Thursday 15th - Busy everywhere

A very busy day with quite a number attending. As Nick said in his excellent "Wednesday" report, a number of the Metalwork Team were in, as were almost all of the new Door Team. With all the others in various parts of the Works, it was a very busy day. Some of the photos that follow compliment those taken by Nick. 

It was also good to see the paint order for the restoration of the Mink van arrive in the early afternoon.

My first photo of the day was of Gerry sorting out the loose handle on the south set of double doors on the Cotswold side of BG 81049. We had simply thought about plating the hole over as the doors are not used by the P'Way gang, but re-attaching the handle was less of a problem than we thought it would be.

 

Gerry then carefully cleaned off the rough paint on the droplight bar, which saves us a sanding job.

Meanwhile Nick had cut off the corroded metal sheeting at the base of the other door..........

................... and was busy making the replacement, while in a discussion with Rex and Phil S.

 Gerry lends a hand while Nick finishes off the new metal section.

The new piece welded on and ready to be cleaned up. I later finished the job with some filler which just needs sanding down. Then the relevant layers of paint will be added to complete the job.

On the Malvern side of the BG, progress was well in hand with Martin (great to see him back) and Phil J. lightly sanding the undercoat Madder that had been added the day before.

With the sanding completed Phil and Martin began top coating the gutter panel. Later in the day Phil was joined by Bob K to begin top coating the centre cream panelling (I had to leave for a much needed haircut so could take no further photos of their progress).

 

One of the jobs for me was removing the tape on the Cotswold side of 81049 ready for lining out.

John and Ian were busy working on the suspension of TSO 4772. The coach was later taken out for a shake-down run up and down the yard.

In the Woodwork/Doors shop it was good to see Craig, our former head of the Doors Team, who will be coming in to offer helpful advice to the new team. With him are Trevor and new member Ainsley. Two other new members, Des and Rod, were also in.

One of the jobs was re-hanging one of the new vestibule doors (the left hand Door 4) on the Malvern side of BSK 34929 and in so doing giving the new members experience in using the gibbet hoist, which makes door mounting so much easier. Craig looks on while Rod and Ainsley guide the door from below, and Trevor carefully positions it with respect to the hinge locations.

With the door securely in place, Trevor tightens up the hinge pins. There will be some adjustment to the clearances but that cannot be done until the right hand door locking bolt has been finished. (photo taken by Rod).

 

The Malvern side guards door, that had been cleaned up and painted in the Workshop on Tuesday, had previosuly been rehung by the team. This was a trial fitting to check the position of the bottom hinge after door timber replacement, but this was not possible because the new door threshold was fouling the bottom of the door so it was removed again whilst we decide what to modify. 

Alan, from the Indoor Gang, was busy fitting door threshold strips on 34929.
 

With the threshold strips for the double doorways on 34929 missing, we decided to make some new ones. Rex carefully measures up.

Now cut to size, the edges are filed smooth. I didn't manage to take further photos, but Nick's photos show them completed and successfully fitted to the two entrances. The relevant holes have been drilled for the screws and main door bolt.

Phil S. was busy servicing the sliding door runner which was from 34929. The corridor door originally separated the passenger area from the guards and original luggage compartments. With our new passenger compartment and disabled area, the door has obviously become redundant.

 Inside 34929, Bob was staining the inner sides of the seating compartment doors with Light Oak wood dye.

He then varnished the other sides, which really brought them up. More photos of these on Saturday.