Tuesday 10th - A small number in doesn't mean you aren't busy

Just a small group of us in today, but this didn't mean that it wasn't a busy one with a visit to Toddington, fire alarm testing, a delivery, and other things to sort out.

After the big re-greying of the Malvern side of CK 16221, some small areas showed up where more filler was needed. These were tackled by Stu ....................

 

.................. and Maurice, and the larger sections above the windows at the north end repainted.

The next step was to continue undercoating the window frames in Madder.

Maurice went a stage further and greyed up around the remaining side of the north end that still had the old livery. This was in a remarkably good condition and very little filler will be required. Bar where doorway capping strips need to be fitted and some filling needed on the south corner, today's efforts complete the Malvern side as far as we can currently go. 

It is still too early to apply the lining out tape and begin full undercoating on the two sides. 

We were very pleased to welcome Keith back after a long spell away. There was certainly plenty for him to do, with initially priming the large plywood box in which we will be hanging our safety wire harnesses. He then moved on to careful hand sanding of some veneer panelling from TK 24006.

He was joined by Alan who found the high trestle the perfect height for sanding another panel. Hand sanding these is preferred to pad sanding - although back in 1951 veneer was a lot thicker that the micro layer applied nowadays, it is still possible to go through it with over zealous sanding.

For BSK 34929 it was back to filling and sanding of the capping strips on the doorways now available for this work. This is the centre passenger door on the Malvern side. The adjacent guards doorway is still being worked on by the woodwork team so only minimal filling has been done.

Alex was back working on the north end doorframe on the same side.

Something I missed photographing on Thursday last week was that our Upholstery team have now reinstated all the seating in the four compartments. The seat cushions in the north end compartment are stored in there, but as yet not fitted - they will remain as such until the coach can be moved to the Barn, the coach body lifted on the jacks, and the north bogie wheeled out so as to allow the underseat heating units to be fitted.

With the seating back in place we can now put back the compartment doors. When all are back in place we can return to the corridor and apply more varnish, and complete the painting of any new skirting board.

In the Upholstery shop Dave is sticking strong tape to the top and bottom of the piece of foam.

It was then wrapped around a canvas covered seat base.

Then stapled in place. With one end secured Dave is initially securing the other with some large pins.

In the afternoon a phone call from Churchward House, our Admin building in the station yard, to say that two rolls of moquette had arrived. This will be for re-covering the seats in the Bubblecar 55003 which will eventually be coming down to C&W for a repaint.

It's good to take a break from your work - well, that's our excuse for dashing out to watch the trains whenever we can. With all that recent rain the cover for this bogie has once again a large accumulation of water and, although difficult to grab hold of, the rolling action caused by the repeated lifting of the tarpaulin soon has the water cascading over the end.

By now the day had turned into a gloriously sunny one, all the better to show off Dinmore Manor.

And not forgetting Foremarke Hall, with our gleaming Gunpowder Van as the backdrop. The ends and Malvern side of the latter still need repainting (Alex?!). If you give me some more paint, I'll slap it on! - Ed. 

The last train of the day is always diesel hauled and second man was once again C&W's Andy T. readying for the token exchange.

Speaking of Andy, a photo I forgot to include on Saturday from an anonymous source showing Andy decadently enjoying the produce of the griddle at Winchcombe which has been open for training purposes recently (Alex):

 -Ed. 

We were asked to repaint the Red Dragon loco headboard and Alex took this on. 

The completed headboard. Alex decided to leave the dragon as that was in a good state, but he did repaint the yellow claws.

Finally a last cup of tea and a chat, a final check around, and then off home. The end of another good day with more achieved and the satisfaction of seeing some more aspects completed.