Thursday 15th - The pressure is on

Just today and Saturday before the big shunt on Monday 19th to get everything ready. Almost all concentration was on the coaches in the 3rd Rake siding that will form part of the reinstated Main Rake and you could say that the Indoor Gang had some extra temporary members to help get it all done.

Beginning with the Electrics Team, the two Richards were trying to sort out a fault in the one of the coaches. Initially Richard II checked one of the suspect electrical connectors with a small piece of test equipment.

 The next stage was to link up to the formation circuit.

The little testing unit has two lights. The red will be lit if the current is getting through. If the green shows, the circuit is either broken, or has been switched off (apologies for the slightly blurred enlargement).

Inside TSO 4763 Alan and Geoff were re-fixing a ceiling panel.

Having visited us last Thursday, it was great to see Tony back and able to join in. When I photographed him he was in the middle of a walk through the mini rake, listing all the items that needed likely attention.

By now Alan and Geoff were checking table fixings, and tightening or making minor repairs as necessary. One thing that really does have us jumping up and down as the trains go by is seeing a thoughtless parent with their young child standing on a table to look out of the window!

Tony having completed his checking took on the task of re-sealing the bases of the window frames where required.

Notices are occasionally put up inside the trains. Proper frames are now being mounted, but in this case the poster must have been too large and we are left with the job of very carefully removing the sticky residue. Thankfully Phil made a good job of it using a Stanley blade held almost horizontally and the varnished veneer escaped unharmed.

Leaks are a common problem and BSO 9000 had a large area of water-damaged varnish in this corner. Careful sanding and then re-application of the appropriate wood dye helped with the restoration as shown in the area to the left of the corner. I still had a lot of careful sanding on the right hand side, but when completed and more wood dye had been put on, a fresh coat of varnish over the whole area improved it even further.

In the disabled vestibule at the south end of TSO 4790, this water stain had turned yellow and was very unsightly. Phil managed to removed this and with the same treatment as above, this also looked at lot better afterwards.

A lot worse at the north end, where the narrow panel to the right of the door looked bad, and on closing the connection sliding door, much of the large panel was similarly affected. Bob had a go at removing the worst but in the end had to give up owing to time constraints. Ideally we would simply replace both panels but with so much else to do, this isn't currently possible.

Our 60-70 year old coaches take a lot of looking after and although we do our best, we cannot escape all that nature throws at us. For all the problems they give us, we still love them and enjoy travelling in them whenever we can.

 P&O steadily rumbles by as it slows down for the station with the second train of the day.

Dave H. was busy sanding more parts taken out of SK 24006.

Three more panels completed and ready for varnishing. There is quite a pile in the Paintshop now, either waiting for a second coat of varnish or an initial one. Pam will certainly be very busy on Saturday!

 John V. was busy making the parts for a new gas cage.

A little job remaining from Tuesday was painting the back of the base sections on one of the Discovery Coach disabled ramps. Bob got stuck in and soon had this completed. With the polished coach and repainted ramps, and the lovely flowers troughs installed by the FOWS, the whole area now looks so much better.

Driver Mark watches Fireman Clive feed the bag into the tender filler hole and waits for the nod to turn on the water.

As always when working at the north end of Platform 2 you get to enjoy the 3-o-clock meeting of the trains.

The final job of the day was to give a second coat of yellow to the new protection frame in the Workshop, which will prevent anyone accidentally walking into the edges of the sheet metal.