Saturday 4th - A long and very busy day

There was certainly a lot going on both in and outside the Works today.

Beginning with some very good news with the Queen Mary brake van now moved across the yard to be stabled just outside the Barn. We want to get a move on with this as it's needed in traffic soon for several jobs.

While talking about goods vehicles, then what better to begin the posting with the excellent work being done by Richard and Paul E. with the rebuild of the Mink A van. More of the prepared sections of roof beams are being given a final sanding by Richard.

 

Richard mounts the central sections of each beam. The van walls are now largely complete.

(Photo - Richard S) Ainsley and Chris lent Richard a hand in cutting some wooden battens for the doors:

 

Working adjacent to the Mink A was George on the north end of CK 16221. The remaining filling is being done at both ends of the coach. More may be required where missing capping strips are eventually reinstated.

 

 George relaxes while taking a well earned tea break. 

 

 

 

 

Now upstairs to Upholstery to find out their progress with TSO 5042's seat refurbishing.

 

While John keeps a firm grip of the new Bournemouth Blue moquette stretched over the seat back, Jenny uses the electric stapler to secure it.

On the other main table Dave is inserting a new piece of foam into the wooden seat base.

Complete sections of seating ready to be taken to 5042.

Taken during the afternoon, the photo captures John and Jenny returning from 5042, with husband Andy helping to haul the trolley. The new seating has been installed and another batch to be refurbished is on its way to the Upholstery shop.

Third Rake maintenance were busy again, with Paul and Dennis giving the coaches a good wash. The broken water supply to the yard has been restored enabling this overdur job to be undertaken.

The Malvern sides of BG 81039 (our spare brake coach) and to the left, TSO 5042, were also cleaned.

 

Despite all the efforts to refurbish a number of DA valves, the Cotswold side one under BSK 34929 was failing to hold the vacuum. Andy and John removed it and carefully took it apart to see if they could fathom out what was causing this. Initially it all looked fine. As an experiment John inverted an internal plate and replaced one of the diaphragms with a softer one.

When returned, this appeared to resolve the problem and the unit seemed to be better.

 

 

There was still a slight leak somewhere which John narrowed down to the old vacuum hose at the south end. Once replace with a newer one, everything was fine.

 

When the problem with the DA valve was first noticed, it seemed to be prudent to check the vacuum pump and what better to have on hand than the Queen Mary brake van. The 21 inches of vacuum were held, the pump was working properly, and so were the cylinders under the brake van. Good news all round! 

Work on the BSK's doors continued apace. Ainsley was fitting sections of capping strip to the Cotswold side centre passenger door.

Robert, with angle grinder in full flow, was trimming down the new panelling on the left side of the adjacent guards door.

At the end of the day the new full length capping strip was on. Excellent work!

On the Malvern side Chris was attaching the budget lock to the double doors.

Also on that side of the coach Steve had fitted the draught excluder to the centre passenger doorway.

Returning to the Cotswold side, Chris also fitted the budget lock to the north end door. At the bottom of the photo the cut space is ready for the locater to be fitted, however an old screw had broken in one of the locater's holes and was giving Chris a hard time with its removal. Hopefully his efforts were successful.

Two of the doors on the BSK will need straps. The ones for the Malvern side north end door await in the entrance to be fitted.

Steve dug out the tables for the four compartments in 34929. The edges will be sanded down and depending on their condition, either repainted or varnished. The legs will probably be repainted black.

So, on to the start of the refurbishment of the enormous Queen Mary brake van. First of all, take a photo to record the necessary data and their location on the sides of the van. When the time comes for their replacement, regular readers will know that they won't be replaced by transfers.

Pam, with angle grinder whirring away (her favourite tool), gradually worked her way along the base of the van body on the Malvern side, removing all the loose paint as far as necessary.

(Photo - Richard S) I worked on the north end cleaning all the paint off the top part of the veranda, before proceeding down one of the columns. The latter was only partially successful and, with so much to do, in the end it will take power tools to remove much of the old paint. 

(Photo - Alex) In the latter part of the afternoon we were joined by Alex (who had been guard on Train 1), and Mark and Mike from the Loco Dept.

(Photo - Alex) Richard, having completed what he wanted to do on the Mink A, also joined us and was soon removing the paint from the end of the south veranda. The work continued until after 6, so making it a very long day overall. The weather was ideal for this job and looks set to continue, though becoming somewhat hot during the week. The van will replace the three Dogfish ballast wagons in the Barn once they are shunted out.

The E.O.D.T.C. (End of Day Tea Club) relaxing after a long day, a nice thing to do to unwind, especially as both Pam and Robert have long drives ahead of them (48 and 85 miles respectively!). Alex and I make up the four members, though today Alex was still busy with the others on the Queen Mary. It's often as late as 6.45 before we are all on our way.