Friday/Saturday/Sunday - Bumper Weekend

It was a bumper weekend for me, 3 days on the trot at the railway doing various things!

We begin with a change of scenery for me and a small working party on Friday to make inroads on the cosmetic overhaul of a 5 1/2 plank GWR open wagon. This wagon ran in the freight train until it was withdrawn with brake issues a few years ago. It was sent up to Toddington for the loco dept. guys to fix, which they duly did, but it was beginning to look a bit sad. So we scrabbled around to find some bodies and materials and set to.

I made a start by hacking off the old vinyl lettering which was already peeling off in places:

Known as "Oxley sidings" it will retain this identity with the new livery.

Jo kindly answered the call for help and got stuck in degreasing the underframe ready for painting, while Mark washed down the body sides to get rid of all the moss!

Roger foolishly stood still for more than 5 seconds to see what was going on, so was swiftly handed a scraper and told to crack on:

Once I'd taken the lettering off I proceeded with a general light rub down of the paintwork:

The timber is mostly in reasonable condition considering it's 10 years old, but that one plank at the bottom with the lettering still on has dry rot so will be replaced.

Opening the doors we found the beginnings of some rust, so Mark hoovered it out and splodged some green primer on:

Another Alex (!) briefly stopped in the right/wrong place and was handed some sandpaper and joined me in the mass rub down:

Having spent most of the day sanding down, I was determined to get some paint out, so by mid afternoon I did, and managed to undercoat half the wagon:

And yes, it's going into GWR grey livery, hurrah! Lots of nice lettering for me, and from a practical point of view in these difficult financial times, we have enough spare grey paint to do it. Thanks for your help those who joined in with us, same again next Friday but with more paint brushes.

So, onto Saturday.

First job was presented by Jim from the P'way gang who hurried in looking for some wooden posts for a temporary speed limit by the yard points at Toddington.

We found some suitable timber and screws, Dave put it together, and Jim went away happy.

It was good to see Dave back in Upholstery, here cutting some hardboard to size for a seat:

While Jenny and John were on armrests:

Out in the yard, much to our dismay, Dennis found a leak in the newly refurbished RMB:

Happily, it was all sorted by the end of the day without too much bother (i.e. we didn't have to take the roof tank out, phew!)

Joining him was Paul continuing with the work to make these carriages fit for passenger use again next month:

While I was out there I noticed a few rust spots on BSO 9000, and having sat there all year being blasted by the sun, was looking generally a bit faded. So Dave set to with the kurust and filler:

Yet another Dave, we're in SK 24006 now where the sanding down of the sycamore veneer continues:

Back in the workshops, under BSK 34929 I spotted a pair of legs, which turned out to belong to Andy, fitting the under seat heaters, while inside, John was grabbing the other end of the pipe:

Ainsley and Rob were once again scratching their heads over doors, they're never simple! this one came on and off a couple of times today:

By the end of the day it was left on, with 2 of the hinges screwed in. Hopefully progress was made!

Meanwhile Chris was manufacturing another door pillar, 3 more still to go apparently, BSKs have far too many doors, and we've already taken 2 pairs out with our conversion!

Back outside Dave had finished tidying up the problem spots so I broke out the topcoat chocolate to refresh the lower panel. You can see the difference!