Saturday 1st - All change

 A very busy Saturday with a lot going on.

The main job of the day was the shunt.  Newly refurbished SO 4798 would be moved out of the Paintshop and onto the Barn jack road, and a number of other changes made. Both 03 shunters would be needed.

BSK 35308 in the Workshop is prepared for removal.

The GW Inspection Saloon is removed from the jack road by D2069 (the smart one).

SK 25451 is next out with D2182 (the scruffy one) pulling.

25451 will end up in the Paintshop.

 

Richard and Dave have a break before resuming the sweeping up.

With the jack road tidied up and D2069 moving into the Workshop, sweeping up can briefly continue.

D2069 emerges with SK 35308 and the Mink D van.

SO 4798 emerges into daylight looking very different from when it first came into the Works.

Just look at the reflection in the brown panel as Andy walks past, guiding the coach safely on to the jack road.

With 4708 now nicely berthed, D2182 will be uncoupled ready for the next move.

A pause while 26043 passes with Rake 2.

Back to the shunting with SK 25451 being slowly moved into the Paintshop.

In the Workshop, hello stranger! TSO 4867, the Quainton Road coach, is now coming in to get going properly on its restoration. The coach briefly entered the Barn several years ago for some urgent repairs to the south end, while when outside some internal work was done. It will be good to get going properly on this coach and get another TSO into our running rakes. I have no idea if a livery has been planned yet. It won't be maroon - my guess is chocolate and cream.

For a change I joined Maurice, Rose and Scouse with their morning break outside the Coffee Pot Cafe on Platform 1. The toasted teacake with strawberry jam was very welcome.

While there 55003 drifted into Platform 2 in its guise as "The Bubble Shuttle"

Now this is most definitely a first! The two 03s side by side in the Barn entrance .......

...... and three of the shunting crew, Clive, Andy and Ian, happy to be photographed.

A little later on and the Inspection Saloon is now stabled in the Barn with the south end just inside the Workshop.

BSK 35308 is temporarily stabled just inside the Barn before being moved out completely. I will check on Tuesday, but I think 35308 eventually ended up in one of the inner sidings in the south yard.

D2182 now clears the Works siding of the BR goods vehicles.

I didn't stop to see where they were going to be stabled, but we were in for a nice surprise.

Jenny and I went in search of the Grundon bin and eventually found it over Rose's garden. Carol and Jane were removing the old moquette and horsehair stuffing from some of the seats from TSO 4867.

Carol sprays the wire inners to eradicate the moths found inside each.

Carol was on her own during the afternoon, but was busy making new cushion covers.. Our cushions are incredibly popular and even more so when they can be bought in pairs.

 This looks like the chair that Mick was repairing in Wednesday's posting.

Station sandwich boards, the frames of which are being topcoated by Maurice. The left is destined for Broadway, hence in Dark Stone; the right for Winchcombe, hence in Dark Brown.

Jenny once again gives our Mess Room a good vacuuming and clean. Thanks Jen!

 

We have already made a good start on 25451's refurbishment, with metalwork repairs compeleted and a degree of sanding down and filler repairs started. Now that 25451 is in the Paintshop, we will be cracking on with the job as quickly as we can. This coach will be the seventh and (for now) final coach in our crimson & Cream rake.

Graham has done a fantastic job on the Cotswold side since the coach came in, not only sanding down much of the fibre paste on the rivet line, but covering this with broad sweeps of ordinary filler. Other areas have also been filled ready for sanding.

A good start has also been made on TSO 4867 at the north end with Ken clearing out the rotten wood connection supports with a crowbar.

James had also been busy cutting out the bottom section to expose the badly worn connection suport pillars.

The base plate may also be removed if found when cleaned up to be too corroded. 

TSO 4790 had been removed from the north end of Rake 2 with a partially-binding brake at the north end. This was resolved and the coach made ready for the returning Rake 2.

With the train in Platform 1, 4790 is propelled towards it by D2069 and reconnected.

When not being a photo journalist and chasing about with other things, I continued preparing the parking restriction sandwich board for the front of RCS's container. Still some more painting to do and of course the laminated notice.

While locking up for the day, a quick photo of 4798 on the jack road. Shouldn't be long now before the coach joins Rake 1.

Steps are in place by TSO 4867 where the latest batch of seats have been removed.

So this is where the BR freight ended up. 

This all makes a nice scene in the goods office sidings.

Tue 28th - Thur 30th - After the gala

With the very successful Diesel Gala over, it's back to almost normal working. Our attendance continues to be very variable, but the jobs continue to progess even with the lower numbers.

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Tuesday

With the gala over it was time to clear up. Some stands had been brought in and barriers cleared away at the end of Sunday, but there was still a lot to do. First off was the viewing area with Maurice kindly lending a hand.

Maurice and Richard watch the first train come by with D6948 in charge. We are diesel running full time now with the weather continuing to remain dry.

It's fun getting the large banner down from the side of the Works. Maurice does the gathering while I'm leaping up and down the ladder unhooking. Make a mental note: a couple of the hooks need fresh rawl plugs.

The carefully rolled up banner and large direction stand are stored in a van. On the way back to the Works, a quick photo of Rose's pretty display at the end of that siding.

It took me much of the morning clearing all the gala display and other bits and returning it all to the storage rack. Some bits might be needed for the Model Railway weekend at the end of September, but otherwise that's it until the Mixed Traffic gala in October.

Now on to today's jobs. 

Chris and Robert are back on the complex door liner for BSK 35308. 

The metal frame has been marked with white undercoat. In turn this will help indicate where raised sections on the liner need to be trimmed.

Much of the day's activity was centred on SK 25451, with David, Richard, and Roger on the Cotswold side and Ian on the Malvern side. Richard worked on the south doorway and door edges - an important job. Ian continued the removal of the old lines, also important, especially the lower triple band.

Roger went along the cleaned out and primed rivet line with fibre paste. It's tricky stuff to apply and takes quite a bit of sanding, but it is waterproof and ideal for this particular job.

David began with some general sanding down of the body side. In general the metal panelling is in relatively good condition with little filler required, the exception being the three underwindow areas where the frames had been removed to insert new sheet metal. 

Later on David began sanding down the rock hard fibre paste.

Stu was working in the rebuilt kitchen, initially hand sanding the work tops. The initial coat of varnish on all the hardwood areas - shelves and supports, doors, boxed in pipework - was lightly sanded and then a second coat applied. We will give all this a third coat.

The new panel in the corridor was given it's first coat of varnish. This will also have three.

Some of the old panelling needs to be cleaned up and revarnished. Note the bad area on the right hand side of the photo.

More top coating on the Mink D van by Maurice.

Paul re-whitens the brake handles.

[Photo : Paul]  Maurice undercoated the prepared roof battens.

The new roof canvas has been delivered and should soon be going on. New tins of the very hard wearing fibre paint are also now available for coating the canvas.

47105 makes a splendid sight at the head of a (apologies as I am head of the Painting Team, but I have to say it) splendid 6 coach crimson & cream rake. 

[Photo taken on Thursday]  We had a lot of nice comments about this during the gala. SK 25451 when ready will make the seventh and final coach in this rake. Roll on!

D6948 arrives with Rake 1 and its second round trip of the day. 

It shouldn't be long now before our gleaming SO 4798 "Christine" can replace the very faded SO 4787 at the north end of Rake 1.

While we are anxious to repaint our faded coaches, most of these are still very nice on the inside. This is the interior of 4787.

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Wednesday

Another fine set of photos taken by Gerry.

Ceri, Eve, and Laura are busy re-covering another bench seat from SK 25451. Spare moquette is used for the back, hidden section.

Ben and Ainsley are stripping a door in preparation for fitting a new skin.

This chair was left in the lobby. It has been taken into the Woodwork shop and is now being stripped down by Mick for repair.

Simon is altering the workbench for the new saw.

Ken is installing a new vice in the Workshop.

Nick is fabricating some hooks for the outside of the Weed Spraying wagon.

An example is shown above.

The hooks when attached along the sides of the wagon will enable protective tarpiaulins to be attached for when the wagon isn't in use.

With the hooks welded on, Rex, Tony and Gerry set about mounting the first tarpaulin on the Malvern side of the van.

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Thursday

Phil checks the battery boxes on both sides of SK 25451, ........

........ while Rod works on the Cotswold side rivet line which has now received fibre paste.

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A brief interlude showing SK 25451 when it was last refurbished.

23rd July 2016  - That gleaming corridor with multiple coats of varnish - we must make sure it is like this again.

1st September 2016 - 25451 emerges with its refurbishment complete. Maroon looks good when it's new.

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Now back to today.

Alan returning the top section of a door back to FK 13326 in Rake 3 which the Indoor Gang are sweeping through ready for the weekend.

[Photo : Roger]  Alan refits the panel.

[Photo : Roger]

[Photo : Roger]  Geoff looks on. These can be tricky things to fit and get right.

Dave busy doing some more general early work on another of our three recent aquisitions - TSO 3961.

Very much a one-man band effort on the Shark ballast plough repairs, Derek primes some of his internal repairs.

A fair bit of repairs work is needed on some of the external planking.

Our Catering Department are forever having cars parked in front of their container access doors despite the area being marked with a cone. The cone has now been driven over (you really couldn't make it up!). Enough is enough, so we are now going to provide then with a sandwich board with appropriate polite request. One of our gala display stands tidied up and painted will suffice as we won't need a replacement until October.

The clouds were beginning to darken and gather. A nice bit of rain to come? Some hope! It all cleared away.

It's always a treat to see former members of the Department when they are able to visit, and Ron Woodruff is no exception. The original Indoor Gang began with Ron and Rog (Whicker), so it was good that Alan was also in to meet him today as he joined them then. Ron was also a TTI and rose to become a Guard and eventually a Guards Inspector. Ron had to leave when his wife who is a vicar was transferred to West Sussex.

Some happy memories

22nd December 2011   Ron as Santa

 

9th January 2015   Working at the Paintshop trestles.

6th July 2017  Ron's last day. Working with Alan on some windowframe repairs.

Please visit us again Ron. It will be great to see you.

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Back to the present with today being the final one for our visiting Hymek. All our diesels are blue with the exception of D6948 and the Bubblecar 55003, so it's nice to see two green ones together.

The Hymek on a southbound run with D6948 on the northbound.

Nice to catch them both on the reverse.