Monday 13th - Going Bionic

 Only 18°C in the morning, so we could clean in comfort. First up a new sight - Nigel had decided to take up Ghostbusting (and very welcome too).

Next I caught Nigel, Kath and Jane all working in the same carriage.

And finally new essential equipment for the train - fire beaters!

And Going Bionic? We already have one team member with a replacement hip and another with a replacement knee. In the queue we have another hip and two knees!

The rest of the team today was Chris, David, Greg, John M, John S, Lynn, Peter, Roger C, Steve, Tim and Val.

Saturday 11th - Finished? Not quite.

Apologies for the lengthy gap again with the blog posts. Gerry must still be away and a number of us didn't go in on both Wednesday and Thursday because of the heat.

Just when you think that our work on this coach must be about finished, BSK 35308 still keeps coming up with more to be repaired. Robert and Chris are sorting out a door liner for the Cotswold side luggage compartment.

Ken was later drilling holes for refitting the capping strip.

Some work will need to be done on the opposite liner as well.

In the Barn James is investigating the roof at the north end of SK 25451.

With the gutter removed the extent of the corrosion really shows up. The next section of gutter will also need to be taken off. Part of the passcomm equipment may also need removing if the corrosion has extended below the roof level, which seems likely judging by that vertical area with the paint removed.

General views of the roof indicate plenty of work needed to get this cleaned up and repainted.

Simon continues the boxing in of the plumbing in the GW Inspection Saloon's kitchen.

The part that Neil was recently working on.

The other end of the wall unit, and below Simon with what looks to be the cover for this.

It's Railway Headboard Weekend with a variety of headboards on display over the two days.  "The Cornishman" headboard looks great on "Betton Grange".

The Royal headboard on 3850.

Taking a break in the shade of the Paintshop and toilet block, and watching the trains.

Chris videos "The Cornishman" as it departs for Toddington.

[Photo : Paul W]  Phil rescued and released a dragonfly which had flown into the Coffee Pot Cafe. 

I was so busy chatting to Laura and Carol that I forgot to ask what they were making - bookmarks or keyrings, although Laura was using the cardboard as a template.

A nice row of the new doorstops.

Plenty of painting on the trestles for Ian. Derek's planks for more Shark repairs are being undercoated, and below a top coat of Exec Light Grey on the operating manual box for the Weed Spraying wagon.

There were also grab handles to paint black.

Inside the Mink D van Maurice continues the ceiling undercoating.

Paul prepares the primed roof battens for the various parts of the van, drilling the screw holes where needed and labelling each according to location.

Alex prepares his Mink D templates with French chalk ready to add the number and weight information to the Malvern side.

Now that mystery bit of cut wood which was on the trestles for quite a while. As requested it had been primed, undercoated and painted black. It turned out to be a replacement for one of the lifting sections of the Cotswold side footboard on the LMS Brakevan.

Now on the SO 4798 and the final day of varnishing. There were two remaining sections, one on each side.

Graham started on the top part, and once well enough ahead, was joined by Alex on the lower part.

Now for the Malvern side, with the same actions as the Cotswold side. Alex had other things planned but I am very grateful for his help today.

Graham then added a second coat to both sides of the connection at the south end. 

Yippee, that's it! 

We've finished the main external repaint.

Or so we thought.

On Thursday the Indoor Gang had added the fittings to the second of the two new cupboards in the central vestibule. I gave the tops and newly added side beading another coat of varnish.

A new and lengthy task is to clean up as much as possible the outer faces of the bogies and give each a coat of black MIO. Ian and Graham went round and vacuumed up all the dust, which made a surprising difference and made the bogies look a lot better than we thought would be the case.

As we were leaving the Paintshop to go up to the Mess Room, Alex spotted some scotch brite marks on the lower section of the north end door and the corner. The upper section looked ok, but somehow the lower had been missed. Alex quickly knocked up a thinned batch of varnish and soon sorted it out.

The heat waves have certainly held up the completion of SO 4798. By now we had hoped to have had all the Paintshop work finished and the coach in the Barn. With an official tour of the Works next Saturday and the Diesel Gala the weekend after that, it looks as though we will have to postpone the shunt for a couple of weeks. However it will create a very fine display for both the tour and our Gala visitors. The bogie clean up and painting will also be a lot easier to do here.

The End of Day Tea Club was in for another treat. There was a Fish ad Chip Special running this evening, so Rose nipped along to the station where all the cooking was taking place in the yard and ordered the portions. The Mess Room was still too warm for comfort, so we relocated to the Goods Office garden and sat under the oak tree. This time we had all the necessary condiments.

And then there was the view.

Tuesday 7th - Concentrated effort

With the temperatures steadily climbing again, the Paintshop and Workshop were relatively cooler than the rest of the Works, so work continued fairly unimpeded. Another run of 30 plus days are following so we will have to see how things go. All very annoying because we want to get SO 4798 into the Barn for some underframe work, and then of course added to Rake 1 to replace the very faded maroon coach currently there.

I missed Robert and Chris cutting the battens for the Mink D roof, but did capture Paul priming them. He then continued the internal ceiling painting.

On the Cotswold side of SO 4798 one section remains to have a second and final coat of varnish. Martin went over the area with scotch brite. 

Both ends needed a second coat of varnish, in particular to cover the coach data that Alex added on Saturday. Stu initially scotch brite'd both sides of the north end connection and after a wipeover ......

........ applied a coat of nicely thinned varnish.

Roger took care of the south end with the scotch brite. This took longer with all the passcom equipment to negotiate, so the varnishing will be done on another day. I missed him doing that but instead captured him doing some general paint snagging at both ends.

Phil sorted out the bolt holes for the six grab handles, ensuring bolts will fit correctly - it's frequently found when removing handles that the bolts are of varying lengths. He then fitted the handles where the varnishing had been completed, leaving just two to do.

Robert and Chris fitted the missing budget lock receptacle on the new door liner in the Malvern side north end doorway. One of those jobs that gets missed with everything else going on. Just a tiny bit of paint needed to tidy up and complete the job.

Richard did a number of outstanding jobs inside the coach. A few small jobs remain which hopefully will be done this coming weekend.

Ian also had a variety of painting jobs waiting on the trestles, including the modified top cover for the Malvern side battery box.

Two of the grab handles were oddities, so Phil dug out some from our stores that match the four reinstated ones. Ian and Roger proceeded to clean them up ready for painting.

We don't know who wrote this but it was done on either Sunday or Monday. Whoever it was, a hearty thank you from us all.