Thursday 8th - A very busy day

Quite a crowd of us in today, partly because at last we were able to run our Safety Wire refresher course, which means we now have eight of our staff with tickets for another three years. The course is run by the same company who installed the wires in our three main buildings and do the annual servicng. So we can now get back onto the roofs of our coaches and vans when required.

Thursday was also boosted because the Door Team now attend on this day instead of the original Wednesdays. An update from Rod (one of the new team members) stated the following:

The last 4 doors from BSK 34929 are all work in progress. Door 6 (photo below) is now ready for hanging, the guards door is now being reassembled after frame repairs, and the last two are ready for skin welding repairs next week. One door skin requires a new bottom section and the other various patches. 

 

Two more photos of the Door Team, with new member Des cleaning out one of the two skins that require repair.

While Trevor, one of the two original members, is testing the fitting of the drain unit in the wooden base of the door.

Continuing with progress on 34929

At the north end of the coach Phil is re-attaching the corridor connection roof cover to the two metal supports.

John was busy with the communication cord equipment, later fitting two new red flags, one to each side.

 

I later found Phil removing a section of ceiling in the north vestibule, trying to find why the light wasn't working.

Inside the new seating compartment at the south end, Alan was reinstating one of the missing sliders.

Meanwhile Bob was busy lightly sanding the new compartment sliding doors with 150 paper to remove any marks.

I later returned to find him busy staining the vestibule sides and edges of the doors with mahogany wood dye.

Going back through the coach to see how Phil was progressing, I found the ceiling panel back up and the light now working.

A quick peek inside the First Class toilet compartment in CK 16221 to find that Derek has now installed the new floor.

Following all the work on the bogies on SO 4787, the coach was taken outside for a shake-down to check its running and ride height.

 

Finally, back to BG 81049 (aka P'Way's Mess Coach) with Richard finishing off all the filling and sanding needed on the north end. This side of the connection in particular needed a lot of work.

On the Malvern side, Jeff worked on the south end section and on along the bodyside.

While Bob concentrated on the middle part. Both had been on the Safety Wire course and stayed on to help with this priority job. At the far end Richard has also moved round onto this side of the coach.

With the grey base coat on the Cotswold side now completely hardened, Alex was adding the lining out tape. He later went on to undercoat the entire side, leaving just the base of the door that will need the metalwork repair.

There were other jobs going on of course, but it's not always possible to capture everything, and at the same time try and get some work done, especially when it's a priority.