An NSR Absolute Block instrument

Yes. Going to try a different meter.
You may note the battery light showing. !!!

it’s been sat in the utility where our boiler is and also a east facing room so gets warm sunlight.
It’s defiantly dry now, but been somewhere damp in the past.

 

So, a small update on a tangent..
Or should I say, I’ve decided to go for a plan B.

Talking to Peter, he mentioned he had a CR (Caledonian Railway) top sitting doing nothing but gathering dust and storing screwed in his fathers loft. It was also made by Tyers, but the CR absolute block was slightly deeper, wider and taller…… but if I wanted it..

So yesterday I made the choice, I would accept the offer and split it down reusing the wood to make the smaller too half for mine.

There are differences as you can see.

here they are side by side. It’s quite obvious, but all the bits I need are there..


CR’s blocks were much deeper at the top. Why? I don’t know.


sat like this, you can see that from the rear it needs a simple trim down. The overlapping lips are already there. Remove the top, reduce the height removed the front and take one end and shorten (same for the vertical) and were half way there..

so.. I’m awaiting a delivery.. more as we progress..

 

it will get a full strip back when it’s split down.
Due to arrive on Monday.

 

The top has arrived. Given it a quick clean up.
doesn’t look too bad!
I’ve had all 11 screws out (6 on the front and 5 on the top) and had the front off, so it comes apart as expected.

next is to remove the sides from the top panel and start reducing it down to the correct sizes.


I’ve also been given a link to a company for the original name plates (for the signal box they connected to) of https://www.mrsengraving.co.uk/traffolyte-engraving
So i will be contacting these folk soon for a new plate. Not knowing where it came from, I’ve a full choice to pick from..
Having done all the work on the Leek model
With @York Paul , do I do it’s as one of the Leek blocks? Or Leek Brook or Rudyard so it has the Leek name at the bottom?? Decisions.

btw, Alex, my son, has already asked if he can have the redundant top off this one as a base for a diorama..

Doesn’t seem too bad an idea to reuse it rather than bin it.

 

when acquired, it came with a second base but with no door, and from what I can see, the base is the same as the top. That was the item marked as NSR.
After removal of the redundant sides it was prepped ready to be used as a new top.

the CR cabinet I have received (cabinet being a better word as not sure what you call the top half??) obviously has a much bigger surface area that an NSR one, so it’s surplus once the sides and front are removed.
Does that make sense?

 

The “cabinet” box has been broken down. Well, broken is probably not the right description, as once the screws were removed a gentle tap near each join and they easily separated. The only ones that did pose a time delay were the trim panels that were tacked on and I had to use a small flat surface to split them.

So the sides and front are all now separate and we can start marking ready for cutting.


Unfortunately, the original top dove tail joins on these uprights don’t match my original top (base) so can’t temp fit them in. But that doesn’t matter as I need to lower that surface and make new dove tail joins.
Hopefully we can progress this week.

 

Just a photo update today of the front panel (where the glass will fit) separated down.

on the upper inside panel is the stampings of
J D M. I can only guess this may be the initials of whoever made it. the white marks you can see are chalk marks saying “Dan”. I have no idea.


so here we have why I have termed the left and right uprights. The top panel, the bottom panel and the lower trim, which was already on two parts - this makes the last bit easy as I’m again making a flat cut to reduce its length, rather than the curve at the end)

now I wasn’t expecting this.. where the top and bottom panels slot in to the sides they are also tapered at the bottom. A nice little touch!


this is the old lid, which is over size for an NSR block.. but for reference it’s marked up as 28 by the Caledonian Railway.

another reason for not using it as it has a hole in it, I’m guessing for power cables to a bell mounted on the top.

sat in situe, this shows the left hand side panel and trim fitted to the original Instrument woodwork. There is a slot and peg here as can be seen in the little “n” shape. The trim needs a little repair. You can also see where when the trim was added the maker has missed his mark and driven the tack to hold it on between the two pieces of wood.

and finally, some updated shots of the new top (was originally a bottom) with the NSR and 1925 stampings.


Interesting, these marks don’t appear on the original base that I can find. So although it will have a genuine NSR stamp in the new top, I have no idea if the base was originally an NSR one or not?
Shame, but I don’t mind.

 

No, that’s fine. Quite understand. is there anything else I can help with? Inner and outer diameter etc? I expect I will be stripping the needles and brackets off soon anyway, so can do a tracing.

 

There is a flu bug going around again. Took me out last week and this weekend took the father in law out of action so we have been unable to progress the woodwork. I’ve also been back at work so only evening work when kids in bed has been possible..

I therefore decided to start cleaning up the bus bars on the back where all the wires terminate to and some other brass parts. I began with the two arches from the front which house bearings for the needles. These were quite dull and green when I started.

here is the first one. My apologies as it doesn’t really show up well against the kitchen worktop.

to allow access to the bus bars at the back, I had to first remove the front plate, so I took the opportunity to begin labelling all the terminals, starting top right and working clockwise referencing them as Bar A terminals 1 and 2, B1, B2 etc (Bar D has 4 terminals) until I had worked my way around.
This meant I could now remove the main 6 solenoids on their mounting away from the back board.

as can be seen, there is a sizable chunk removed here that I didn’t expect to allow it all to sit flush within!
here are terminal bars A & B which have been cleaned up. I did buy an ultrasonic cleaner to assist, but even with the correct cleaning fluid, I could not see that after a 5 mins cycle that there was any difference, so used the dreamil and cleaning brush. I may try the cheap cola trick with one of the others and see how that comes out.


here are the 8 solenoids in the large brass backing plate.

and here is the reverse. You can see the colour difference. Even the black metal work is clean and shiny where as the front side is dull where I think it has been left to get damp.

more progress to follow as ran out of time last night.

Andy

 

Going back to the lock that came with the original base and door, it’s fitted with a cabinet lock. Sadly, it has been sawn through by a previous owner so I’d had to look at what I can do to use what I can. Thankfully, it was still in the locked position.

Peter in Scotland had kindly loaned me a key which I may have wrote about before.
Last night I made the decision to open up the hole on the lock to allow the key to fit. I used a round grinding stone on the dremmel, which kept it nice and neat and the key now fits.. that’s one hurdle. I still need to find someone who can source a blank and have a new key cut… it varies in price where I’ve looked so far between £3 and £15.

my lock and Peter’s Key

it seems the original was a slightly more narrow shaft. But this one fits now and works well.. I’ll be looking at the other side of the lock / keeper plate in the near future.

last night 3 more bus bars were cleaned up.


This one was mid clean, the right hand side has been cleaned up.
So that’s half of them in the upper section now done. Child care and work now beckons so that’s it now till Friday probably.

 

To be fair Paul, looks better than the wire brush I have been using. It’s almost as if I need something a little more abrasive that the wire brush but less so than a grinding stone (which did polish one panel up)

I may well look at investing! Thanks!

 

I did purchase some proper cleaning fluid last weekend with an ultra sonic cleaner, but didn’t have much result.

best manual thing I actually found, and you may laugh!! Was a track rubber from Gaugemaster!

wd40 sounds an idea, but wonder how much of the can I need to discharge in to the cleaner for that!