Weds 15th / Thurs 16th - Halfway through the month

 A busy couple of days with large attendances.

Wednesday

Just a few photos showing some of Wednesday's work. Many thanks to Eve for the first four taken in Upholstery. The remainder were taken by myself on Thursday capturing some of Wednesday's activities.

Richard watches Laura demonstrating the overlocker.

Chris and Eve are stripping seat components, in the early stages of the latest contract from the Forest of Dean Railway.

Stripped headrests.

The coir matting newly laid in FK 13326's south vestibule. The brass threshold strips will now be fitted.

David coated the new battery box covers in Black MIO, which will be tougher than the usual Underframe Black gloss.

Thursday

A new day with a clear sky and very cold breeze. Quite a contrast for me as I left home in thick fog, which I was told lasted almost all day.

The three battery box covers back in Woodwork ready for Robert and Chris to remount the fittings on Saturday.

Ainsley securing the base of this droplight.

Roger measures a strip of hardboard for fitting above one of the emergency exit doors on 1675.

The painted corner strip covering the gap above the heating pipe cover in 1675's saloon.

The little plyboard surround for the saloon's heating control now fully painted. One of the Indoor Gang's orange overalls reflects in the gloss paint.

Geoff and Roger provided a neat cover for the emergency door handle.

Paul (IT) and Christine (Head of RCS) talking to Richard II about the eventual positioning of the till and card machine.

Richard I joins in the conversation.

In the Barn Stu is refitting a length of vacuum pipe to eliminate an annoying leak under 4986.

When trying to capture the day's activities, it can often mean being in the right place at the right time. Occasionally a real trick is missed and today had one of those - big time!

The Indoor Gang (Alan, Geoff and Roger), having completed what they wanted to do in 1675, disappeared. I thought they had gone up to the station to tackle some more Shutdown jobs in one of the rakes. Wrong! Unbeknown to me they ended up assisting Stu refit the DA valve under 4986. The Indoor Gang had temporarily become the Dirty Gang and the state of their overalls showed this. What a thing to have missed! 

While still with a chilly breeze, it had turned into a lovely clear day.

It's heartening to see that Spring is on the way. For the daffodils to be this far ahead that must be a lovely warm sheltered bit of bank in the station garden.

On board TSO 5042 more Shutdown activities were underway.

Three of our Metalwork team, Gerry, Rex and Bryan, had transferred from fitting windows in SO 4798 in the Barn to repairing loose tables in 5042.

Quite often the screwholes have worn in the tables and need fibre rawl plugs.

However what is more normal is the fitting against the coach wall that has gone awry, mainly through worn panelling.

Tables have a hard time in that they often have to be used for support when getting in and out of the seats. What is particularly annoying is when we see the train go by and a parent letting their child stand on the table - very thoughtless, and unhygenic to say the least!

A new base section of internal window frame needed here.

Bryan rebores the metal screw holes at the top of this table leg. No doubt thicker screws needed.

On to progress with FK 13326 where the main theme was varnishing. While Jeff looks on, Phil checks the state of play with the door and corner section. 

Jeff varnished all the Cotswold side window frames ..............

.......... while Phil took on the four doors and corners. All were receiving their first coat of varnish.

With the exception of the roundel, which Alex had previously mounted and varnished, Bob gave the whole of the Malvern side between the doors its first coat, beginning with the upper half. The windows had already been done.

Phil tackling the Malvern side south door and corner.

A long shot of the Malvern side with Bob now on the lower half.

Back outside to capture some more work, the day was cooling off with mist gathering on the escarpment.

In his work on the Monster van Derek has found that many of the planks are in relatively good condition, bar odd corners and around some screwholes. Hence all the patching work he has done, and in this case a small insert. In previous times we would have probably replaced most of the planking, but with all the limited funding now in place a major rebuild has become impossible. So even little repairs like this become invaluable.

Dave has done a heroic job inside FO 3127. Nearly all the single seats have now been taken up and stacked on the other side of the coach. Dave had a warm air heater going so it was quite cozy inside what would have been a very cold coach.

Finally a fully varnished (first coat) 13326. Well done Jeff, Phil and Bob for your efforts today.

The second and final coating begins on Saturday.

Tuesday 14th - A lot of completing

Time is galloping by. Nearly half of January gone already and still much to do before the new season starts.

A smaller group in today, but for a while increased when Bob and Pete, our regular flooring contractors, came to prepare the vestibule floors in FK 13326. Also over the past few days the annual PAT testing has been underway throughout the Works with two of the Railway's testers in semi-residence while this very extensive job is done.

Pete carefully lays the screeding compound in the north vestibule.

The south vestibule very neatly done and drying well.

The rolls of coir matting ready for laying on Wednesday. I later covered them up with respect to the frequent passage of varnish and paint as work progressed during the day.

On the subject of varnish Richard completed the window varnishing on the Malvern side of 13326.

On the opposite side Ian completed the window cleaning. He also completed the painting of the footboards.

With both sides fully painted and varnishing underway it was time to complete the demarcation zones at the four corners of the coach. New tape was put on and the black gloss painted up to it.

The Malvern side north end.

Job done. Carefully removing the tape at the Malvern side south end. Richard also took care of some remaining bits of lining out in the Cotswold side centre doorway.

Ian and Derek admiring the very good varnishing done by Bob and Alex. 

Urgent work for Shutdown in the form of new battery box covers, now undercoated. A number of battery boxes need either partial repair or completely replacing. However coaches will have to be moved out of the station in order to be able to access some of them.

Robert and Chris were also involved with creating a new toilet floor at the south end of SO 4798.

Tony took on the cleaning up of the heating pipe covers from FO 3127. This one needed the securing brackets straightening.

He used an angle grinder with wire brush and really got a lot of the old paint and grime off this one. If they all ended up like this then we could put clear lacquer on them as we did for those in 1675.

 

Another job we need to get finished is the tip-up seat support strap Pam has made for the guards compartment in BCK 21272. With the PAT testing going on in the Upholstery workshop, Pam uses a Mess Room table to sew on the special multi-stranded loops she made.

With Upholstery now available Pam uses the overlocker to bind the ends of the strap. Unfortunately the strap was too tough and the overlocking failed, so a job for Pam at home.

A nice little job with which to finish the day was top coating the little ply surround made by Alan for the heating switch in 1675's saloon.

Back to Chris and Robert who are back to the replanking at the north end of the MICA van.

Maurice spent the day continuing the top coating of the frame and underneath in GW Grey.

Gosh, when did this appear? It all looks very neat. We are continually coming up with ways to improve our Works.

Walking through the Works to check all is well at the end of the day, a quick look outside at the gathering dusk.