Saturday 25th - Hot stuff

Another very warm day with our doors wide open and a good attendance with 21 in.

One of the early jobs was to clear Platform 1 bay ready for the "Cab A Loco Weekend"  on Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd May.

Ian dismounts from the 03's cab to check all is well before towing the Fruit C van and Santa Coach into the yard.

Now neatly stabled in one of the south yard sidings.  The Santa coach could do with a good clean; wonder if we will have time?

Meanwhile stabled just outside the Barn is the ballast train, comprising our new 03 and four Dogfish wagons. The Shark ballast plough is currently having some minor repairs to the doors.

Stacked high with ballast and ready to be taken down to the slip site between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington.

We have done a number of welding repairs to the Dogfish wagons over the years and are back doing yet more with Alan making patch repairs to the ballast chutes.

A close look at D2069.

W22 passes by and heads towards the station on the Toddington - Winchcombe shuttle.

Hello, a new wee beastie sits outside the Barn. So what's this all about?

James is busy cutting rectangular sheet metal strips. When asked what they were for he declared that they were to be made into new footpedals for the PWay people carrier outside.

Andy cleaned up the finished product.

Two of the new pedals sit either side of an existing one.

[Photo : Paul W]  It looks like the gang are off to the Coffee Pot for that mid morning toasted teacake and tea. Paul scrubs up ready for the off.

[Photo : Paul E]  Maurice tucks into a nice bit of cake and coffee, preferring the cake to a warm buttered teacake. I wonder who paid? :-)

[Photo : Paul W]  W22 waits in Platform 2 before the return to Toddington.

Jenny gave the Mess Room another thorough clean, which this time included the chairs. A very striking before and after! She recently cleaned the walls where the dirty overalls had been leaning - we need to put on some white emulsion to complete the job.

Dave enjoying the fresh air while chipping off old paint from the north end bogie under FO 3127.

The result of a leaking cowl on the roof of BCK 21092. It would have to be one of the First Class compartments. The roof area around the cowl has been sealed, which just leaves a repair to the beading and ceiling paintwork in the compartment.

The north end bogie under the GW Inspection Saloon being serviced by John.

With SK 25451 now in the Barn, James tackles the roof repair at the Cotswold side south end. It will be good to really get going on this coach.

You don't often see the anvil being used. Ken carefully flattens one of the connection straps from the south end of BCK 35308. There are four altogether, two straight and two curved, which I later coated in Red Oxide. They will be painted in Gloss Black on Tuesday and so be ready for Ken on Wednesday.

George attacks more of the rivet line on the Cotswold side of 35308.

Maurice recoating the recentily installed Mink D top planks, all of which have had to be modified to fit.

It had now become very warm and summery, so lunch up at the station was a must, especially with W22 arriving from Toddington.

[Photo : Carol]  A  nice view of the station and W22 from the garden. That blue sky is incredible.

It was just Carol in Upholstery today, producing more curtain ties for SO 4798. 

More big strides with the painting on 4798's Malvern side. Alex initially flats the undercoat Cream and Brown using the circular pad sander with 320 paper.

For a change and to speed things up, he used the air lance to remove the dust.

Next on with the GW Cream top coating.

I later captured him applying the GW Brown.

As with the undercoat, this first top coat will be flatted. The application is so good it seems a shame to have to do this. 

I didn't get round to taking photos of my own work which, besides priming Ken's connection straps, was of a lot of fine skim filling on the Cotswold side of the coach. In places fine grooves were noticed, which we felt we could remove, but are we becoming too fussy? There is still more to do. 

I also gave a tour of the Works for five participants doing the all-railway version of the popular Behind The Scenes visit.

Weds 22nd / Thurs 23rd - Still thinking

Blog titles can drop into place while you are still taking the day's photos. At other times you finish the posting and then spend many minutes trying to think up something suitable. Today is one of them.

Wednesday

Thanks again to Gerry for Wednesday's photos.

Ken continues the preparation of the main connection plate for the south end of BSK 35308. Each mount point has been reamed out and rethreaded and new bolts inserted.

An overall coating of Green Anti-corrosive Primer is now added.

The droplight guides for the Malvern side guards door from 35308 are being reinstated by Trevor.

Ben and Trevor are now replacing the individual planks on the lower part of the door.

Jim will be rebuilding the doors for the Mink D van. This looks like a trial piece to check methods.

Rex is fitting the newly repainted grab handles on the Weed Spraying Wagon. This wagon was later shunted out to the yard.

Nick is creating a new section of radiator pipe for the GW Inspection Saloon.

Also working on the Saloon is Ken fixing new brackets underneath for the steam heating.

Neil and Simon are preparing more wood strips for the kitchen rebuild in the Saloon.

Shunting in progress and a warm welcome to our new 03 D2069. It makes our existing 03 look very woebegone (a much needed repaint will be done when we have a few spare moments). It's good to have two shunters again as this will make some of our shunting very much easier.

Just look at that sky! The glorious weather is supposed to continue for a while yet.

***************

Thursday

Now on to the next day which was once again with a smallish attendance of just 14. This seems to be the norm now for this day. Wednesdays and Saturdays now have the best attendances.

Gerry had reported that Stu had been shunting and there had been a previous mention of SK 25451 being next in the Works. And that is exactly what had happened with the coach replacing the Weed Spraying Wagon and the BR Vanfit on the Barn through road. Before we started our work for the day, Tim and I went to have a look at it. 25451 will be the next coach to go into Crimson & Cream and enable us to have a full rake in this livery.

The Indoor Gang started their day doing toilet tank tests on both SO 4798 and 25451.

[Photo : Roger]  Roger caught me taking the previous photo.

[Photo : Roger] After filling the water tank in 25451, Alan removed the light fitting to check for any water leaks to save having to remove the ceiling. All was still dry after an hour or more, which is very good news.

Now on to SO 4798 and the day's progress. The main job was to flat the undercoat on the Malvern side of the coach. With Phil on the electric pad sander working on the cream and Tim on the air sander working on the grey, both using 240 paper, a good job was made.

Tim goes back over the grey to finish off any bits needing a little more work.

With everything wiped over, Phil begins top coating the gutter panel from the north end, eventually getting as far as the centre door. You have to be careful painting gutters as they are very prone to runs, both on the gutter side with the paint collecting along the top edge and collecting underneath, so not a job to rush.

There's always one door that gets left behind and this time it's the one at the north end. With the strap bolts knocked out, the door could be fully opened and Tim could get wood primer on the new door liner. It will probably need some filler before we can undercoat the frame. We need to crack on with this door so that it can catch up with the rest.

Jeff added further Undercoat White to the inside of the Cotswold side battery box. Painting the insides white makes it a lot better for anyone changing the wiring, connections, and batteries.

On the Malvern side Derek is repairing the front of the battery box base, which had rotted very badly (it literally crumbled when checked).

The cover for that box is similarly in a bad way, so Derek continues the repair he started last week.

Back to the other side where Jeff is now top coating the inner side of the cover, which had also been repaired by Derek.

Inside the centre vestibule Steven had built the basic structures of the two new cupboards, one on each side, using the veneered plyboard that had previously been stained and varnished.

Meanwhile four more pieces of veneered plyboard are being stained and varnished, from which Steven will make the cupboard doors. 4798 will largely replace FO 3132 as the coach that is used for the very popular Afternoon Teas, the latter then just being used if there is an overspill.

Bob completed the sanding on the south connection door and then top coated it.

The connection sliding door at the north end was also top coated.

The cover made by John S. for the roller cogs, which had been painted with Distant Blue top coat, was mounted and secured in place.

The hydraulic mechanism for controlling the braking for the Weed Spraying wagon.

As previously stated we are making the most of the temporary midweek arrangements while the slip between Bishops Cleeve and Gotherington is being repaired. It's rather novel having all the extra engine movements at Winchcombe, and Phil, Jeff and Bob watch as Betton Grange runs round ready for the return to Toddington and Broadway.

[Photo : Roger]  Betton Grange pulls away strongly past the Barn and yard with the return train.

The Grange comes by before running back to hook on to the last train of the day. Train running had been changed to Platform 2 owing to a signal problem at the south end of Platform 1.