Friday9th/Saturday 10th - Signwriting indulgence

Another Friday at Toddington, the aim being to complete the GWR 5-plank open. We had four of us working on it today. Jo and Greg were on creocoting duties inside:

We used a 50/50 mix of creocote (note not creosote, which you can't get any more) and used engine oil. Hopefully this will keep the timber going for a while longer, it's done 10 years and is mostly still ok, let's hope it stays that way.

Meanwhile, having had fun on Thursday with my signwriting brushes, I had another day to play today, completing the GWR livery.

Chalking up in progress.

Mark joined us later in the day and refitted all the clamps on the top plank and capping strip:

Signwriting nearly done on this side, while the creocoting continues inside:

The pub called before I could quite finish the other side, so I popped in first thing Saturday morning to do the last "Non common user" plate and paint the red Vs on the solebar indicating vacuum braked. So here it is, all finished bar a brake test and FTR exam:

After I'd left it was shunted out into the daylight and positioned with 4270, Mark sent me the picture and it looked just perfect!

The change of scenery was nice and I always enjoy working on wagons, much more variety. Please can we have another one in soon? :-)

While I was at Toddington, I took a headboard with me to test fit the brackets that have been made:

Success! All done in time for the photo exhibition marking the 40th anniversary of the preservation story beginning opening at Winchcombe later this month.

On to Saturday proper then. When I arrived at Winchcombe I spotted Jenny and John in the distance taking the next batch of seats up to 5042 in the yard:

The dirty gang consisted of two Andy Ts today. They started off reassembling one of the bogies on the jack road, and here are wondering where the missing tie bar has gone:

They found that, but they were a bolt short, hmm. Let's have a look in the spares van:

A van of many things, hopefully something right can be found in there.

Later on they were putting the axleboxes back together on the Mink A, filling the reservoir of the underkeep up with fresh oil, replacing the cleaned up pads, more oil, then bolting it all back together:

Sticking with the Mink, with all the timber now delivered, Paul made a start with the wood primer:

Just a few more to go...

Also in the workshop George and Martin were working on the Cotswold side of CK 16221:

With the condition of the panelling on this coach there has to come a point where you simply declare that enough is enough, I think we may be edging closer to that point...

John was in, here he was mid way through one of those jobs that was supposed to only take a few minutes, to drill a hole for a pin on a door handle, but the size drill bit he needed required changing the chuck, and the different sized chuck had a different attachment at the other end, and he had to half dismantle the thing to do his quick job:

Phil continued cleaning up heater bits and pieces too:

On BSK 34929 in the paintshop Steve was on the case making some door stops for the internal sliding doors in the disabled vestibule:

And in position, apparently some more fettling to go before we stain and varnish:

Robert and Ainsley were again doing battle with doors, first some more shavings for a better fit, and later on I think it all got a bit too much for Robert, as he took a hammer to the metal panelling adascent to the door pillar!

I think this too was in a quest for a better fit, but I imagine it helped air some frustration with this very difficult coach in terms of doors!

There was good progress on SK 24006 in the yard today, Dave and Robert had taken out a lot of the trim pieces and were busy cleaning up the areas where they had been:

While Dave sanded down the bits of trim themselves:

Before handing them over to Pam for varnishing:

We found some great chalk marks on the inside of the pelmets for the blinds:

2 from SK 24005, one earlier on what is already one of the earliest runnable Mk1s, and definitely the oldest Mk1 SK.

Later on Dave and Pam put a second topcoat on the platform side of the Gunpowder Van, this being an ideal candidate for Pam to practice some coach painting without having to worry about if it went wrong:

The skies were looking a bit threatening, but thankfully the rain held off. Now it's all ready for me to do even more signwriting on the next clear day, hooray! Amongst other bits and pieces I carried on with my signs for Winchcombe, now up to 3, and some mouldings added on the other sides too:

I'm really rather pleased how these are coming out, and also the enthusiasm for the general idea of smartening up signage around the railway, it's definitely something I hope to continue on. It won't all happen at once but I'll gradually work my way around. My sights are set on the big notice board at Toddington next, which is looking a little sad. Watch this space...