Saturday 29th - Where'd Everybody Go?

 Everyone must have had bank holiday plans, as it was a bit quieter than normal in the works today. Clive, Andy and Bob were all on the trains as well, as was I Sunday morning, hence a little later than usual on the blog. As an aside it has been fantastic to see the railway looking so busy since we opened up journeys starting at Cheltenham and Broadway, almost feels like we're back to normal again!

So, to Saturday, and the first job was to do a quick shunt to swap some bogies round in the yard, and put the 2 dogfish over the pit:

The first train came past with P&O up front, Richard and Paul look on:

They were on the early shift, having done all the painting they could do on the Mink A they left to enjoy the rest of their bank holiday weekend:

Various door stops, clips and other bits and pieces in top coat. We're awaiting a new storage container to turn up before we order the timber for the wagon, hopefully it'll be with us soon.

Meanwhile with the dogfish on the pit, and Andy off the train and into overalls, he and Ian set to trying to get the doors to work a little better. Scrape the old gunge off the moving parts, apply new gunge...

Nick on the right there also popped in to discuss the metal repairs that need doing. We're under strict instructions not to even think about painting them, there simply isn't the time or money, But Ian did ask me to paint some numbers on them as it's a bit confusing at the moment, so I'll do that on Tuesday.

Dave ticked a few more jobs off the list, firstly coating the metalwork repairs that Nick and the team had done in red oxide:

A little filling and sanding will aid the final blending in. He then found some more bits of trim to clean up, I think for BSK 34929:

Speaking of the BSK, Phil was doing a grand job fitting out the toilet compartment, it's all coming together in here:

Robert and Ainsley were putting together another door frame in the woodwork shop, they look a bit puzzled here, I think they worked it out!

Outside in SK 24006 Dave was patiently rubbing down some more of the original veneer to restore it to its former glory:

While Rob was taking some more bits of trim off:

Other than watching trains go by:

And a trip up to Toddington to drum up some more station signwriting work :-) I was faffing around with masking tape painting up this chalkboard for the loco department:

I got there in the end, but some brands of tape didn't do what they were supposed to do!

Thursday 27th - A very full day

 Quite a crowd in today, especially with more of our returning staff swelling the number. It's great to have them back.

Beginning with DMU 51306, the repairs were completed today with Nick, Rex and Gerry doing a great job.

(photo: Nick) The rebuilt corner.

 (photo: Nick)  Gerry cleaned up the welds.

Nick sorts out the location points for the grab rail and completed the remaining welds. The Painting and Prep team will now do their bit on the corner.

(photo: Nick)  Meanwhile Rex fixed the broken hinge on the guards door (think I've got the right door!).

 Also working in the Barn was John V. (great to have him back after 15 months away), completing the rebuild of the remaining door skin for BSK 34929. 

 In the Doors/Woodwork Shop Rod is sorting out internal wood fittings for door 8 off 34929.

In the Paintshop the door for the Cotswold side north end will be trial fitted to identify the location points for the hinge screws on the new bodyside panelling. Trevor prepares the balls and hinge pins.

 With the door mounted and wedged the job was done. 

On Wednesday, all the red oxided parts of both corridor ends had been given a coat of undercoat Dark Grey. Beginning at the north end Bob now coats this in Gloss Black. 

 Within the south end Jeff works on the outside of the new vestibule door for the disabled compartment. All the old masking tape was removed, the surface lightly sanded and a second coat of Executive Light grey painted on. He then completed the job second coating the remaining areas in the mini vestibule that had the same paint.

A lovely job - thanks Jeff!

Following on from the Woodwork Team on Wednesday, in the toilet compartment Phil was graduallly putting back the internal fittings. The wood base sections for the toilet were on the paint trestles and have been fully painted ready for fitting.

The little metal tags to be fitted to the tops of the new seats in the disabled compartment needed cleaning. A very fiddly thumbs and fingers job when done with wire wool because of their small size, until Phil came up with this ingenious solution.

An excellent result!

 

(photo: Nick) On to CK 16221, Rex is working on the removal of the upper section of capping strip from the Malvern side north doorway. 

 All the corroded panelling now cut away.

The new sections of sheet metal in preparation.

Following another bout of sanding down in SK 24006, Dave was now cleaning up beading from above the windows that could be retrieved. A significant number of these will need to be made as most are not in a good state of repair.

A considerable amount of work and general tidying up has already been done in TSO 4867 (our Quainton Road coach). The windows had been made watertight as best as possible on a temporary basis, but now Alan and Geoff are retapping this window frame to do the job properly.

 Having completed their work to install the electrics needed for the new fridge in RBr 1672, Richards I and II were busy repairing the Cotswold side kitchen door after the alumium sheet "window" had dropped off the lazy tongs.

 Richard I proudly wears the hat made by his granddaughter!

 While photograhing Richard, 4270 comes by with one of the Cheltenham trains.

 It's great to have Dennis and Paul back. They put a lot of effort into looking after our 3rd Rake, or as is the case at the moment, our out-of-use coaches that are stabled in this siding because of the pandemic. The position of this siding means that on clear days, coaches sat here are hit by the sun from dawn to dusk which not only affects the paintwork, but could also fade the seats. The more recently upholstered ones have been covered, but another solution is to coat the windows with Windowlene. We will also have nice clean windows when this is eventually removed!

 RMB 1808 with the coating completed.

 Other coaches have been similarly treated. 

 Finally, the metalwork repairs that will be needed to the two Dogfish ballast wagons in the yard. John H. has already replaced the poor condition vacuum hoses with new ones.

 All the step boards also need replacing.

Tuesday 25th - Another major push

 Another brilliant day with a major push to bring some visible change to the paintwork on BSK 34929 and remove some of the still outstanding tatty bits. As with CK 16221 when we recently greyed-up the Cotswold side, it was a very heartening improvement.

 The first things to get sorted out were the corridor connections. Roger looked after the north end, cleaning up the rusty parts and then giving an overall coating of red oxide where required.

 Maurice had considerably more rusty parts at the south end to clean up.

 By the end of the day Roger had done a very thorough job, including painting the connection rubber in matt black and priming the new wood frame for the sliding door.

 

The south end at the end of the day showing the improvements made by Maurice.. 

Even in just this state, both ends already look so much better. All the oxided parts at both ends will be given a coating of Dark Grey undercoat (this was indicated on our white board for anyone from the team in the next day). The new door into the disabled compartment also needs more Executive Light Grey.

With a lot of work still to be done to get all the doors and missing door frame capping strips back in place, we are not as yet intending to do any further painting on the body sides. 

However there was nothing to prevent us from top coating the window frames in Maroon. 

Phil looked after the Malvern side, ......................

............... while Richard took care of the Cotswold side. There are still window frames to do, but both Phil and Richard made very good progress, and what with the ends in a better state, there is a distinct sense of improvement all round.

The shelves for the toilet compartment and the final interior door stop were completed with top coat. With this completed all the compartment doors, the toilet door and toilet fittings, and the guards internal door are ready to be refitted - the compartment doors of course when all the seating has been fitted.

Moving into the Workshop and CK 16221, Derek was back working inside the end vestibules. At the north end new wood blocks are going in which will provide the support for the new panelling when that is eventually put up. He will also be working on the cupboard doors inside the vestibules.

One of the things that Derek pointed out was the amount of rusty surface on the back of the bodysides. Alan did a very useful job cleaning up the surface inside the south end of the corridor.

He then began coating the surface with red oxide, a great improvement. This will continue along the whole corridor. A check will be made on the compartment side as far as possible.

Meanwhile Bob tackled the cleaning up of another of 16221's aluminium doors. With the door face thoughly cleaned up and the old paint removed, Bob had a go at some of the broken screws on the inside, but with the infamous bonding of aluminium with steel, efforts came to nought. The Door Team have their usual way around the problem.

 With the door turned back over a base coat of undercoat Light Grey was given so that, when the door is eventually mounted, the Painting Team will have a nice clean surface to work on.

In the Upholstery Workshop Dave was measuring up another foam section for a seat from TSO 5042.

The electric bread saw makes a lovely clean job of cutting the foam to size.

It was nice to see Kevin in today. He had been asked by the DMU group to sort out and remove a number of Network South East EMU doors that had been previously loaded on board. The removed doors were put back in our storage area.

Taking a break from top coating 34929's window frame, Richard painted 10 chocs/scotches with "C & W" or "C + W" on both sides (the eleventh and first in line was mine). These will now be transferred to the Barn and hung up on the hooks.

With better weather the chance to enjoy lunch outside again and watch the returning train pass by.

The usual photographic indulgence with our passing trains again, and once again very much enjoying that Carmine & Cream coach with the black livery of Dinmore Manor. It is good to see better numbers on the trains now that our passengers can once again begin their journeys from Cheltenham or Broadway, in addition to Toddington.