Tuesday 15th - Another Beginner

It's my turn now as a first timer, so here goes.

Tuesday is the main Painting Team day when we usually have the Works to ourselves. We do of course have members present on the other three working days, but not long after the Works was reopened after lockdown, to keep the numbers attending to requested COVID levels, we abandoned Thursdays to allow the Metalwork Team to do the doorway and roof repairs on RMB1808. This work has now been done so we should soon be back to full time.

Beginning with 1808, with the undercoating on the Cotswold side of the coach largely completed, the concentration moved to the Malvern side.

Initially the brown gutter panel was painted. Painting the three levels on a Chocolate and Cream liveried coach should always be top down, very important once top coating starts.

Maurice, Phil, and Alex (not pictured) then painted the cream panels and then the window frames. 

 

The new batch of this particular paint has a much darker shade, at times very reminiscent of the Executive Light Grey top coat that we use for some of our interiors. On the Malvern side of the coach, with the very bright day and the light pouring through the skylights and side windows, it almost looked coffee coloured. We don't know why Williamson has changed the shade - it may be to improve the final top coating. Of interest the Light Grey undercoat has similarly darkened.

Alex later painted the main lower panels, leaving just a small area as he had to leave early. This can be completed by our Wednesday painters. If this had been top coat someone else would have taken over from Alex to complete the job.

At the south end of 1808 John cleaned up and repainted the connection rubber with the Matt Black Polyurethane top coat.

High up on the scaffold at the north end Ainsley initially repaired the canvas connection covering with some new roofing canvas stuck down with felt adhesive. This will later be painted, again using the Matt Black paint. 

The next job was to complete the cleaning up and any required filling above the connection. Previous filling high up on both sides of the connection was also thoroughly handsanded.

The next job was to apply Dark Grey undercoat over the whole area, leaving just the lower section where some further preparation remains to be done.

Bob starts second coating the Cotswold side of the roof with the Flint Grey top coat.

A little outstanding job was replacing the covers for the electrical connectors at the south end of 1808, now that the rewiring had been completed.

Russ took care of a number of jobs, initially undercoating some new back pads that we use for the electical connectors. These will be painted Gloss Black and stored until needed. He left the varnishing of the internal window trims for the Wednesday team, and instead gave the coach end steps (hanging out of view behind the camera) a second coat of Gloss Black - these are from CK 16221, under restoration in the Barn.

In the Upholstery Shop Dave is unpicking yet another seat back ready for repair and a new cover. As mentioned in recent reports, not having many of our front line coaches running has given us the chance to tackle more of the re-upholstering jobs than would normally be possible. As it is often said there is a silver lining to many things.

What better on a lovely sunny day than one of our trains pulling away from the station. "Dinmore Manor" is on the return run of the second of the day's two trains, mainly comprising the former 3rd Rake coaches that we smartened up.

A little later on "P & O" enters the station with the first of the afternoon trains. With just one of our Chocolate&Cream coaches, the remainder of the rake comprises coaches from our former Maroon or 2nd Rake. It's very sad to see all our other running coaches, mainly from our former Main and 2nd rakes, sat idle in the sidings. We look forward to the day when we can see them running again. 

 

 

A lockdown project completed. 

It had been suggested some time ago by two of the Painting Team that I ought to produce a full guide to the  preparation and painting of our rolling stock. It took a major crisis to do it, but the result is a 62 page document with text and photographs covering every aspect from prep and painting, to types and uses of the various paints, solvents, and preparation materials, listings for our two main suppliers, disposal of hazardous waste, H&S, and the general running of the Paintshop. A hard copy will be held in our general cupboard and a PDF version has been put on our Office 365 system.