Weds 2nd / Thurs 3rd - Summer's here

Back to the middle of the week again with another two-day posting. The good weather continues and, bar the early chilly breeze, when the days warm up we could be in the middle of summer.

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Wednesday

Many thanks to Gerry for Wednesday's photos.

Wow, just look at that sky! It could be flaming June as the saying goes. Bob starts on the general clean up of the van shell we are going to convert to a weed killing wagon.

He is soon joined by Steve.

In complete contrast from noisy anglegrinding to Laura's gentle snipping of scissors in Upholstery.

On Friday the remaining seat components for the latest Forest of Dean Railway contract are being collected.⁵

Dave and Ben in discussion in the Woodwork shop.

Trevor and Ben, the latter taking careful measurements - related to the discussion with Dave above?

Rod and Trevor discussing the working of the Malvern side door at the north end of SO 4798.

Ken was taking measurements for fitting out the pipes for the toilets and communication cord at the rebuilt south end of 4798.

Creating replacement wood fittings for the toilet compartment windows.

Phil working on the metal liners for the counter in RBr 1675.

Simon continues his work to build a new stand for the sale of the railway chair boot scrapers. I believe this will be for Winchcombe Station.

Well here it is - the end of the line on the long run from Cheltenham. While walking his dog, Gerry took these photos of the vehicles in the headshunt at Broadway.

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Thursday

On to the next day, beginning with the goods scene.

Maurice starts his day priming the shaped door planks for the Open C wagon. With all the planks, only the unsanded inner sides are left unpainted - these presumably will have a coating of Creosolve once fitted.

Just prior to starting, all the existing primed and undercoated planks were restacked by Maurice and myself to make more space.

Each stack is two or three planks deep so quite a number have been done. The wagon should really begin to take shape when all these begin to go on. 

With the wet primed planks carefully laid out on the lower levels of the trestles, Maurice continues the undercoating of the previous batch of primed planks. As mention in Tuesday's post the white gaps are to allow the planks to be lifted against the Workshop wall without getting paint-covered hands - the gaps are then overpainted. Looks like Maurice is going to do the lifting in batches.

While on the wagon theme, the canvas for the MICA van has now arrived. No shortage of work for the Wagon team!

In the Barn John is preparing the bogies from NYMR SK 24804 for a change of wheelsets.

The tiebars on the north bogie have been taken off ready. 

Stu discussing the plans with John.

The future weed killing wagon with part of the rotting floor removed and some of the frame now cleaned up.

Gerry and Rex sorting out the special screws for 4798's toilet compartment grills.

As Bryan is finding, these screws are a fiddle to locate in the holes.

Nearly there - just one on the far end to fit.

A different type of screw being fitted by Gerry, now working on the very last compartment window in 4798.

A new inner frame with special screws being inserted. Underneath the new panelling fitted by Simon.

With everybody clear Rex quickly welds up the two unwanted holes to the left of the window.

A shaped board has now been fitted to the base of the window. When enquiring about this Gerry explained that the board acts as a temporary window and helps to locate the screws correctly without potentially damaging the glass if that was inserted instead.

Gerry's phone provides a handy torch while Bryan checks the potential fitting of that screw.

Back to Rex who is fitting the grill to the Malvern side toilet compartment window.

Another photo of one of the replacement sections of wood frame for the toilet windows.

Phil is working on more of the light fittings from 4798, which are to be converted to hold just one centrally located LED bulb. He later took the pile of fittings to the Woodwork shop ready for Alan and Roger to convert.

The new stand being made by Simon for the railway chair boot scrapers. Guess this will soon appear in the Paintshop (note to oneself - must pop into the Coffee Pot to see how the existing one is painted).

Another Woodwork team job is using the cedar off cuts from the Open C wagon planks to create the top of a frame rescued from the old Building Services workshop, which is going to be  demolished. The Painting team have offered to clean up and paint the frame.

That Southern whistle had Phil and I rushing outside to watch P&O slowing for the station. There are occasions when almost all the day goes by before getting the chance to enjoy the passing trains.

Inside 1675's saloon Alan and Roger are back to secure the table legs where still required.

Roger checks the vertical angle before adding the screws, allowing of course for the tapering of the leg.

Quite a job drilling into the floor at this place - it has to be located over one of the top hat cross members. A rawlplug will provide a secure footing for the screw.

Securing the wall attachment to the base of this table top - note the tape marker to ensure the attachment is fitted squarely.

Batteries were bring transferred to 1675 by Richard I to replace the existing ones in the battery boxes.

Richard later securing the insulated water pipe under 1675

A job loved by Jeff (and indeed by many of use). Jeff holds our purse strings so no arguments about him doing the white lettering! ☺

In our Coaches section of the Blog, RBr 1675 is listed as built 1961. However Jeff pointed out that the trailing "1" is actually a "0". There is no top section for a one and when studied very closely it seems to be a badly formed "0". Apparently the plate on the Malvern side is the same. Many of these plates have imperfect characters when studied closely.

With the builders plates completed Jeff moves on to finishing off the lamp brackets.

Phil meanwhile had started completing the corner demarcation zones, bringing the black paint to the edge of the chocolate & cream.

Jeff joins in on the other side. With the south end done, it's along to the north end to complete that.

Phil said he fancied doing the propane gas box covers, so took a turn on both of those. These are done in red. More lovely lettering to paint but we can't complain here either as Phil is Jeff's deputy! ☺

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I could only stay until lunchtime so will have to catch up on what may have been missed during the afternoon in the next post.