Tuesday 18th - Thankfully cooler

With temperatures feeling more like normal, we all feel a lot better and our various jobs seem easier to tackle. There's even the promise of some overnight rain, though it will only be light.

The first train of the day hauled by 24081 approaches the token exchange.

A brief catch up of some of Saturday's metalwork repairs on TSO 4867.

Investigation shows that this window doesn't need to come out. 

Somewhat warped from the corrosion, this capping strip will need removing and new sheet metal inserted.

James, having completed the righthand of the two windows, has moved onto the left and is removing further corroded metal.

With that job done it's now back to the north end and repairs to the Malvern side door frame. With a length of metal bar clamped on to the metal sheet to act as a guide, James proceeds to plasma cut the thin length needed for the repair shown below.

A general view of the cleared south end of 4867.

It's a very different story onboard the GW Inspection Saloon where Stu is carefully applying the wood dye to the new panel under the kitchen window.

The front of the shelving has been given another light sand for yet another coat of varnish, while the interior has also been dyed.

Some further light sanding of the back of the work top.

In the yard Dave is cleaning out the rivet line on the Cotswold side of TSO 4406. 

Later on some further general sanding on the Malvern side.

With SO 4798 now out in the yard, a photo is needed, but first the trains have to pass. 47376 with Rake 2 is nicely reflected in the new paintwork on 4798.

Richard has swapped his Tuesday in the Paintshop with an RCS turn in RMB 1876.

24081 passes 4798 with Rake 1 on the return to Toddington and on to Broadway.

With the trains gone it's now safe to cross the running line to get the photo of 4798.

Scouse was coming in on the train today so the next port of call was the station and the Coffee Pot cafe, where Phil and Maurice have joined him for the 1100 break. I was offered a cake but politely refused as I needed to get back to the Mess Room for my own tea.

The buddleia on Platform 1 has put on a lovely display despite the drought, but there were no butterflies.

Earlier on I caught Maurice rebolting the heavy iron roof section to the south end of the Mink D van.

Scouse has put his "requirements" for the use of the Paintshop tower by anyone else. The Wagon team aren't in on Thursday so it may be temporarily reclaimed for roof work on SK 25451. Better get some bottles of Peroni !

The roof canvas still needs trimming and battens nailed on, but the roof painting with Evercryl can go ahead.

SK 25451 is looking more like a camoflaged coach by the day as Ian slowly works his way along the upper half of the Malvern side.

For David, and occasionally me, it was adding a lot more filler on the Cotswold side. 

Having already photo'd Richard in the RMB passing by earlier in the day, I took the opportunity to grab a close-up photo of Richard and wife Chris while Rake 2 was in the station. 

Monday 17th - Yet Another Surprise.

 As a freight was taking the Broadway platform 2 building up to Broadway I confidently expected rake 1 in P2, and only 6 carriages because the buffet car is out for communications mods. (To make the card machine work). Instead I found 7 coach rake 2 in P2.

We pass Broadway station on our way in and it was a hive of activity. Huge crane in the forecourt, people on the building roof and lots of cars parked down the driveway.

So a chance to photo the team before I did a bit of vacuuming and spot mopping.

Greg

John S and Long Tall Steve.

Nigel

Jane

David, Peter, Chris and Tim

Lynn (toilet monitor as John M got the boiler service man in) and Kath

And that was it. Weather permitting this week it is Teddy Bear Thursday, last one for this year.

Weds 12th / Thurs 13th - Horribly hot

Well done to the Wednesdays for continuing as they did. On Thursday with the temperature eventually hitting 36C (my car while parked registered 37C), there were just 7 of us in, dropping to just 3 by mid afternoon.

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Wednesday

Thank you Gerry for the photos.

Beginning with Jim measuring up for the door corner joints on the Mink D van.

All remaining photos are of the activities on TSO 4867.

Ken and Simon discussing the fitting of wood battens for fixing radiator covers.

Simon is removing material with respect to the widening of the south end doorways in preparation for wheelchair access.

Bob and Bryan preparing one of the Cotswold side windows ready for removal.

Now outside on the scaffold, the extent of the corrosion under the windowframe corner can be clearly seen. The screw locations in the windowframe have been cleared of paint and filler.

The centre window has been removed, with the far one being prepared. Note the paint cleared away under the nearby window to check for suspected corrosion.

[I will take some photos of the bad areas on Saturday - Dave C]

Ken begins working on the north end connection.

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Thursday

Sorry, no photos were taken. As previously stated there were just seven of us in, and by mid afternoon just 3..

With the day's trains cancelled because of the excessive heat, the opportunity was taken to bring RBr 1675 down from Toddington to have a new system installed to enable more reliable use of the card machine. While in the yard Roger, Alan and Jeff did a number of small jobs on board.

Derek did some further work on the repairs to the Shark Ballast plough.

Roger and I, with our PASMA hats on, dismantled the remaining large tower in the Barn and transported it to the Workshop, where it was rebuilt next to the Mink D van ready for Saturday's reroofing. The tower originally in place is now being used for window removal on TSO 4867.

The reason I had come in (all the other members of the Painting team were staying away and I don't blame them) was to see a demonstration of some better sanding equipment. In effect this ended up being resheduled to next Thursday. However I did have a grand bin emptying session throughout the Works and a general tidy up in the Paintshop. After that a bit of sanding and filling, done somewhat halfheartedly to say the least! Even the Paintshop, which can remain cooler because of the insulation, was becoming unpleasant. The Barn was like a greenhouse.

We left not long after 3.

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And finally: -

Some more goodies on Wednesday's eclipse from the astronomer Wayne Young.

Taken through Wayne's large telescope, the image shows the texture of the surface of the sun,  sunspots, and if studied carefully the terrain on the Moon along the silhouetted edge.

The above is a graph of the temperature on Minchinhampton Common taken during the eclipse showing both sun and shade readings.

Finally a time lapse video made through the large telescope of the whole eclipse.

Thank you Wayne for allowing all this to be published.

Tuesday 11th - Back on the roof

Another hot day with the next two days getting even hotter. Thursday running has been completely cancelled because of it and yet another day lost. Wretched weather - roll on Autumn!

The first day on the roof of SK 25451. Phil made a good start on cleaning up a fair bit of the south end. Overall the condition is pretty good.

[Photo : Phil J]

More good progress on the sides with David doing some filling on the Malvern side north end and then later some more general sanding down.

Ian continued his general sanding with the circular sander and completed the Cotswold side. He then joined David on the Malvern side.

A good vac round afterwards makes a world of difference.

Also having a good general vac round in the Woodwork shop was Robert.

The new kitchen in the GW Inspection Saloon is looking better by the day. Stu top coated the ceiling and then gave the shelves and cupboard doors yet another coat of varnish. The new corridor panel was similarly recoated.

Phil has now rigged up a light in the opened out south vestibule in TSO 4867.

All the spring clips from the Mink D van now totally cleaned up and top coated by Maurice.

As are all the roof battens. The roof canvas should be being installed this coming Saturday.

Dave primes more cleared areas of paintwork on TSO 4406.

Jeff brings another visitor on a tour of the Works.

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Finally, many thanks to Malcolm in Ontario for the very comprehensive explanations of the corrosion problems BR had with the Mk1s and the solutions to try and eradicate them. The worst places we find are the corners and the recent photo I took of the Malvern side south corner of TSO 4406, which I have shown again below, really demonstrates this.

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The Partial Eclipse - Wednesday 12th August

Now to jump to Wednesday evening and the 93% partial eclipse.

The venue for very many people, and where I ended up, was Minchinhampton Common, Gloucestershire, which is not far from my home.

Astronomer Wayne has some serious equipment. The large telescope was being used to make a recording that would show the moon's crossing in 3 minute intervals and make an excellent video.

The smaller telescope was for direct observation Obviously both had filters for safe viewing.

All this equipment naturally caused lots of interest and a number of people came over to have a look for themselves.

Louise had made two pinhole cameras out of box lids which, although producing a tiny result, were nevertheless very effective.

Fun could be had with a colander held high and directed onto a white board to produce a myriad of eclipsed suns.

By now the light level had decreased significantly.

Several of us had a go at trying to get a photo through the small telescope. It was quite difficult but I was lucky! 

Overall a lovely evening enjoyed by very many people. Minchinhampton Common is very spacious with big skies. And there was a cooling breeze too!