Friday 25th/Saturday 26th - Paint Your Wagon (and Carriage)

Friday

Another very pleasant Friday special in good company working on the 'Oxley Sidings' GWR open wagon. We had a grand total of 7 people working on it at various points throughout the day which was great to see. With the Mink in the workshop at Winchcombe awaiting a timber delivery and most other work on it done, Richard came up to assist us, and got stuck straight in finishing off the undercoat that was about 2/3rds complete last week:

Phil fancied playing wagons as well and gladly lent a hand, here painting up the capping strips which go on the edges of the top planks:

After applying wood primer to the top edges of the planks, which had been bare wood, and helping me wash down the underframe with some soapy water ready for painting, Jo and I broke out the topcoat dark grey:

After lunch and the top-coating is coming on well, with Phil joining in too painting up the north headstock, Jo on the Cotswold side planking:

Hopefully not encroaching on Bryony's reports on the steam loco blog too much, although not a running day there was still plenty of steam to appreciate, 4270 was having a steam test so was up to full pressure, and did a little bit of chuffing up and down coming into the shed:

While outside, Dinmore and Foremarke were being cleaned out and warming fires put in for the weekend:

Mid-afternoon and the employed amongst our motley crew arrived! Anthony is in the loco department and also a joiner by trade (I hope I got the wood-working rank right!), and he kindly offered to sort out a replacement plank for our rotten one, here chiselling a rebate in one end:

Mark arrived about the same time and helped check the fit of the replacement plank:

A nice tight fit, perfect.

Stalwart of the railway since the early days, Greg came to join in the fun mid-afternoon, I managed to catch him with his "Oh no, it's a blogger, do you have to" face!

The plank sorted, Ant then moved on to refitting some of the capping strips as the undercoat had all dried:

When we took them off they were only held on with a few bolted U-shaped pieces of iron, but they had holes for countersunk screws too, so we thought we ought put them back on properly.

The end of the day saw the whole wagon in first topcoat:

Which was a great achievement by all, so thanks for all your help folks! Wagons always seem to generate interest and it was nice to mix in slightly different circles for a change and chat to people from different departments all keen to help.

All that's left to do now apart from fitting the new plank is to apply some sort of wood preservative type jollop on the inside (in these budget constrained times, whatever we can get hold of basically), a second top coat, and then I can get the sign-writing brushes out to finish the job off.

Saturday

Back to Winchcombe, and carriages. The day started off by trying to rain which concerned Dave and I, we had plans to carry on outside. By morning break though the sun broke through in time to watch Foremarke come past with a very well loaded train:

So Dave and I set to, glossing 4790 which was only missed out on Tuesday as it had some slightly more involved body repairs to do:

We took a half each and soon had it finished. There's a few bits that need touching up around the lining on these coaches, but it will mean that when the main rake is re-formed when restrictions are eased that the whole train should look quite reasonable. Looking back, the dirty gang appeared to be contemplating some shunting:

Earlier the gang of three were working on one of the pair of BR1 bogies in the barn at the moment:

Robert and Ainsley were doing sterling work today on the continuing saga of the doors on BSK 34929 in the paintshop. Here Ainsley is filing a rebate in a capping strip:

Before the dynamic duo do a trial fit:

Another step forward.

CK 16221 saw a far amount of attention today, George and Phil were both on filling and sanding duties:

And once we'd finished outside Dave and I joined in too, Dave got busy with the chalk before checking out the gutter:

It was great to see Steve back after a very well deserved break, assessing the situation inside the CK on the internal wood panelling front:

"Hmm, lots still to do!"

Elsewhere Upholstery were quietly plugging away on their project of the moment, recovering seats in TSO 5042:

Dave and Robert were continuing sanding down the veneer in their coach 24006 in the yard, Dave here is in the centre vestibule:

And Pam took care of the usual array of bits and pieces that had arrived on the painting trestles, here on the new buckeye frame for changing buckeyes as featured on Thursday:

Final picture of the day was Dinmore Manor on the last train back to Toddington, it does look good in BR black with the Crimson and Cream livery next to it:

Wouldn't it be nice if... No let's not go there!