Tuesday 14th - Happy to help

Over the years our Woodwork shop has done a lot for other parts of the Railway and once again we have been asked for help.

Chris and Robert had a busy day creating all the planking needed for two new seats at Toddington to replace two that were beyond repair.

The cedar planks, having been put through the Wadkin saw to provides the required widths, were then sent through the planer-thicknesser to make them completely smooth.

They were then rounded off according to type and made ready for collection.

While in the Woodwork shop, a photo showing Simon's progress with the new kitchen unit for the GW Inspection saloon.

James' recently repaired door from BSK 35308 ready for reconstruction. 

With respect to the comment in the Saturday post, 35308 will be the brake coach for what could be a mini rake of up to four blue and grey coaches. This is only what I have heard. I don't know whether any decisions have yet been made as to which other coaches will be involved. As with 35308 all the initial repair work will have to fit in with our existing priorities.

A rather bleak outlook after the sunny weekend. The ballast train sits in the headshunt.

Dave continues his tidying up work on FO 3127.

Even with three of our Tuesday regulars away, we still had a good number in today.

[Photo : Paul E]  Rose appeared showing her green finger skills once again. Actually the flower didn't didn't have a nice smell, but attractive nevertheless and the pot now sits on our Mess Room windowsill. Thank you Rose ☺

She has made a lovely display below Bob Mac's memorial plaque. It's over a year now since we lost Bob.

As previously mentioned, the top planks for the Mink D van are quite a challenge to make fit. Chris provides some advice and help with the latest plank when being matched with the old one.

The work is now well underway.

[Photo : Paul E]  Maurice is catching up with the nuts and bolts painting.

For the Painting and Prep team it was another major effort on SO 4798. David begins undercoating the south end.

Phil made a start on cream undercoating the north end of the Malvern side.

With respect to completing the second coating of the Cotswold side of the roof, it turns out that it hadn't been finished as I originally thought. Ainsley soon remedied this and then took the scaffold round to the Malvern side to begin the second coat on that.

Phil now well into his undercoating. It's a treat when the colour begins to go on.

Keith lightly sands and then adds a second undercoat to the repaired cover for the Cotswold side battery box.

Derek has found some planks of suitable thickness to replace the badly worn top and bottom ones on the Malvern side battery box cover.

The Dark Grey undercoat continues to expand and now covers part of the connection interior. It's all beginning to look so much better.

Ainsley is also progressing well along the Malvern side of the roof.

Keith coats the Cotswold side sole bar on Gloss Black.

Almost done and looking so much better.

Job done! On Thursday the scaffold will be brought round to the end to finish off the roof and upper pipework, and above the connection.

Earlier in the day I sealed above the new section of gutter with fibre paste and underneath with paintable sealant. The line and vertical demarcation tapes were then put on to enable me to undercoat the gutter section on this part of the coach and David to complete his undercoating on the end.

Nice to see the Bubblecar out again. It does look a treat and very pleasant to travel in, as reported in the post for Saturday 28th March.

It should have be "Betton Grange" on Train 1 today but it failed and was replaced by 37215.

Monday 13th - Main Cleaning Season Has Started.

 Two rakes today so I started by taking photos and then to see where I was needed. First up is Lynn, John M and Greg.

If you look closely at Lynn's forehead you will see she has a nice zip arrangement. Follows a fall last week and an argument with the edge of a door. The door won. But she was still her usual smiling self with us today. Well done Lynn.

Next was Steve and Rich, catching up on the news in a corridor connection.

And then just a picture inside, 'cause I thought it looked good.

Jane trying to decide if the finger marks were inside or outside of the glass.

Nigel in the carriage under the bridge.

Tim, Chris, Peter and David.

John S and Ghostbuster.

Roger C and Val.

I did do something, in case you were wondering. On my trip through the train I found several areas that needed a mop, so it was up to the shed, collect the spot mop, and work my way through.

Only Kath escaped the camera (and yours truly of course), so 16 in today. We must be out of practice as 2 rakes left everyone k.....

A shout out to the gardening team - lovely show of tulips

And why did this appear on the unloading road during the morning?

Answer in the comments please!

Saturday 11th - Vintage

Events are certainly piling up this year. Having got Easter done and dusted, it is now the Vintage Weekend with all sorts of things going on. That didn't stop our Works being busy with 21 attending.

With another packed mess room, it was just as well we had all this lot to enjoy throughout the day! This included more yummy cakes made by Rose.

Starting off with more progress on the preparation of BSK 35308 for its eventual move to the Diesel shed for a repaint into blue and grey. Andy finishes off the current door under repair with some anglegrinding over the new central section.

And the next! Looks like my timing was spot on as Andy and James were manipulating the next door for repair and I was able to assist.

A quick move to the Cotswold side of 35308 as the door is slid out.

James makes a face through the droplight which roughly translated would probably say, "Never mind taking photos, how about lending a hand!".

Which of course I promptly did.

Later on Alan has assisted James with the careful folding of the two shaped sections to replace the corrosion at the base of the droplight frame.

Moving on to SO 4798 where Alan is sorting out the missing section of gutter at the south end of the Malvern side.

Holes are drilled through the new bit of gutter and in the replacement section of roof.

The new piece has been welded to the existing gutter and Alan now grinds the welds flat. The job will be completed with some sealant along both the top and underneath the new piece. We can now get the line and demarcation tapes on this part of the coach, and the painting in this area can then catch up with the rest of the coach.

Ainsley resumes the first top coat of Light Grey MIO along the Malvern side of the roof.

On the Cotswold side Bob has started the first top coat of GW Brown along the gutter section.

I meanwhile was further along the coach keying the undercoat. The final central section is still not in Cream undercoat so top coating had to end just prior to this part.

With his roof painting completed Ainsley moved on to window undercoating. We will be aiming to get the roof painting completed as soon as possible.

With the gutter panel painting completed as far as possible, Bob moved on to the Cream section, making a good start with top coating this.

It was to be a day of surprises and what a treat to have a visit from John Hill, our former head of Upholstery, here receiving a hug from Jenny, who of course was originally in the team. John says he regularly reads the blog to keep in touch with our progress.

In today's Upholstery the making of cushions, bags and spectacle cases is now a major industry where spells of intense working are necessary to maintain the supplies to our shops at Toddington and Broadway. Piles of precut moquette are ready to make cushions and bags. A bundle of bag handles sit ready on the right.

On a side table another pile of folded precut moquette ready for seat backs. As this moquette is Bournemouth Blue this will be for the NYMR DMU contract.

Laura is marking segments for both cushion backs and bag interiors.

We were visited today by a nice group from Birmingham Transport Museum led by John Mayall. Initially it was just going to be a walk through the Works, but in the end I was able to give them a proper tour and describe the many aspects of our work. Amazingly one of them was an old friend of Paul W., while another knew Stu when he was at Tyesley.

Maurice and Paul E. had a right royal battle with one particular plank today in the Mink D van.

All the top planks have been tricky to fit with the ribs of the roof requiring careful measurement for the cutouts.

One of the vacuum cyinders from the GW Inspection Saloon is being cleaned up by Clive using the tungsten carbide scraper.

The job completed with a coat of Black MIO.

In the Woodwork shop Simon is building a new unit for the kitchen in the Inspection Saloon.

New wall panelling gradually going up in the kitchen.

Chris prepares new wall panelling in both mahogany and sycamore veneer for the saloon's corridor .......

....... and then shows where it will be fitted.

Another section that needs replacing.

The new veneer panels with a first coat of varnish.

Despite occasional showers, even a brief one with hail, it was generally a sunny day.

James took photos of the Toddington - Winchcombe shuttle hauled by 24081 and one of the service trains hauled by 6880 "Betton Grange".