Saturday 21st - The social side

It's not all work, work, work in C &W. We do have a good social side too, especially when there is a spell of good weather such as we are currently having.

A walk up to the station as the train is shortly due in and the promise of another fine day.

Paul and Dennis had already enjoyed their toasted teacake and were enjoying their tea. Rose had joined them, while Maurice was going to catch the train to meet Paul E (Scouse) at Cheltenham and travel back with him.

The first train of the day arrives behind 2807.

Back to the Works where James and John are continuing to reinstate the pipework for the toilet tank filling and passcomm equipment at the south end of SO 4798.

A new short length of pipe needs to be slightly bent. John inserts and carefully positions it in the bender.

The pipe bender is incredibly strong and it8 doesn't take much effort from John to do the job.

[Photo : Paul W]  James gives the thumbs up to Paul that all is well.

A photo taken at the end of the day with both pipes completed and secured in place.

We made some good progress with the bodyside preparation and undercoating. Phil is well into the Cotswold side top section with the Dark Grey undercoat. 

Graham finished sanding the Cotswold side north corner and then moved round to the Malvern side to tackle the large areas of filler.

A new tin of Undercoat Cream definitely needs some thinners and a splash of the Painters Friend conditioner.

Bob gets cracking with the Cream undercoat on the Cotswold side, but decides to stop and tape up the windows, which in turn will speed up his painting.

On the Malvern side the opposite is happening and it's the Light Grey undercoat that is swallowing up the old cream top coat.

Returning later and Bob has got a nice area of undercoat painted, while Phil is well down the coach and nearing the end of his run.

Graham has done a very good job getting all that lot nicely sanded down. All the dust was carefully swept up. A check to see that it's ok and then we need to get all this re-greyed.

With the top section completed Phil began undercoating the bottom panel. It's such a treat to see undercoat on 4798 after being so long looking a mess.⁹

The 1100 tea break had many of us abandoning the Mess Room in favour if the station, seats by the Barn, and our new place in Rose's garden. Peter and Jane had already chosen this venue and Rose and I joined them. Where has the table gone?

Tea over, so why not get some photos of Upholstery at work. Jane is busy sewing up another curtain destined for SO 4798.

Jane is sewing them, while Peter is bagging out them i.e. turning them from inside out

Carol is making another bag. We need to build up the supplies for the shops at Toddington and Broadway, and of course our online sales.

All ready for collection.

Hey, don't stand there watching - give us a hand!

On Thursday I sat at the table in Rose's garden and very soon decided that we needed to do something about its appalling state. So today Maurice brought it into the Paintshop and we proceeded to scrape off all the paint splashes and blobs.

[Photo : Robert]  Why were we working inside when we could just as well be outside enjoying the lovely day. The table was moved outside and then dismantled. This was followed by the lengthy clean up of the legs and central supports by Maurice and myself.

Job done so back into the Paintshop where we can coat the metal in primer and then top coat. It would look very nice in Dark Stone.

Lunchtime and we are back to the garden. In fact we ended up with all seats filled. Rose's garden is becoming popular!

The photos were taken just before we returned to work. There are longer term plans for the garden. An old very large tyre already has rhubarb growing and there is mention of potatoes and runner beans, and maybe even something to sell up at the station.

I only got one photo of the Mink D today. Paul was top coating the recently added planking at the north end.

[Photo : Paul W]  The water tanks for the toilet and kitchen in the GW Inspection Saloon were tested and everything checked out satisfactorily with no leaks. Phil S and Stu were able to successfully locate the valves and discharge points. 

[Photo : Paul W] 

[Photo : Paul E]  The south end of BSK 35308 with myself priming the bare metal ready for Ken to fit the wooden connection supports.

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A comment from Thursday's posting.

David PMarch 21, 2026 at 10:02 AM

Knowing how flimsy the weed sprayer jetting arms are, and seeing them folded away, I am wondering what precautions are being taken to prevent damage to the assembly from a dropped coupler when the wagon is to be coupled to a loco or other vehicle at the spray end. A deflector plate behind the lowered spray arms may be a wise move to avoid the arms getting bent should the ends catch something awry.

Bob S. who designed the spraying system replies:

As the wagon will not be coupled at the end with the booms fitted, there will not be a coupler there. The booms are fitted with break-back clutches protecting the booms and allow easy folding up of the booms when not in use. The complete boom mounting is also easily removable from the wagon to be stored safely away from the wagon when not in use.'

Weds 18th / Thurs 19th - Weedy's big day

Wednesday

Another busy Wednesday with thanks to Gerry for the photos.

Beginning with the GW Inspection saloon, Simon and Mike are planning the requirements for a cover for the gas valve and wider kitchen storage.

Trevor and Ben are fitting capping strips to double doors on the Malvern side of BSK 35308. This work is being done on the recently repaired areas done by Alan on Saturdays. Trevor is using the compressed air riveter.

Rod is back working on SO 4798's Cotswold side south door.

Now reasonably happy with the cleaning up of the edges of both door and frame, the door edges are given another coat of Light Grey undercoat.

Nick is repairing the wood container closing mechanism.

Nick preparing metal with the large saw. This powerful machine replaced a smaller one which we passed on to our Signal & Telegraph Dept. I wonder if they still use it, or even still have it?

The weed spraying wagon is almost ready. Bryan and Rex are fixing the safety railings on both sides and making general preparations. Tomorrow is the big day!

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Thursday

Just nine in today with several of our regulars away.

Firstly a quick look in Upholstery to see how they are faring with the tightening of the moquette on 4798's seating.

It's all gone!  Which means that the moquette tightening has been completed and all seating components are back on board 4798.

The empty rack now contains the Bournemouth Blue covered seating so far completed for the NYMR's DMU. 

The view on board 4798 with the double seats reinstated and covered. The backs and bases of the single seats are stacked ready for refitting.

Roger, Jeff and Alan begin the job.

A completed single seat looking lovely against the new carpet, and nicely offset by the freshly Hammerited heating pipe cover and revarnished cover support.

The completed north end compartment with protective covers going back on. The protective floor sheets need laying out again.

The main Cotswold side area of 4798 between the two end doors is now having the lower line tape added. The top line tape was added on Tuesday.

I was able to include the north end door, but not the corner where more filler was needed to even up the surface. We can now begin undercoating the taped section.

On board BSK 35308 Richard I is attempting to improve the lighting circuitry to enable the guard to control all the coach lights. Some can be individually switched on and off.

Some much n¹eeded painting jobs on the trestles included the top connection supports for the south end of 35308 and the noticeboard destined for Toddington.

It's the big day for the weed spraying wagon when an initial test run would be carried out.

 Bob and Richard load a battery to provide the power for the pumps and related equipment.

All the removable safety railings and hand rails are now in place.

Numbers done in weld ensure the safety rail units are fitted in their correct positions.

Bob has produced a manual containing all the necessary information required to load and operate the spraying system. Having been a farm manager he is fully qualified in the handling of pesticides and the running of spraying equipment. For the test only water will be used.

The equipment controls along with Bob's manual.

Stu on the 03 has pulled the wagon out into the sunshine and Bob can now begin setting everything up for the test. The water container is part filled.

The foam padding just above Bob's head was a good idea.

With the sprayer now working, the 03 slowly pulls the wagon away.

The wet patch steadily expands.

Derek, Richard, Phil and Roger watch the movement. Was the test successful? Only part of the sprayer initially worked, but Bob guessed correctly that a bit of swarf had blocked the feed to the Cotswold side of the sprayer. The whole sprayer worked fine once the problem was removed.

The wet ground following the test, and the wagon gleaming in the sunshine and what will be the official photo for the summer issue of the Cornishman magazine.

[Photo : Gerry]  One year ago (9th April 2025) initial work on the conversion had only begun two weeks before during a similar spell of glorious weather. What a contrast!