Saturday 29th - We're back in steam

Another day with a good spell of rain. Great to see and that means, like many of our fellow railways, we are back to steam running again with both the 2-8-0s in action.

We had another well attended day with about 23 signing in, which now appears to be a regular occurrence for a Saturday and with all the different aspects taking place.

Maurice and Paul were busy cleaning the underside of the Mink D van.

This included the wheels.

[Photo : Paul E.]

The cleaned up valves now top coated.

We had a good team working on SK 25451 today, beginning with Martin finishing off the preparation on the Cotswold side south door.

Graham continued with some fairly hefty filling, gradually working along the south half of the same side. It's amazing how much still needs to be done.

The Malvern side isn't anything like as intensive. Bob cleans up some of the window frames.

Further along Ian was working his way towards the centre and checking that any filled areas have been thoroughly sanded.

Finally, the beginnings of some greying up with Martin painting the door and frame edges. I need to give this side a thorough check on Tuesday to see if we can start base coating.

Andy is replacing more corroded underwindow panelling on TSO 4867.

Moving back to take in all the windows that have now been removed and cleaned up, and underlying panelling repaired where needed.

Andy has now welded in the new metal and is cleaning up the welds.

Dave has been driven in from his work on TSO 3961 by the weather, so has moved on to digging out 4867's Cotswold side rivet line. This is all useful work removing the old cracking filler.

Underneath 4867 John is working on the vacuum system DA valve.

James is back on the extensive north end repairs.

Half of the corroded baseplate and the bases of the associated connection support pillars have been replaced.

Andy, Clive and Tony in discussion while waiting for Stu to fire up the 03.

TSO 4406 is being brought back into the Barn, but not for continuing work. 

Bogies were being brought round from the Works siding and into the Barn jack road.

I believe a wheelset on one of them is being replaced to remove a flat.

Phil cleans up part of an electrical connection.

Jenny said she wasn't bothered about having her photo taken, but I said that her cleaning is just as important as anything else going on.

It was just Laura today in Upholstery, making more of the very good quality bags. These have become very popular and sell well.

Alongside all this is the ongoing refurbishment of some of the bench seats from BSK 35308, which a while ago had been in the Workshop undergoing metalwork repairs. Pressure of other work has meant 35308 is back outside, but it is destined to be brought back in and is probably going to replace BSO 9000 in Rake 1.

Alex finishes his signwritten sandwich boards, this one in Dark Stone for Toddington. Out of sight behind him is the other in Dark Brown for Broadway.

Finally, thank you Malcolm in Ontario for your very detailed comment on electric train heating. As I run the Painting & Prep team, I am afraid I am not into coach electrics, so when doing the blog all I can do is report the information I am given. Gerry took those particular photos so I wasn't there to be able to gather more information.

Weds 26th / Thurs 27th - By heck it rained!

Wednesday

A large number of photos from Gerry today. Wednesdays continue to be very well attended and, bearing in mind the variety and timing of some of the work, it's often not possible to capture everything going on. Even so there is a fair representation of what was happening.

Bob, with help from Nick, calibrates the Weed Spraying wagon ready for its first use in September.

Our Upholstery team took advantage of the dry weather and cleaned up the stripped seat bases from TSO 4867 outside.

Nick repairing one of the seat frames. Any suspect frames are being rewelded.

Photo taken by me on Thursday showing the accumulating pile of prepared seat bases in the Upholstery shop.

Nick and Bryan doing more underframe repairs to the windows on the Cotswold side of 4867.

Two of the repaired windows. Lots of levelling off to do by the Painting and Prep team when 4867 eventually comes into the Paintshop.

Neil and Simon are replacing the floor where needed inside 4867.

Jim is replacing the joints on the Mink D doors.

Stu helps Jim set up the morticer.

Ainsley is working on one of two doors which I believe will be destined for TSO 3961. I like the wooden framed doors as I think many of us do.

Ken is removing the HVA (high voltage adaptor) equipment which reduces the electrical current from 750 volts and is used in the electrical heating in coaches.

[Photo taken by me on Thursday]. The unit was removed from the damaged coach BFK 14026 which we have bought for spares.

Now on to TSO 4867 and removal of the HVA equipment there.

The removed unit.

**************

Thursday

Well, we wanted rain and we certainly got it. It was a pleasure to drive in with steady rain falling, which had stopped by the time I reached Winchcombe and the Works. The day ended very differently.

It's good to see puddles again. Hopefully we will be able to return to running with steam again.

Five photos from Roger recording the replacement of a broken droplight on TSO 4614. Apparently it had occurred when the door was slammed too hard with the window half down. He and Alan had to do the repair while travelling on the train. In the last photo is the temporary "window" used to plug the gap when droplight breakages occur.

With Alan coming in again today, Stu T. brought TSO 4406 back into the Barn to enable more metalwork repairs to be done. The particular area being worked on today involved one of the doors and as such Alan is doing each hinge frame repair very carefully and one at a time. Shown is the replacement length of z bar with the top hinge welded in place.

The door area where Alan is working.

Taken later on the day with the repaired section in place.

A clearer view with the scoffold tower removed. The new section has been coated in green primer.

Moving to the GW Inspection Saloon kitchen, the smaller of the two kitchen lights was very nicely tidied up by Stu H. The metal part was given a coat of a mix of black and silver hammerite and now looks very smart.

Yet another coat of varnish for the shelf unit .....

...... and yet more Danish oil on the work tops, and do they look good! Next time Stu will add another coat and then repair some of the tile grouting.

Back into the yard for a photo of the Shark Ballast Plough with even more planking removed.

A general view towards the station.

Our newly refurbished SO 4798 washed clean of dust. It shouldn't be too much longer before this will join Rake 1.

Back inside the Workshop where the vacuum pump gently chugs away for a test of TSO 4768's braking system.

Phil services an electrical connection for one of our coaches in the Works.

It was just Richard and myself working on SK 25451 today. I'm thankful Richard had swapped days, otherwise I would have been it for the Painting and Prep team on this coach.  Bob didn't turn up - hope he's ok. We both worked on doorways, Richard at the south end of the Malvern side and me on the opposite side at the north end. It's a slow job all this but well worth it as all the doors close very well.

Ainsley was in again and continuing the rebuild of this door destined for TSO 3961. Here he is securing the base of the door skin to the wood frame.

It was nice to see the new Class 20 in action, looking very striking with the Crimson & Cream coaches in tow. I believe some issues have been resolved that means 20228 can now run on its own.

With Rake 1 was D6948.

It was good to get Rod's photo in place on our Memorial Wall.

Late in the afternoon the rain returned, but not the steady gentle variety. This was a full on cloud burst with accompanying thunder. Wherever you were you were trapped.

It eventually stopped and the others left. I should also have made a bid for freedom then, but wanted to hang on for a bit longer. Another deluge occurred and all I could do was wait it out, otherwise I would have been soaked through in seconds.

It was all very localised. Within a mile of leaving Winchcombe the roads were dry with just remnants of this morning's rain. It was the same  through Cheltenham and all the way back to my home near Stroud.