Tuesday 17th - Very productive and a very welcome arrival

Most of our days are productive, but occasionally along comes one where we feel that we have really made some strides forward. Today felt very much like that.

Four steps had been made by Steven for the Mink D out of cedar and awaited some further fettling to complete them.

The job was completed by Robert to round them off and do the cutout on the one above. The fourth also had a cutout put in.

Meanwhile Paul and Maurice continued mounting more of the painted planks on the Malvern side of the van.

Then it was back to the drilling and bang-bang-bang to locate the bolts before adding each nut in turn.

In quieter mode Maurice undercoats more primed planks.

Paul hand sands the new steps to finish them off. More priming and painting will be soon underway.

The ordered marmoleum had arrived so Bob and Pete were able to return to begin laying the rest of the flooring in RMB 1876. A lot of space is needed, especially when the first main run is the full length of the north compartment.

Brown paper patterns made on the spot are vital for this job.

Pete carefully cuts the length in the marked out shape.

Taken at the end of the day with the main areas fitted. Above looking south and below the opposite direction.

I didn't see them go, but I expect they will be completing the job on Wednesday.

We were very pleased to see Keith back for a visit following his health problem. He plans to be back on his regular Tuesday turn in two weeks time.

Also back is Ian. He returned two weeks ago after a long spell away, only to go down with a bug a week later. Thankfully he is fine again and very keen to get stuck in on the solebar, headstock and underframe work he enjoys doing. Nearly all the Malvern side was cleaned up and painted in Black MIO.

Next the headstocks, starting with the south end. You never know just how far to go with these. There is so much that could be done, but when looking at the oily mucky state of some of it, you have to ask how much do you sensibly do. With 1876 Ian kept to just the main visible parts.

Richard highlights the lettering on the first of the two gas bottle container covers.

Earlier on he tidied up the side of doorway at the Malvern side north end where we had difficulty securing the rubber draught seal.

Alex catches up with the remaining signwriting on 1876 - the Emergency Lighting Point and the stars indicating the positions of the vacuum cylinder pull strings.

The floor track for the servery sliding door in 1876 seems to have gone missing. I found this track in our spares and Richard is now cleaning it up. It will probably need cutting to size.

On now to SO 4798 where the first chalked zone (Zone 1) has been greyed up. Zone 2 is ready, so Stu finishes off the prep in Zone 3.

Returning later with Ainsley now painting the Light Grey undercoat on Zone 0. Stu has painted Zone 2 and is now working on Zone 3.

Hey, this is looking great!

After so long in a confusing state of preparation, it's good to see almost all of the south half of the Cotswold side now with its first coat of grey.  Besides some windows to catch up with, the next stage is to go over the areas needing further filling.  Also of course we will continue with the Cotswold side and get more zones completed and greyed.

4798 will go into the Paintshop when RMB 1876 is completed and goes into Rake 2.

The end of a busy day. Robert enjoys a light tea before leaving for his 80 mile drive back to Pontypridd.

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A very welcome addition to the GWSR which arrived at Toddington during the day is a Great Western designed BR built Inspection Saloon. It was formerly based on the Llangollen Railway and is privately owned. Once we have completed anything that needs to be done, it will be available for private hire bookings.

All the photos were taken by Alex.

Monday 16th - An Early Start

 To the season. Running for February half term, first time since 2013. And we had 16 of 17 volunteers. With just the one rake it was almost all done by tea break. So opportunity for me to photo most of the team.

Rich

Greg and Lynn

Val

John S (knee replacement having worked wonders)

Long Tall Steve

Kath

Nigel

Tim, Chris, Peter, David

I wonder how long this had been there? (Hiding on the floor, not here all the time!)

Escaping the camera were Jane, John M and Roger C.

Back next week then not until March 16th as Race Trains are running after the first normal running weekend, so contract cleaners come in.

Saturday 14th - Oh happy dayyyy, oh happy dayyyy ...

Yes. Happy day, the sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. A rare treat

Two photos from Paul W, , with Paul himself washing TSO 5023. 

It was good to see the Youth Group in again, under the supervision of Alex and Richard S.

Some good progress was made with painting various areas of the Mink D van. While Richard looks after the far group, nearby Alex was explaining an aspect of the underframe.

Ed from Didcot was back in again and sanding down another of the large steps from the Mink D.

The step now primed, with the original two steps now undercoated.

Maurice adds green primer to the many nuts and bolts.

Later priming whatever this is, which has been sat on the paint trestles for a while.

Jenny, having cleaned the windows on the Cotswold side of RMB 1876 last week, moved round to the Malvern side. The Mess Room bell has just rung hence no Jenny, just her gloves resting on a step.

Simon did some very good work today in 1876 getting the two compartment doors and the very heavy connection slider back into place.

This is the door to the north end compartment.

The door to the south vestibule.

The connection slider took quite an effort to reinstate and Simon is to be congratulated for getting this done. It will need some adjustment to ensure it closes correctly.

Robert fitting more draught excluder. This in itself can be a tricky job as occasionally a nail or screw will find nothing to bite into or hit an obstruction.

The ceilings in the toilet compartments still need to be top coated but with Simon fitting the compartment sliding door, Bob instead moved to the store cupboard to do more painting and varnishing. I captured him finishing off the undercoating of the painted section of the outer wall.

He also top coated the outside of the servery door.

In Upholstery Peter and Jane are creating more curtains for SO 4798, ..........

........ while Laura and Carol are cutting out the side pieces for the DMU seat head rests. The photo below shows one in place.

John is making more metal parts for new vacuum cylinder sleeves.

John making more recordings for SO 4790 which is still on the jack road.

Andy collects the leaf spring clamp which had been used to adjust the tension of the springs and enable the correct ride height of 4790 to be achieved.

TSO 25488 had been brought to the pit area and given a steam heating test. Leaks were found and will need to be dealt with.

There is a real feel good feeling when the light grey undercoat begins to go on after months of bodyside preparation, though in the case of SO 4798 this has been very sporadic because of other priorities and as such seems to have been going on forever. Now happy with the preparation in the first of the recently marked out zones, Richard takes on the painting of Zone 1. Zone 2 is also ready so we can also get that done. Zone 3 will be next to be checked. Now at last we will be able to know how we are progressing.

Rose's efforts have not just been restricted to the greenhouse, gardening and her work with the FOWS Maintenance Dept. She has installed bird feeders by the greenhouse and regularly feeds the feathered visitors, including very friendly robins. That's a fine collection of birds listed.

Her spring plant trough looks lovely.