It had just been completed in time, as early the next morning “the team” arrived to take the control unit and mount it on the scaffolding along with all the lighting frames being fixed in readiness for connecting up.

It took another couple of days in bitterly cold, icy weather (literally), to connect the wiring of all of the 13 frames’ cables back to the control unit and run in the power supply cable from the Electricity Supply feeder pole 35 metres away, these amounted to 38 cables, 90 cores in all (picture 12).

Being the first time, it took a long time to connect up, as each cable core had to be identified, marker numbers added to correspond with the terminal number it was to be connected to, and finally stripped back for a “crimp connector” to be attached before connecting up to the control unit's corresponding outgoing marshalling terminal.

In future years, providing there’s been no damage, it’s just a straightforward process of connecting up.

Final testing to confirm everything was lighting up as it should was completed the next morning (the morning of switch-on day) and luckily all went well, it was ready to roll! So it was finished just in time, it had turned out to be a very close call indeed, here's hoping it was enjoyed by "one and all".

Many thanks go to the very helpful "Elves" and also to the local "hot" refreshments providers', all much appreciated, especially in that weather!

From The ACL Techie Dept (also known as The Mickey Mouse Brigade!) - Christmas 2010

Copyright © GG Dec.2010

Picture 12 – Lighting frames and control unit mounted on scaffolding