of documentation. The relay sets used can be found in three of our exchanges in slightly different variants. Copies of diagrams for all these were at Alresford but did not mention which exchange they pertained to. Also, modifications over the years were on numerous scraps of paper. Duplicate photo copies of diagrams with minor alterations, but no indication which was the latest version, created additional difficulties.
After a few weeks of wiring came the time to test and prepare the change over of the circuits. Two pairs of the large sets were removed from the old rack, taken off site and modified. Some facilities were no longer necessary and several new ones provided, so altered that they could not be replaced back in their original location. The reason this is mentioned will become apparent in a moment. Several new relay sets were also required; these were made from old sets that had been recovered off the old rack. Work now continued with two modified relay sets in the new rack and two original ones in the old rack, which was giving service to all points east. As mentioned, the new rack stood in front of the old rack and due to limited space it was only possible to work on the front or the rear of this rack at any one time. To change from one to the other meant shifting the rack, which is a heavy awkward beast to move.

Don’t waste time

Temporary cables connected the new rack to the rest of the exchange for testing and new permanent cables were run ready to terminate when the rack was in its final resting place. Things got interesting when one of the two remaining sets went Out of service. It was decided the system could run using the remaining set; it wasn’t worth wasting time fixing it as the change to the new equipment was planned to take place several weeks later. Not many calls were being made on the system as there was no train service running. Shortly afterwards the last set started to give intermittent wrong numbers. The new equipment was placed in service a little earlier than intended and
the old rack dismantled and removed to store for possible further use. The new rack was then moved back into its final position and secured. Connections were made to the power bus bars and the permanent cabling connected, the temporary ones being removed. There is space on the new rack for future developments and in another 15 years there might be another article on how this rack gets replaced.
In the event, the new equipment was in service by the middle of February well ahead of schedule. Apart from one or two problems the job went very well and I doubt if users realised what was going on and it had cost the railway nothing, certainly within budget.
Ropley callers have two junctions to use. However, as this is a particularly busy route, if both the circuits are in use, a further call will overflow to use the
Alton/Medstead circuits. Time will tell if this arrangement can handle the amount of calls but so far there are no indications of any problems. A trawl through the diagrams then took place to remove ones not relevant to the exchange.

The Sunday P-way Gang

I have been asked to mention the Sunday P-Way gang and thank them for their assistance. Interrupting them one Sunday morning where they were being held enthralled by one of their group explaining how to get the best of your flower arrangement for that special event, they were asked instead of their usual activity of destroying trees they would like a go at cable ducting. Dragging themselves from their tea and chocolate biscuits into the drizzle they completed the ducting at Medstead to allow the final jointing for the signal box circuits from Ropley. It also allowed for a new cable to be run from the signal box to the down home signal, SPT. This had previously been run on the surface and was very fault prone and had been out of service for a long time.
Several weeks after the jointing was completed saw the first input from the S &T department since the job started nine months before at Alresford. The cable into the signal box was in the wrong place and would need to be moved; the new cables were then disconnected to allow them to be moved. At the time of writing in April the token machines are still on the old cable and I have no idea and frankly no longer care if they are to be moved to the new cable this year or next. If the problems with the old cable get worse I, for one, will not be spending any time repairing it. The phones are working fine on the new tables and that is my one concern.

Issue 109 Summer 2001 For Whom The Bell Tolls

The call had been long expected. It was only a matter of time before it was received and it had been expected it would arrive at the most inopportune time and it did. Late Thursday afternoon during the Easter Thomas event, while at work, the phone call from the railway. The gist of the message was “the token machines have failed; we think the cable has gone faulty, pilot man operation is in use and we want to change over to the new cable tomorrow afternoon.”
The regular reader of this column, bless him, will know that the new cable had been in place ready for the token machines to be connected for around six months, but nothing done. Fortunately, a day’s leave had already been arranged for the following day and another job on the railway had been planned. Reorganising things, an early start was made at Medstead signal box. The new cable was terminated on connection strips, noting the new terminal case awaiting installation on the floor. Next, to Ropley to terminate that end and test the cable pairs. Everything OK, my part completed, off to the original job and still few people about on the railway.
The main telephone connection box in the locking room at Alton signal box was suffering badly from damp. Connections were corroded and wires breaking; numerous temporary repairs had been made. It had been planned for some time to move the box, replace the internal cables and today was the day. The existing cables were extended to a new box on the first floor, terminated and all the phones rewired. Another useless piece of information: Alton signal box has the largest concentrations of phones in one place on the railway, five in total; internal dial phone, code phone, extension off external BT line, direct line to the West ground frame and finally a direct circuit to Medstead signal box.
Job completed and return to Medstead around midday in time to see a train arrive. Noticed there seemed to be no sign of the pilot man; in fact, the token machines were being used normally. Discovered that the S &T had found that the problem was within the machine and had fixed it the previous day. A shame that they hadn’t bothered to pass the message on; It would have saved the rushing about in the morning, The machines continue to work on the old cable, It Is rumoured that a bookmaker is laying
odds which happens first, whether they are changed over to die new cable or the proposed westward extension to M3 Parkway opens.

Brian Rix eat your heart out

Imagine the scene, Alresford information office and a call is answered for Mr X who normally works upstairs in office A. The information person then phones, using the internal system, the aforesaid office. Unfortunately, Mr X has now gone to see someone in office B and his phone goes unanswered. After a while the person in the information office wonders why his call has not been answered and decides to try office B. This time the call gets an answer but Mr X has returned to office A. The person in office B shouts to Mr X there is a call for him; he returns to office B but the information person, hearing from the person who answered the call in office B that Mr X had just returned to his office, has now decided to ring there. A bit of a farce.
With the new, to us, Panasonic switch all one needs to do is dial a three digit number and a message can be broadcast to all the other Panasonic phones. These phones are now in all the key offices. This new facility is very popular with quite a lot of users and we even have a letter of commendation, inspection available on request.

Told you so

Towards the end of June, Howard and myself spent one Saturday pre-wiring the Goods Shed for the phones and computers. Everything was going fine until a message arrived that all communication, telephone and signal between Alresford and Ropley had gone. The new cable that was only placed in service under a year ago had been burnt through. Repairs were made and service restored.
We had successfully demonstrated in the past numerous times that if cables are run on the surface damage will occur. I know that it is a labour intensive job and trains are running but the cable needs protecting. It was only four days earlier that I had said at a meeting that if something was not done the cable would not last the 15 years of its predecessor; it is unfortunate that I was proved correct in so short a time. The old cables had been in use for a few years before we started having damage problems: now damaged sections are occurring after less that 12 months. It was fortunate for the Railway that we were on site; if this happened on a weekday during daily running there could be considerable delay before repairs could be undertaken. This is our busiest section for telephone traffic; this fault effectively isolated Alresford from the rest of the line.

Phone points

Mention has been made in a previous edition of new trackside phone points being installed between Alresford and Medstead. During May this was completed; it has taken longer than planned, as it is somewhat labour intensive. The trackside phone point has to be first transported by road to a convenient location and then carried along the track with digging implements, jointing items plus tools to the position of the cable joint. Here the post is installed, connected, labelled and then tested. To enable their location to be marked with a fair degree of accuracy on a map a GPS reading is taken of each post.
After a dozen had been placed in service the novelty of all the carrying to and fro was beginning the wear off. It had been noted that in all other cases very close by was a railway line; this must be a better way of getting items to site. Arrangements were made with the PWay department to deliver the last two boxes. This was done one Thursday. The plan was to install the boxes the following Saturday. The day duly arrived and the intended penultimate post was installed. Going to the location of post 3, the 14th to be provided, (they were not installed in any order), about 20 minutes work remained, then back to Alresford for a welcome cup of tea. The only
problem was there was no sign of the post. Cursing all and sundry, especially the infrastructure manager, for delivering to the wrong location a search was made for where he had left it. Around half a mile of track was searched but no sign of the post. Abandon job and go to Alton to repair a cable contractors had cut. This was the day track panels were being recovered so a stop was made at Butts junction to ask Frank where post 14 had been left. “In the place specified:’ was the answer. Returned later for a further search but still nothing. The guard on the train was asked to keep an eye open but no sign; subsequent searches have had no success.
It would seem some low life has removed the post. Maybe the flails will reveal something. Some individuals have found the theft highly amusing; no doubt these are the same type of people who, in Roman times, used to go and watch the Christians playing with the lions. These posts take considerable time and effort to make, there is no replacement and this location will have to wait until the batch of boxes is made for the Alton to Medstead section some time in the future.

Anonymous boxes of telephone paraphernalia have been appearing around the railway. I would like to thank the donors, you know who you are. Some very useful items have arrived. Keep up the good work

Issue 110 Autumn 2001 Asset or liability – a tale of two cables.


Monday evening, July the 23rd, at home nice and peaceful, all was well with the world waiting to watch a documentary on the television when there is a telephone call from the railway. A call from this organisation is never a social event, an enquiry as to ones well being or how are things in the garden; you can be assured it is a message of doom, some disaster has befallen the phone system and it will be of spectacular proportions. This time it was good ole Mr Twine, he was relaying the message that it had been reported to him that all communications and signalling had been lost between Ropley and Medstead. After some thought that to loose everything would have to be something pretty amazing, as far as I knew separate cables were still being used and the signal circuits were still on the old cable. Further investigations were to be made the following day by Frank and an action plan was then to be decided. The next day I was informed that only the phones were affected and this was due to about 20 feet of the new cable being burnt near Ropley, this removed all telephone circuits from Alresford and Ropley eastwards. The culprit was believed to be the visiting 9F, which had a defective ash pan, this engine had been responsible for an fire several weeks earlier that had burnt the Alresford – Ropley cable. A replacement section of cable had been delivered to site and it was agreed to repair the damage on the 28th, the first opportunity. On the Saturday an early start was made and the cable was repaired and all circuits tested and back in service by 8.00 a.m. walking back through the loco yard noticed lots of engines in steam, it was the enthusiasts weekend, but not the 9F, good, possibly no more fires.
Departed for home and more some sensible things to do.

The next day delivered some stores to Medstead and spent some time talking to the Sunday P.W. gang who were doing what they are renowned for, gossiping, drinking tea, eating chocolate biscuits and wondering why little work was ever done. I only mentioned them as they like to see their name in the magazine.
As I was about to go home thought I would have a quick look at the exchange, I like the exchange at Medstead and wanted to marvel of the craftsmanship of its construction. On opening the door it looked like the Blackpool illuminations every conceivable alarm light was on, everything pointed to another cable fault towards Ropley, but where? Going to Ropley spotted Pat Butler with a coil of cable, he had just replaced a fire damaged signal cable at the far end of the yard. It was discovered that the previous afternoon the 9F had gone out and set fire to some more of Hampshire including another 150 ft of the cable, this was too much cable to try and transport by road so arranged with Frank for some replacement cable to be delivered directly to site during the week and then went to Alresford. On arrival there found out that pilotmen working had been implemented a further fire had burnt out the cable to Ropley. This meant that the only two stations that had phone contact via the internal system were Alton and Medstead, the last time we have had such widespread disruption was in the days of the overhead pole route in the early 1980s.
The following Friday, using the services of Twines Taxis both sections were soon temporarily repaired, as the bulk of our cable had been used between Alresford and Medstead very little suitable spare cable remained in stock and for these repairs odd pieces of cable that could be found had to be used. A request for some replacement cable has been made to allow permanent repairs to be made but nothing has been forthcoming. As the phones and signalling are now working again it is no doubt not considered important anymore, at least not until next time something goes wrong and someone gets another late night phone call. The departure of the 9F and the British summer has meant no problems of late.

Easy come easy go.

We have gone in a very short period of time from having a first class cable to a patched up third rate one. The extra joints that have had to be added will introduce long-term maintenance liabilities; other sections have been lightly toasted and may need replacing. To buy the cable would have cost tens of thousands of pounds the railway got it for nothing
I will admit we were in a difficult situation, if we had waited until the cable could have been directly buried before putting into service it would still be sitting on its drums, the old cable could have failed many times, a gamble was made.

Goods shed.

In June Alan Sherwood project manager, Mark Walden building manager called a meeting with myself to decide on the phone requirements for this building, there was a need for all cables to be run before the floors were boarded and the walls plastered. I believe running these cables was possibly the first volunteer activity inside the building itself, I expect someone will prove me wrong.
The location of internal phones, extension of the station PA system and some clocks caused few problems, where things got tricky was the mention of a new till system.
This was to have a bar code reader for stock control and accordingly needed to be connected to a computer system, the only problem no one knew the requirements as far as connections went “but if its any help they have a similar system at Jane Austens house at Chawton”. Mark and myself decided the only answer was to pay a visit to see what was involved, I was surprised how advanced Jane was for her day, with her computerised till, stock control and CCTV, disappointed that we never saw the word processor she wrote her novels on. Computer cables have been run from where we believe they are needed in the building back to a central point, at the time of writing requirements are vague.
The other problem was a tourist information point for the local council which needed a phone connection or several phone connections depending to who you spoke to, unable to get a definite answer we have covered, I hope, all eventualities, time will prove us wrong no doubt. If someone wants 3 phone lines and a computer outlet on the first floor in the far right hand corner for a couple of days in May we can supply the service; quite why they would want it is another matter. One Saturday Phil Mousley and myself ran the phone and computer cables between the goods shed and main station building via the duct supplied by the building department. Phil somehow got volunteered to sort out the computer side of the job, he’s good at getting volunteered and the intention is to have a remote back up for the office computers located in the goods shed and a link from the shop till to the accounting system in the main building.
When the trench for the drains was dug across the car park I decided it was the opportunity to install a telephone cable duct, a 20pair cable has been provided to the external BT network. Initially for the councils information thingy, the other option would have been an over head wire I don’t think that would have been received very well, but would have been BTs only choice without the duct.
It also allows an alternative indirect route into the main station building for the phones there, the existing underground cable was damaged early in its life by contractors and should it give problems in the future is buried under the car park pavior blocks, repairs would be a major problem although not for ourselves thankfully.

Thanks to BT for supplying the duct, they are happy to supply the material if someone else provides the labour,

Issue 111 Winter 2001/2 In praise of the Sunday P.W. gang.

Originally this was to be in the form of an oratorio performed at the opening of the restored goods shed but knowing this quiet self assuming gang of chaps they would definitely be the first to tick the no publicity box. Imagine if you can the scene of horror without this modest band of super beings, the person running the shop wants to ring the buffet to find out today’s special, “ boeuf a la surprise”( stew ) but no phone, a member of the other PW gang having selected the latest Thomas toy wants to pay for it with his plastic card but cannot, the swipe machine is not working, this could have been the nightmare scenario in the new shop without the assistance of our modest gang of heroes.

Are you sitting comfortably, then I will begin.

At the end of October the new cables, all internal connections completed, ran underground from the goods shed ending outside the main station building, from the distribution frame in the exchange the cables going in the opposite direction only went as far as the loft above the exchange. The internal cable through the building to link the two had been already run, now it was a case of joining everything together. The planned opening date of the shop was to be in time for the Santa specials, expected assistance on the brute force and ignorance part of the job, we shall call it civil engineering, did not seem to be forthcoming and as time was running short it was a case of call for Muggins. It should be pointed out now that Muggins does not like digging holes and gets no pleasure from doing so and never has, why the building department produce so many and still carry on digging is one of the little mysteries of life. Arriving one fine Friday morning armed with pick axe, shovel and other implements people use for making holes, the object of the exercise was to dig a trench from outside the signal box locking room to the rear of the buffet, install a cable duct and fill in the aforesaid mentioned trench before anyone knew what was going on. Ever noticed how shovels etc are never supplied with instructions? There is nothing like putting off a job you don’t want to do so first some unimportant inside tasks, nothing at all associated with the job in hand were undertaken. Several hours later having run out of excuses the inevitable had to be started, by now it was raining heavily, anyway its more fun digging wet chalk in the rain, character building. After completing a job like this you can walk taller, on account of the mud caked to your boots. All that was needed now to complete the job was a cable to be run from the roof space above the exchange to the loft over the old shop, three joints (2 100 pair and a 50 pair) and a hole knocked through the wall of the accounts office, easy, any willing helpers?

Comes the day come the hero.

I cannot remember now how the Sunday gang got involved whether they volunteered or were conned into helping but one morning three of them were dragged from the comfort of the mess room at Medstead to Alresford and along with myself ran a 100 pair cable, the missing link. I have very strict instructions to mention them by name in this article, so lets hear a big cheer for Brian, Chris and John, totally dependable, they turn up when they say they will and do not leave early leaving you standing alone holding a length of cable. I was so impressed with their efforts that they were used again the following week to help run a cable for a platform speaker, this time Dave joined them, Hi, Dave. Although a smaller one pair cable over a shorter direct route it involved more people, strange.
While 100 pairs may seem excessive we had plenty of this cable surplus to requirements and by installing this number of pairs I will never need to do it again. Also some of the pairs are intended for the upgrade of the office external phones, nobody knows about this cunning plan yet. All I need is the money.
The route is awkward, it starts in the roof space above the exchange in the down side waiting room, goes down the external wall, runs under platform 2 then beneath the tracks through the locking room, it then runs behind the signal box and finally up the rear wall of the buffet into the roof space above the shop. There it splits, 50 pairs staying local. The rest continue via the roof space above the shop, into the station building, up the stairs into the loft down to the accounts office, under the floor through the wall into the gents then via a duct under platform 1 to appear in the plant room on the first floor of the goods shed. From the plant room the cable again splits, some pairs continue back outside the building for the phones at the west end of the station. Cable jointing in the loft space above the exchange was lots of fun, after switching on the light there was a buzzing and a few wasps were noticed, half an hour later there were lots of wasps, after being stung 5 times jointing was abandoned for the day, after emptying the contents of a can of wasp spray a tactical retreat was made to do the jointing in the shop where the natives were more friendly. The following day jointing was completed, there were less active wasps but they could still sting which they successfully proved. If you get stung where you have been previously stung it does not notice so much, the lighting was poor and in gloom something was noticed about 6 feet away, the wasps nests, about 2 feet across and crawling with the little perishers. If I was being paid that is one job I would not have undertaken. Although lots of planning had gone into the job the shops clock located in the position decided 6 months before had to be moved to make way for a sales stand and an alarm system that definitely did not require a phone line now required one, long after the walls had been plastered, decorated and the floor laid. It is a shame to have to run trunking in a brand new building.

One minor problem that had to be solved was how to protect the two computer cables that ran between the two buildings, it could not go straight into the cable duct due to risk of damage. The solution was to feed it into a waterproof flexible pipe and then install that into the underground duct, a rather neat solution. Uncertain where in the accounts office the computer cable was to terminate all the spare cable was coiled up along with its protective covering and left under a desk. When it came to connect the till system no attempt was made by the people concerned to make a tidy job of the wiring, if any one visiting the accounts office wonders why what appears to be a hose pipe is running across the floor for now you know. At the plant room end the cables have been tidied up and the router for the computer that had been cellotaped to the phone connection box was fixed to the wall. I find it annoying when after we have made an effort, in my opinion, to make a neat job, for outsiders to come in and leave it in a mess. I only hope this third rate effort is not indicative of the rest of their installation.
As it was a new very smart shop it was felt some respectable looking phones were required, not the usual tat that comes from our stores. In a plastic bag that arrived one day were a couple of matching charcoal coloured push button phones, these were used. I think they look very smart but I may be slightly biased. Where they came from I have no idea but whoever supplied them, thank you.
The phones and swipe terminal were successfully diverted to the new shop in time for its opening.

Baked cables

Nothing has changed regarding the fire-damaged cables, between Alresford and Medstead there are four sections of temporary along with eight temporary joints all waiting to give future problems. Due to lack of replacement cable repairs during the good weather could not be made, it is noticeable that calls between stations are becoming noisy, something somewhere is failing. One interesting issue that occurred during the fires was the armoured cable became baked, the clock circuit was designed to detect a missing clock pulse, a cut cable. With the baked cable everything goes short circuit and you get a permanent clock pulse, a circuit modification now detects this problem.

To conclude.

For those of you who like a leisurely Sunday morning just consider as you eat your toast and peruse the papers that there is a small-dedicated gang hard at work. After the obligatory cup of tea, several packets of biscuits and a lengthy discussion on some obscure quarry in Snowdonia visited by one of the gang in the stone age they will be hard at work destroying the local foliage, whether it is near to the railway is another story.
Three cheers for the Sunday P.W. gang.

 

Issue 112 Spring 2002  Old news is good news

 

Have you ever notice how our ilustrious editors usually feature articles from old issues of the Mid-Hants News, I am not sure if it is to fill up an otherwise blank page or so one can read what one was up over 25 years ago on the railway and feel even more ancient. If its good enough for them to re-cycle old material its good enough for me. The follow piece was written several years ago for issue 105 but never published, not because in my opinion it is un-suitable reading but for the sole reason it was never submitted. At the time of copy the new cable, now the fire damaged cable, had been delivered so an article was written on that instead and this one remained lurking on the computers hard disk. It was also an excuse to use a couple of nice photographs of before and after, which unfortunately I cannot find. Although only written a couple of years ago a lot mentioned has already passed into history being replaced by newer equipment.

Here goes

As has been mentioned in past articles a key and lamp system (KLU) is used in the offices at Alresford. The system had evolved over the years and at the start of work on the KLUs were terminated 3 distinct groups of lines, those used by the general public, an ex-directory number direct to the offices and the internal railway extensions. Some KLUs have an audible indication of in-coming calls from all three groups, some from the ex-directory line and internal numbers only and others internal lines only, this was achieved by a complex arrangement of diodes, not simplified by the details being recorded 15 years previous on a scrap of paper, by now very dog-eared and hopelessly out of date. After being asked and struggling for some time to give a KLU an audible alarm for an external line it was decided improvements could be made and the sooner the better.

Lurking in the shop store was the distribution point ( box connection 3A for the purists ) for the main station building, circa 1984. Over the years it had been altered many times and had become a wiring nightmare, fault finding trying to prove a problem to one particular KLU was very time consuming. Working on one circuit usually meant wires breaking off on others, finish one job and create several other future problems, difficult to get to as it was fixed high up on the wall with a 100 watt light bulb close behind to burn ones neck, the shop staff must have wondered why so many hours were spent lurking in their store, this connection box needed replacing, all it needed was the courage to attempt it and some fool to do it.
The third area of concern was the amount of superfluous equipment used in the exchange, many years ago extra facilities were provided which have not been used for a considerable amount of time but calls were still connected through numerous relays causing lots of potential faults, it was decided this should be removed as part of the master plan. The idea was that the new system would be as simple as possible and some preliminary circuits were designed.

Under the new much simplified plan each line was reduced to only two relays, the old set up counted the total number of in-coming calls and how many were answered and gave a distinctive audible signal for outside calls, it had been intended to dispense with these facilities but add them later if required, it was soon decided to incorporate them from the start, one of many changes of plan that were to take place over the next few months.
First space needed to be made on the exchange distribution frame for the extra connections, a 40 pair block for the internal extensions was replaced by a 100 pair one for the KLU relays plus the extensions, which needed rewiring to the equipment, all the work that took place was done while keeping everything in service, someone then decided it would be a good idea to be able connect any callers out of hours to a recorded message, some people ring at the strangest of times, another alteration catered for.
Work continued with building the new circuits when someone else thought another good idea if it were made possible to answer a line connected on a KLU remotely from an ordinary phone, again the necessary changes were made. Next idea, how about if the shop could have a switchable audible indication for external calls so calls could be answered when no one else was about out of hours, normally they could answer calls but with no buzzer, this change was quite simple to incorporate.
During quiet periods the lines were swapped from the old to the new KLU relay sets that had been constructed.
The external cables from the exchange enter the main station building in a cupboard behind the buffet kitchen, a new cable was run to a new box connection ( 520) which uses modern connection strips. Joining the cables together at this point duplicated the new and existing connection boxes it was then a straightforward job to move the numerous cables from one box to another. Located in the small kitchen/mess room we have followed tradition and installed it up high so you need to stand on something to reach it. Full marks to whoever fitted this work top as over time it has withstood me standing on it. Some cables were long enough and could be diverted, in other cases new cables had to be run, as previously mentioned the system had to be kept in service at all times so a lot of the work had to be done early in the day before the staff arrived for work. When all the cables had been moved it was a case of returning to the buffet store disconnect the cable to the old box connection and remove it.

Work complete or so one thought, shortly afterwards there was a need by the reservations department to set up a separate location to deal with bookings and numerous changes to the external lines were made. With the new arrangement this has been straightfoward as has locating faults, it is a simple matter to insert a plastic peg into a connector strip to isolate different units to prove a fault.

Since this piece was written there have been further alterations and extra KLUs were added, at its peak totalling 15 KLUs spread over 8 locations. The disadvantage of KLUs is the large multi pair cable each one requires so when the new shop moved into the goods shed there was no allowance made for a KLU to be installed, two phones were to be provided one for internal railway calls and another for external calls with a swipe machine, 2 pairs of wires instead of the 25 pairs needed before. The Panasonic switch with its facilities to transfer calls would be used. This year the number of KLUs has reduced, by giving the buffet manageress a couple of new shiny phones, one external and one internal, two KLUs could be recovered. At the end of 2001 it was envisaged it will be some time before the last one disappeared. Even this part of the update is history as all the KLUs had been taken out of service by the end of January but that is a tale for another day.


Issue 113 Spring 2002 The Golden Rule.

The telephone departments Golden Rule applies especially during special events and when translated from its original Latin basically goes as follows “ if it’s working leave well alone”.
This means if you see something as simple and innocent as a twisted telephone cord do not touch it otherwise you can guarantee there will be tears before bedtime.
The leading question is why bother to make rules in the first place if you cannot break them and this is what this is leading up to.

Alton exchange main distribution frame, from now on known as MDF to its friends, needed replacing and what better time to do it than during a Thomas event, this could be a magnitude 10 disaster in the making.

In those heady days of a couple of years ago some of us got the really strange idea from somewhere that the life expired Alton - Medstead cable was going to be replaced, now naïve we were, mind you we were younger then.
The new cable was to have additional pairs and this would cause problems, as additional space would be needed to terminate it at the Alton exchange.

The purpose of an MDF in an exchange, discuss.

Very simply it connects the exchange equipment connected on one set of blocks to the external network connected on another set of blocks via a two-wire connection called a “jumper wire”. It is a flexibility point, so if some one moves location all you need do is swing a jumper on the frame from location A to B.
Jumper wire comes in lots of interesting colours, for example on our exchanges a standard colour scheme is used, an internal extension has a blue/ yellow jumper, a junction to another exchange red/white etc.
This system applied to 3 exchanges but not Alton, being a long way from civilisation and usually no jumper wire of the correct type being to hand lots of exotic combinations of jumpers had appeared white/black, orange/green and so on. It was decided to replace the existing frame with a modern box connection similar to the one successfully installed at Ropley several years ago, at a stroke additional capacity would be created for the new cable and at the same time the technicolour jumpering scheme would be standardised.
Another of my useless bits of information, all those years ago when the exchanges were first installed we had a small frame which was cut in half, one section went to Alton and the other to Ropley. Any one want a small MDF??? One careful owner plus the Mid Hants.

MDFs come in all shapes and sizes and in a large exchange can be tens of feet high and hundreds of feet long with thousands of blocks and tens of thousands of lines connected. Alton was at the lower end of the scale by a considerable margin, comprising of 5 blocks; all old style soldered connections. However if you were at Alton and wanting to use a phone these were quite important blocks.

How to do it.

Step 1 - verify that the records are correct, this involves tracing all jumpers so that you definitely know the shop phone, extension 3431, is on block B pair 23. Doing these checks can save a lot of problems later.

Step 2 - this involves finding somewhere to put your new MDF, the most sensible place is where all the existing cables are terminated, this way you know the cables are long enough and can easily be moved. This ideal spot is exactly where the old MDF is; the only problem is that it is in the way screwed to the wall. Simple, unscrew it from the wall and see how far the cables will stretch to allow one some wall space to fix the new box in its place. Notice so far nothing has been disconnected and everything is still working, but for how much longer? Several new internal cables were provided at this point in association with improvements to the circuits to other exchanges and terminated at the new MDF.

Step 3 - decide a quiet time to do the work, as mentioned before what quieter time than during a Thomas event. At Alton with a 4 train service there is normally feverish activity with lots of phone calls, but it gives one four days over a Bank holiday to get the job done.

Step 4 - arrive early on the chosen day. Cut the cables, one at a time, on the old MDF going to the exchange equipment, this is the point when the exchange is isolated, one must continue, definitely not the time to stop for a cup of tea, however tempting. Divert the cable to new MDF and terminate on modern connection strips. Run numerous temporary jumpers between the new and old MDFs, which still has the external cables connected to restore service, connect circuits to Ropley and Medstead onto new cables provided in step 2. Check all is working and call it a day. This stage was completed before the daily service started.

Step 5 - the following day arrive early again and one at a time divert the external cables onto the new strips, again lines are out of service but less in one go as was the case the day before. After each cable is moved the temporary jumpers, run the previous day, can be shortened and now become permanent as the cables for both ends of the jumper are on the same MDF. Continue in this manner until all cables are diverted. The only cables that were not long enough to divert are the cables from Medstead, but as they are to be replaced (ha ha! A bit of humour) these have been temporarily lengthened for the time being.

Step 6 - now that the work is complete you find there are still some odd cables left on the old MDF for which there is no record, these need to be traced to discover if they are still required and action taken accordingly.
Update the records and remove scrap wiring and old MDF from site, if anyone is interested the shop phone mentioned earlier is now on connection strip 2 pair 1 (equipment) and strip 15 pair 4 (line)
In this manner the work was completed during a Thomas event on a recent bank holiday, the only problem was with the platform bell circuit from the signal box.

The logger

The new to us Panasonic switch at Alresford has facilities for a call logger and recently I obtained the software capable of running this option and what some interesting information this has revealed since it has been in service. It records the source, destination and duration but not content of external calls. My thanks to Alan Tibbetts, O.I.C. of telecomms at the Ffestiniog Railway for supplying the software. The story of the programme is interesting, discovered by Alan several years ago on the internet, the company who wrote the software is located in Zimbabre, sent through the ether to Portmadoc and used on the F.R. until they upgraded their office phone system last year. When offered to us in March an e-mail with an attachment was sent to Phil Mousley at home, (honorary department computer expert), this contained the programme which he turned into a CD and loaded onto a second hand computer at Alresford, after several hours messing about we had a working logger. I find all this moving of information very clever but do tend to live in the era of 10 pulses per second, only those familiar with old telephone exchanges will understand that bit. It was put into service during the time leading up to the Easter 2002 Thomas event and straight away one could see how busy the phones were, up to then they appeared busy but now you could have the evidence in black and white or green and blue as it appears on the computer screen. I could reveal the number of calls in a day the information office answers before and during one of these events but fear if I did it could frighten off any potential volunteers who are interested in a quiet pursuit.

Why?

After looking at the logger output several interesting questions arise, why do people ring the railway at quarter to twelve at night, are they expecting someone to be there? Why are staff at Alresford ringing Ropley and Alton via external lines and being charged when there is a free internal system? We know the culprits and have times and dates and may name and shame in future articles if this persists, you have been warned! The junk faxes arrive in the early hours and considering the number of swipe machine calls made it is a wonder they are not too hot to touch. Looking at the list of frequently called numbers Frank Twines mobile is in the top 5.

Every picture tells a story – or does it?

In the last issue is a picture showing Chris Churn locating a “broken cable”, hardly “rocket science” when one knows the full story. What is not shown in the photograph is the mini digger he “broke” it with. Both cables, that had been happily connecting Alton and Medstead for over 15 years, were savagely ripped from the ground when the PW department installed a drain. This isolated Alton from the rest of the line. It was noticed by chance during a visit to the Ropley exchange that the circuits to Alton were out of service and faulty, going to Medstead indicated more problems towards Alton, a walk for about a mile along the track testing indicated the problem lay still further on and it was decided to drive to the other end and do some checks there. Returning to collect the car at Medstead bumped into Chris and in conversation he did the honourable thing and admitted he had dug the cables up, this was another half mile past the point I had just walked to. Usually when a digger severs a cable, water pipe or similar it is never anything to do with the operative who at the time was miles away, “nothing to do with me, guv, honest”. Arrangements were made to expose both ends of the damaged section but it was some time before service was restored. The days of dropping everything to repair a damaged cable are for the present over, we still have sections of fire damaged cables from the summer of 2001 awaiting permanent repair, the powers that be do not seem interested and this apathy has unfortunately filtered downwards.

Issue 114 Autumn 2002 Celtic connections.

Before I start on this topic mentioned in what I consider a rather witty heading I need to digress only briefly.

Recently, while at my place of employment, I bumped into Robin, not el presidente, but another one. “All you ever write about is rabbits,” said he. So there is some else who reads these ramblings, I must make a note to add him to the Christmas card list, that’s the postage budget doubled straightaway. Anyway, what he said is a scurrilous accusation and I have the proof. Only other day our intrepid editors were at Alresford putting another edition of the MHN to bed, it think that is the correct journalistic term for those weighty matters, putting it to sleep might have been far kinder. Laying on the desk was a copy of MHN issue 17 dated April 1977, casually flicking through it I came across towards the rear an article tilted “Hello – anyone there?” It was about our early telephone efforts, written by a younger version of yours truly and there was absolutely no mention of rabbits, QED.
Mind you those were the days before we had any circuits between Alresford and Ropley to be chewed and as recorded in the article we were about to rent two private circuits between the two stations. What was not mentioned then was after the order for these circuits was placed it was discovered the planned routings were to be Alresford to Ropley via Alton, the telephone calls would be at Alton 7 years before the rest of the railway. It was considered a 17 mile circuit was rather extreme and the order duly cancelled, we decided to put up our own overhead circuits using what was left of the old pole route between the two stations, a mere 3 miles give or take a few yards.
This started 25 years of joy with circuits between exchanges, if it was up in the air it got shot at or damaged by trees, when it was underground the rabbits took over and when on the surface it was the turn of the locomotive department to have a go.
There is a small section of the 1977 overhead route still in existence although not in use. Does any one know where? Does any one care? This is not a competition. Hopefully this should not prove to be too taxing for the Saturday P.W. gang as I told them the answer.

Dim parcio

When in Snowdonia I have always received a very friendly welcome and a cup of tea from my opposite number responsible for the phones on the Festiniog Railway. I am never sure whether one is supposed to use one F or two Fs so as not to offend anyone as I managed to do some years ago with Welsh words the railway from now on will be referred to as F.R. I have often thought narrow gauge could be the answer to some of the Mid Hants problems, want somewhere to keep carriages? One only need to obtain a large garden shed, require a platform extension? Easy, go and get a couple of dozen kerbstones and a barrow full of infill, bit of tarmac, job done. I am digressing again. Question. How to repay their hospitality over the years? Simple, during a recent visit I managed to sell them some of our surplus cable. As an aside I always thought we were the last to know what was going on. Not so, dear reader, as on a recent visit I was seconded to help run computer cables through the kitchens one Sunday evening at Porthmadog station. A rush job, this was for a computerised till system where those expected to do the work had not been informed of what was required until the last minute and then questioned why they had not done it some time previous despite not knowing where sockets were to be placed. Thinks, “where have I come across that situation before but closer to home?” It seems the F.R. Telecoms staff is expected to have the powers of a clairvoyant.

Why you may ask were they interested in our cable?

At Porthmadoc Harbour station they recently had installed a very nice Meridian system for their external phone system, note to the Mid Hants powers that be, if you want something decent you have to be prepared to open the purse, never mind the moths getting dazzled. Their intention now is to integrate the extensions at Boston Lodge, replacing an older system and connect them to the new switch at Harbour station. Various methods were priced by the F.R. ranging from circuits via a fibre optic cable (expensive) to ordinary copper cable (cheap) and the preferred option was our offer of some 100 pair cable. You cannot go far wrong with an ordinary bit of copper cable and by far it was the cheapest. About a mile of this cable is to be laid across the Cob, this will allow for the connection of the extensions plus leave ample spare pairs for Alan and Derrick to use for the miscellaneous circuits they are always devising.

We have used only a small amount of this size cable (at Alresford) and no further need is envisaged. We have assisted another railway and earn some much-needed finance of which I managed to spend a very small amount.

Best thing since sliced bread.

The opening of the shop in the goods shed created problems when transferring outside calls, no key and lamp unit (KLU) being provided, as mentioned in the last issue. There was a hybrid transfer system which most people had possibly forgotten how to use, now it was a case of using the Panasonic switch for what it was intended when installed a while ago. It was understood by myself that numerous individuals thought the key and lamp units were wonderful and should remain in service for ever or even longer and never be disconnected, so a compromise scheme was developed. The remaining two exchange lines that were direct to the KLUs were connected via the Panasonic exchange, an incoming call could still be answered on a KLU and as that was in effect a Panasonic extension it could then be transferred to another extension. For this to work correctly all the phones capable of answering a call had been all of the same type; there are two distinct signals that exchanges can expect from a phone when a call is to be transferred, if your phone gives the wrong signal for your particular exchange nothing will happen. Some time was spent checking if the phones associated with the key and lamp units were of the correct type and swapping phones so they were. We must have had one of the finest selections of assorted phones in one building for many a mile. Another part of the master plan involved fitting two Panasonic phones in each office, at the time only one existed, the intention being these phones, if required, could be used in preference to the KLUs. This involved running new cables into all of the offices from a new distribution point created on the first floor, this in turn was connected back to the distribution case downstairs by a new 40 pair cable.
This distribution case, in the kitchen, had become nearly full a while ago and a smaller “son of distribution case” had been fitted next to it for additional cables. Should the station building ever fall down a contributing factor could well be the weight of cables running through it. With the Panasonic switch fully in service the KLUs in the old shop and buffet along with their associated cables were recovered and the space created in the existing distribution case allowed the cables in the smaller case to be transferred over and the case recovered. This was a one of those Saturday early morning jobs; most of the Panasonic extensions were in these cables so work had to be completed before the staff arrived.

Wots going on?

A major perceived problem that I could see was the volunteers who answered calls, nothing could be worse than turning up and finding a completely different arrangement from what you were use to the previous week, so work was planned in stages. Information was typed up, distributed and work started. It soon became apparent that the mixed Panasonic/KLU set up was not going to be successful, the introduction of the changes was going quicker than originally envisaged and accordingly the operational instructions supplied rapidly became out of date, it was soon decided to abandon the KLUs. Thanks to the permanent office staff who gave training to those turning up on a weekday that had not seen the system working things now went smoothly. People have commented it is far superior to the system it replaced, the changes could have been made some time ago but for the expected resistance to the new arrangements, which never materialised. Unfortunately the Panasonic switch rapidly became full with a waiting list for additional lines with no provision to expand it and although working well it needs replacing with a larger switch. Like any organisation embracing new technology more items of equipment have a requirement of access to a telephone line. At Alresford alone there are 4 swipe machines each needing use of an outside line. Learning from previous mistakes this change over will comprise of one stage only, start early one morning attack it mob handed and the lot changes over in one go. Most of the key and lamp units were not removed, they were just hidden under desks in case they were needed it the event of a failure and they may yet see further service. The Panasonic switch and its successor have no battery back up; although connected to a small UPS there have been times when the system has failed. One individual, who will remain nameless and is the bane of the department, but in their defence makes excellent bacon rolls, has on occasions had problems with phones falling to pieces about the same time as they hit the floor. Not content with causing problems on just one circuit Mr/Mrs M recently graduated to the premier league and did something with an electrical item which caused an electrical trip to intermittently fail during the day and put all the external lines and extensions out of service. The key and lamp units could give a back up service in the eventuality of total mains failure as they run from the exchange batteries.

Easy come, easy go

After the problems experienced by laying cables on the surface between Alresford and Medstead it was considered a mistake if the replacement cable for Alton was treated the same way, all this is now academic as most of the cable has been stolen.