2020, It Wasn't All Bad

It's been a tough year for everyone this year with some huge challenges, and sadly some losses too. But as the year draws to a close with at least an end in sight, even if the next few months aren't going to be much better, I thought I'd have a look back and see what we managed to achieve.

First off GWR Ply sided van 65643 came in for repairs at the beginning of the year as some of the plywood had delaminated. It looks much better now.

The model railway coach came in for roof repairs in January too, and while we were at it, we filled, sanded and repainted what we could, the lettering was refreshed and the whole lot given a coat of varnish. It was amazing how much it brought back the faded paint.

TSO 4772 was outshopped, it was virtually complete before lockdown commenced although it only actually got shunted out when we came back. Sadly it has yet to be used in passenger service as open carriages have gone out of fashion this year.

And then there was the lockdown

We sat and waited, anxiously wondering how long it would be, how we'd be able to come back, and what we'd actually be able to do. Key people worked extremely hard to write risk assessments for us to return to work, and also what trains we might run and therefore what work we needed to do with what little money we had available. Compartment coaches were to the fore, so a lot of shunting was required.

A lot of those compartment carriages were a little overdue a paintjob. There was no possibility of getting them all through the paintshop in the month or so we had to prepare everything, so we made the best of it and did what we could outside. Luckily Dave put in a big paint order just before lockdown so our cupboards were well stocked.

We swarmed over the lower body sides in a socially distanced manner! And in just over a month, we repainted the lower chocolate panels and a few other odd bits and pieces on no fewer than four carriages, SK 25743 (pictured), SK 24949, FK13329, and FK13337 (Gillian). There was also a host of other jobs to make things fit to use again, including a repaired window on BCK 21092.

When trains began running again in the middle of August, we could heave a sigh of relief knowing we'd done all we could, and hope that some money would start to come in. In the meantime, it gave us a chance to attack a couple of coaches that would no longer be required for operations.

The Upholstery department recovered TSO 4763's seats which were looking very faded and tired, whilst in the paintshop we brought RMB 1808 in, which had only just missed out a winter slot for at least a couple of years and was well overdue.

It's almost ready to go out now with the last door reattached just needing painting.

Along with all of that, our two longer term projects also saw steps forward, the refurbishment and conversion of BSK 34929 is really coming together now,

And CK16221 continues to progress, but there's still a fair way to go with this one

Although its bogie restoration is looking good, with this one completed by the end of the year, unusually done in the workshop

We're always looking ahead to the next project, and TSO 4867 has received some on and off work throughout the year too, recently coming in to have some window frames done.

In addition to all of that, our cleaning and maintenance gangs have been out in all conditions doing what they do so well, and without whom, what we do in the workshop would all be largely pointless, and behind the scenes, key individuals have been flying their laptops harder than ever to keep the show on the road, not just with all the Covid stuff, but to show that we are meeting the ever increasing stringent requirements to operate a safe railway with ever more in depth records, written out procedures and competencies.

We also set up this new blog, and looking at the stats, it's doing pretty well! We've averaged about 500 views a day since we launched, over 50,000 in total, and some from some quite far flung places too!

(I suspect some of these will be VPNs and bots, I'm suspicious when we get 100 views all at once at 5am, but nevertheless, great to see!)

So, in summary, to misquote a well known fictional department store owner, "We've all done very well!" Unfortunately with Gloucestershire in tier 3, we're back to essential work only like November. So we'll do our best to keep the blog busy with things we hope are of interest along with reports of what little C&W activity there is.