Thursday 22nd - Almost like old times

With normal train services running again and and plenty of happy passengers, it felt almost like pre-pandemic times. Despite the soaring temperatures in the current heatwave, there was certainly a lot going on at the Works with plenty of variety, again giving that general feeling of well being and a return to normality..

Nick and Gerry were to be found at the base of the hopper in the latest Dogfish ballast wagon under repair.

(photo: Gerry) 

With the new section of sheet metal in place Nick begins the weld.

(photo: Gerry)

Nick's bit completed.. A continuous weld using a plate obviously larger that the hole being covered.

(Photo: Nick) 

Gerry then cleans up the weld to complete the job.

Another job done by David A. the day before was to both undercoat and top coat (the paint drying very quickly in the heat) two new footboards for the Dogfish wagons.

(Photo: Nick) 

One of the jobs today was to trial the new buckeye frame to see if it was fit for purpose. I'm happy to say that it was a resounding success with the buckeye changed safely within 10 minutes! This means that it should now be able to be passed out as safe to use, given it's safe-working-load limit and official identity, and added to our official register of lifting equipment.

Bryan is busy on the milling machine making what is known as a joggler, which will enable overlap welding.

One of our jobs is repairing some lamps which have badly corroded bases. Nick is busy cleaning up one of these.

(Photo: Nick)

One of the badly corroded bases.

Rex is forming a tool to enable perfect circles to be cut out of the sheet metal using the plasma cutter.

(Photo: Nick) 

The new tool in action and a ready supply of new lamp bases to be welded in place.

 Yet more engineering with Phil preparing a new length of copper pipe.

This was destined for the south vestibule toilet tank connection in CK 16221.

Having done the connections, the next job is to check the tank itself. A brilliant facility has been set up in the Barn to enable the testing.

With everything connected up, the water is turned on and the tank filled and then left to ensure that it behaves.  

Out into the heat of the sun to see how the 3rd Rake Maintenance Gang are fairing. With all our 3rd Rake coaches now back after their Covid train adventures over the past year, there will no doubt be plenty of repairs to make. Geoff and Alan are busy refixing this door base which had become very loose. The existing screws were buried under sealant and thus almost impossible to access. I didn't get a photo of Tony but I believe he was inside one of the coaches repairing luggage rack netting.

For Dennis and Paul, with the temperature up to 29C, even with all the windows open it was like working in a sauna. Dennis is slowly working through the rake noting problems to be fixed.

An obvious place to look is the Guard's log in BCK 21092 where all on-train faults are noted ready for our Friday Maintenance Gang to sort out.

Inside a very hot SK 24006, Dave was removing the lights and metal bases - the latter another feature emphasising the age of the coach and that it is a very early MK 1. One of these refuses to budge, so a touch of WD40 was applied and hopefully on Saturday it can be removed. 

Dave's next job was to transfer all the cleaned and revarnished items from the Paintshop back to 24006 for storage, and then bringing into the much cooler Workshop some more beading for cleaning up. These strips require only a light sand unlike the compartment doorway pillars.

There is quite a pile of cleaned up items ready for Pam to varnish on Saturday, including the conduit cover which despite two coats of varnish could do with a third, the wood having really soaked up the varnish. All the items from 24006 that have been varnished will have a final coat applied to produce a really fine finish when they are eventually remounted in their respective places.

Alex spent much of the day working on the station sandwich boards, initially completing the one to his left, and then preparing others ready for the relevant signwriting.

Our Wednesday woodworkers have produced a large number of the various sized footboards to add to our general stock. The last job of the day for Alex and myself was to get these primed. Normally these would then be painted in undercoat Dark Grey and finally a top coat in Gloss Black, but we are still having to watch our funding and as such our existing paint supply, so they will remain just primed until needed.

Another sign of some normality returning was that we were able to provide an impromptu tour of the Works for a group from Didcot Railway Centre, with Alex kindly taking them around.