Thursday 29th - A quiet day and a retirement

Except for the occasional buzz of a pad sander and the sound of the Workshop fans, it was a relatively quiet day with a number of the usual Thursday gang away.

Following on from the previous posting and Nick's photo from the train of us enjoying our morning tea break, a rear view of the team with just Bob M. and myself missing from the photo.

The number of items from TK 24006 that have now been sanded clean and revarnished is mounting considerably. I moved a pile of completed compartment doorway pillars, panels, and beading onto our storage racks just prior to Jeff starting on this batch. The former will be transferred back to 24006 and stored until it can all be refitted.

In the Woodwork shop Phil checks the doors of this new battery box for fit. It's surprising how these become mixed up and even more surprising that they vary so much, with a set of doors fitting one box well, but not with another.

Both this box and the one residing in the Paintshop were brought into the Workshop for fitting to CK 16221.

Before mounting under the coach Phil fits the fuse box to the back.

Basic fitting is now done with the main cabling pushed through and awaiting the connectors, and of course the batteries. With so much of the coach restoration still remaining it will probably be a while before the latter are mounted inside. Now which set of doors fitted this particular box?!

Derek continues to make good progress with the interior of 16221. New support backing for the south vestibule panelling is gradually being fitted.

Peter from our Friday Maintenance Team was in, checking sink taps and the varied way in which they work and need adjusting. He also came to the rescue when the thin support for one of the display banners outside our 40th Anniversary Photo Exhibition broke after being battered by the wind.

Up on Platform 1 Bob M. continued his tidying up of the roof of the Santa Grotto coach, applying etch primer to the areas from which he had previously removed flaking paint.

Further along the 3rd Rake siding Dennis is topping up the toilet water tanks and making sure all are working as they should be.

It was just Alan in today from the Indoor Gang, here drilling screw holes in the clamped new section of window framing destined for TSO 4867.

Having prepared more sandwich boards, Alex carefully outlines the letters on this board to leave the French chalk pattern underneath the paper.

Just over an hour later, the finishing touches with the lettering now painted on the board.

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Finally we say goodbye and thank you to Malcolm D, one of our long term members of Carriage and Wagon who has recently retired from volunteering. With a backgrouind in mechanical engineering, Malcolm joined the Railway in 1995 and when asked why he joined C&W, his response was that he had finished building his kit car. In his time on the Railway Malcolm has also been a signalman, and was a member of the Meet & Greet Team, a role he particularly enjoyed. We often saw him waving from the train, smartly dressed in jacket, collar and tie, while looking after another visiting party. 

In his time with us he did both metalworking and painting, and for many of us he was synonymous with carriage roof painting. In our regular blog postings there was inevitably a photo captioned "Malcolm on the roof".

We wish him well and hope he will be able to visit us whenever he comes to the Railway.

Wednesday 28th - Moving on!

 It was a busy day, with about a dozen of us carrying on with the jobs in hand. First problem of the day was no WiFi which made signing on a bit tricky, the fault was traced to a loose plug in the main office router. Eve our administrator had printing to do, and found the printer had run out of black toner. Luckily a new one was located in ‘Churchward House’ and with a few well chosen words with the printer, it was all working.

Back to the workshops!

Derek featured last week doing these inner inspection doors on 16221, he is investigating why this one will not open correctly.

John V. is moving forward with the gas cylinder cages, we have found some suitable steel sheet which will provide a sloping top, and rain run off.

Geoff posing here with more bespoke carpentry.

Dave doing a spot of power sanding.

Its good to have Richard P. back with us, more top notch carpentry.

Jenny and John are repairing a laminate panel with some very strong adhesive, before the covers are fitted.

Down in the main workshop, Bryan is adding the final touches to the new joggler. This will work on the hand press, initial tests have proved very positive.

Richard and Paul are progressing well with the 'Mink' refurb, with the floor bearers going in.

Back in the Dogfish, Gerry has been making a large number of repair plates. He then assists me in getting into position and holding the air supply filter pump. We still have much to do!

So this jumps forward to Thursday, we thought we would have a day on the Trains. I couldn't resist a photo of the Thursday crew enjoying a tea break in the sunshine.

Tuesday 27th - Getting on with the Job

9 in today by my count, and the end is finally in sight on CK 16221, well, on the bodywork prep side at least, the rest still has a long way to go!

Richard was applying what I think was the last of the secondary filler on the Cotswold side, while on the north end Maurice was cleaning up the pipework from all the cracked old paint:

On the Malvern side Bob was out with the scraper on one of the doors with some rough paintwork:

Later on Richard went round patch painting over the secondary filler.

I think as far as we're concerned most work left is now on the Malvern side, which was already in a much better state than the Cotswold side.

Robert came in on an extra day today to try and progress door 10 on BSo 34929. (The lowercase 'o' denoted "Semi-open" which is perhaps more appropriate now?) The morning was spent adjusting a door pillar (a phone torch is handy to spot the high points) which was done as far as possible before the door itself is fitted, while the afternoon was spent puzzling over capping strips:

Once again the un-squareness of this coach was causing consternation. I'm probably jinxing this but hopefully the CK will be easy for the door team after this by comparison.

Dave and Roger were on the TK 24006 (we realised it probably ought to be TK not SK with the early construction date) production line today, Roger sanding:

And Dave adding stain where necessary then varnishing:

Elsewhere, Kevin was sorting out the store in the changing room:

And Dave was upstairs continuing with the recovering of TSO 5042's seats, they're just over half way now:

Finally, I put the finishing touches on the first 3 of my A-boards for Winchcombe station:

Before taking them up and releasing them into the wild:

 In the couple of hours that the platform ticket one was displayed, the sold 5 apparently, excellent! More will be coming, along with a few other bits and pieces like replacing the various plastic leaflet holders etc. to try and tidy things up a little, small things just to finish off the excellent heritage atmosphere that Friends of Winchcombe cultivate here. Then there are other stations to contemplate...

Monday 26th - Normal Service Has Been Resumed

 

Well, almost. Here you see Kath and Phil working on rake 2. There are 6 other volunteers on rake 1 and/or inside. This means that a toxic Witches Brew of Covid, age, ill health and distance seems to have reduced our regular team by 7. So if anyone fancies giving up the gym for something more useful, you know where to come!

Saturday 24th - A good all round day

A good day with a fair number of us attending.

Despite the thundery rain forecast, the weather stayed dry and enabled Paul and Dennis to continue their work with the 3rd Rake coaches without getting soaked getting across the yard.

As was done with our previously redundant main rake coaches where the corridors are on the Malvern sides, Dennis added a coat of Windolene to the windows to keep the sun off our upholstery and help prevent fading.

One of the compartments inside FK 13337 "Gillian", the main window now opaque.

Checking the toilet tanks

The inevitable floor cleaning with Paul doing the job.

The smart looking compartment door labels put on for the seat allocations during the running of the Covid rakes will be retained, but all the window labelling is being removed.

It is inevitable that with our reformed main rakes we will have some initial problems to sort out. Earlier in the week our on-train catering staff had reported a number of minor issues which either have been, or will be, sorted out. For the Chocolate & Cream rake, the engine crews were reporting a vacuum leak as they were continually having to make adjustments. John and Andy are enjoying a late lunch having spent the morning with the train. One of the vacuum cylinders on FO 3132 "Mary" was blanked off as it appeared suspect. On the return journey there appeared to be some improvement but the problem hasn't completely disappeared. Later in the day Ian and John went down to Cheltenham and back on the last train, but at the moment the issue remains, although reduced.

Beginning the tour of the Works with Upholstery, Jenny has laid out all the prepared parts of replacement moquette for two of the seats in TSO 5042 - the main covering, with side panels, head and arm rests. I meant to visit the coach to check progress, but I believe they are about halfway through the refurbishment now.

Moving to the Paintshop and progress with BSK (or maybe we should say BSOK with its additional open compartment) 34929. The new disabled vestibule progresses well with Steve adding the minor bits of panelling and more beading above the Malvern side double doors. All that new wood already looks lovely and the final coats of varnish when added will really make it glow. Our Woodwork team have made a really superb job of both this and the new disabled compartment. 

Chris was back on the Cotswold side north doorway putting on the heavy metal reinforcing plate for the door lock behind the new pillar. 

The lock back in place and another good job done.

Later on I was able to catch Chris returning to his work preparing one of the pillars for the Cotswold side guards door.

While in the Doors/Woodwork shop, a photo of the progress on Door 10 by the team who have now reverted to their Wednesday working. It all looks to be coming on very well.

A warm welcome to Dave E. who has joined C&W as a member of the Woodwork team. Dave is fitting the remaining items in the refurbished toilet compartment. He is already a member of the Railway's important PAT testing team. 

Ian was showing two further new volunteers around the Works, who will also be joining us soon.

Robert was back on capping strips. Some brand new lengths have been found in our supply and have replaced some of the old worn sections of strip that had originally been put on. 

 

Pam was back in her element varnishing yet more compartment door pillars and bits of panelling from SK 24006. A large pile of beading from the coach awaits in the Workshop ready for sanding clean, and by the end of the day, several strips from this had already been prepared and brought through for her. Everything has at least two coats of varnish, and when done is taken back to the coach and stored. A third or fourth coat will be applied when the various items are eventually put back in place.

In 24006 itself the owners were busy preparing and varnishing more of the panelling, Robert in the south vestibule ...................

............... and Dave in one of the south end compartments.

Quite a number of our G clamps have suffered with constant use and as such John S. was busy on the lathe making new ends for the screws.

 

 One of the repaired clamps.

 

 Ian was busy cleaning up the working parts of a vacuum cylinder.

 

Just across the Workshop, the filling and sanding was continuing on the Malvern side of CK 16221, with Phil ...............

 

 ........... and George both very busy. This side of the coach has faired much better with respect to bodywork repairs and is not taking as long to complete.

 

There has been excellent progress with the rebuild of the Mink A van. The new pre-treated planking is being gradually primed and is now beginning to go on. This particular piece is being modified by Richard to cater for the difference in the original base angle iron on the side with the repaired end sections. 

 

Taken later on the photograph shows the side and end planking now level. 

 

Alex was literally wearing his other hat today as guard on Train 2.

 

 While Andy T was also taking a break from the Works as TTI on the first train.

 

With the Class 37-hauled Cheltenham train just departed, Pam watches 4270 leave for Toddington with the last steam hauled train of the day.