Back from an enjoyable week away and straight into a major highlight for Carriage & Wagon. Back in 2011 C & W was featured in an hour long programme on BBC Radio Gloucester. Now we are going to be on TV.
For three days last week the Railway was visited by the Button Down TV Production Company who are going to do a programme on the GWSR in the Steam Train Diary series. Activities at Toddington and aspects of the Railway in general were filmed.
Today it was going to be C & W's turn with the main feature being the Mink D van and Alex's excellent signwriting.
The completed programme will be shown on Channel 4 in the Autumn.
Filming began with Alex giving a general talk about both our work and in particular his signwriting.
During the day various members of today's team were included and other activities were filmed. One particular bit I missed capturing was the Wagon team being filmed hammering a roof plank into position - very noisy, but none the less impressive for the filming.
Alex begins with the van's weight details.
Then on to the van number. Richard was brought into the scene.
I missed Alex doing the large "G W" letters which are created with correctly sized hardboard templates.
Unfortunately not all the planned aspects could be covered in the time, but nevertheless it was a very enjoyable experience for us all and George (Georgina) and Doug did a really great job.
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While all this was happening, work for the day continued as normal.
As previously mentioned Maurice and Paul were installing a new roof plank on the edge of the Malvern side of the van.
Maurice initially wire brushes the top of the frame
Paul marks the positions of the holes. Some pre-drilling had been done - I'm assuming that the screwdriver in the background is holding the plank in place.
Maurice drills the plank through the holes in the frame.
The new edge plank for the other side of the roof is being prepared with the holes being predrilled. It was then primed ready for full painting. The underside of the original plank had been pre- primed, while the top side will be primed with the plank in place.
Much later on Paul was removing the old rusted bolts from the top of one of the door frames, initially with a cold chisel, but the anglegrinder was also needed.
More parts for the van were being cleaned up and primed by Ed. A novel way of transferring a freshly primed part.
Ed working on part of the brake mechanism.
On now to SO 4798. While I was away the Malvern side of the coach was second top coated, with the exception of most of the gutter panel. Stu soon sorted this out.
On the Cotswold side all main painting had been completed and line painting had been started.
Martin begins taping up the bottom line ready for painting the lower yellow band.
Having added the first coat up to where he had taped, he then restarted the taping ready for painting the next section. The vertical wire is so useful for hanging the tape rolls while moving the footstand along.
A quick catch-up on where we are with the toilet compartments in 4798.
On the Malvern side Stu is removing the lower line tape. The upper line tape will be removed on Thursday when the newly painted top panel will have dried nicely.
Time to resume work on the north end. Stu sands the undercoat on the Cotswold side of the connection.
Good progress on the Cotswold side with the lining out, but some way to go yet.
The typical festoon of used tape hangs on the steps as Richard tapes up the top line.
On the Malvern side David top coats in white the inside of the battery box. David asked whether this was done in BR days - a good question. It is certainly helpful to our electrical team whenever they are doing any work inside them.
Now on to the battery box cover for applying the undercoat Dark Grey.
Having sanded the Malvern side of the connection Stu wipes it over with thinners.
The Cotswold side now nicely painted in Black gloss.
Richard paints the yellow on the band I had taped up earlier. George filmed me marking out the tape line on this section - will it be included?
We always do a quick second coat of yellow, literally straight away after painting the initial coat. This gives the depth of colour required. Having done that Richard carefully removes the tapes. When lining out we leave the tape on for as little time as possible.
The Malvern side lower line all ready for painting. The demarcation tape at the coach end has also been removed - a new length of tape will be applied and the black completed.
Phil dismantles the tiny locking mechanism from the steps control on the GW Inspection Saloon.
An unpublished photo I took some weeks ago of Phil working on the steps mechanism. This is used to lower and raise the steps along the side of the saloon.
David primes the connection straps for the south end of BSK 35308.
The primer soon dried so the coat of Black Gloss could be added and as such they will be ready for Ken the next day.
Tony had a busy day initially cleaning out the gutter on the Cotswold side of the Inspection Saloon. He then coated the latest vacuum cylinder to be serviced with Black MIO.
Another catch-up on where we are with SK 25451. The main section of the Cotswold side rivet line has been cleaned out. James (or Alan?) has been busy with more roof repairs at the south end on the Cotswold side.
David takes a break to watch "Manston" set off with its first northbound train of the day.
The second time around I braved the rain to do a small montage of "Manston". I saw this engine in my trainspotting days - I wonder where it was?
Relaxing at the end of a very busy day. Tony, Alex and Ed watch the last train of the day as it heads for Cheltenham.
