Works docket · standard procedure

Seven benches
and a proof.

A frame arrives on a low loader under a tarpaulin, usually with sixty years of oil, coal dust and at least one repair somebody made with a file. This is what happens to it between the loading bay and the test floor.

The benches

Bench 1Week 1

Record, then strip

Nothing comes apart until it has been drawn. Quadrant plate, catch rods, every tappet and every lock, photographed and measured in place. A frame that has been in a box for a century is rarely the frame the diagram says it is, and the differences are the interesting part.

Bench 2Weeks 1–3

De-scale and inspect

Vapour blast, not shot. Castings are inspected wet for hairlines around the trunnion bosses, which is where they go. Anything cracked is recorded on the docket with a photograph before we decide whether to weld, sleeve or replace.

Bench 3Weeks 3–6

Re-bush and re-pin

Phosphor bronze to the original clearance, reamed in situ. A lever that has gone heavy is almost never the lever — it is a worn trunnion letting the catch rod bind on its guide. We fix the cause and the lever gets light again by itself.

Bench 4Weeks 4–8

Cut the locking

New tappets milled from the table we have drawn with your signalling inspector, not from the table that came with the frame. If the two disagree we stop and find out why before a single cut is made. Twice in thirty years the old table has been right and we have been wrong, which is a ratio worth keeping.

Bench 5Weeks 8–11

Paint and plate

Frame in works grey, levers to the standard colours, plates enamelled or vitreous to your railway's lettering. Original maker's plates are cleaned and refitted. We have never once painted over one and we are not going to start.

Bench 6Weeks 11–13

Prove every lock both ways

Two people, a copy of the table and a day. Every lever pulled against every lock it should meet, and every lock tested in the direction nobody thinks about — putting back. A frame that locks correctly on the pull and releases something it should not on the restore is the failure mode that gets people hurt.

Bench 7Week 14

Erect, test, hand over

Set up on the test floor exactly as it will sit in the box, with dummy loads on the rodding runs so the pulls feel like the real thing. You come to Ludlow and work it before it is crated. Then the signed test sheet goes in the box with the frame, where the next engineer will find it.

Locking table — Cransley Junction

The table the frame on the front page is actually cut to. N is normal, R is reverse. “Released by” is what must already be standing before the lever will come; “affects” is what it holds once it is over.

Locking table for the eighteen-lever frame at Cransley Junction
No.	Plate	Function	Released by	Affects
1	Yellow	Down Distant	2R · 6R	—
2	Red	Down Home — Main	17R · 4R · 5N	1
3	Red	Down Home — Loop	17R · 4R · 5R	—
4	Blue	Facing point lock, No. 5	Free	2 · 3 · holds 5
5	Black	Points — down loop entry	Free	2 · 3
6	Red	Down Starter	8N	1
7	Red	Down Loop Starter	8R	—
8	Black	Points — down loop exit	Free	6 · 7
9	White	Spare	—	—
10	Black	Ground disc — yard to up main	11R · 13N · 14N	13 · 14
11	Black	Points — up yard	Free	10 · 12 · 13 · 14
12	Black	Ground disc — up main to yard	11R · 13N · 14N	13 · 14
13	Red	Up Home	11N · 10N · 12N	15
14	Red	Up Starter	17R · 11N · 10N · 12N	15
15	Yellow	Up Distant	13R · 14R	—
16	Brown	Level crossing gates	Free	17
17	Brown	Gate bolt & wicket lock	16R	2 · 3 · 14
18	White	Spare	—	—

Go and work it → The frame on the front page will not let you break a single line of this table.

Work we turn down

Plates in printed plastic. They fade to pink in a south-facing box within four summers and then nobody can read No. 12.
Locking “simplified” to suit a reduced layout without the table being redrawn and re-proved. Take the levers out or leave the locking alone.
Frames cut down to fit a shorter room. We will find you a shorter frame instead. There are more of them about than people think.
Anything where we are asked not to test on site because of the operating day. We will come on a Tuesday in February. We will not sign a sheet we have not earned.

Temeside Yard is open to anyone who wants to see a frame on the test floor. Ring first; the kettle is temperamental.

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