Thursday 9th - Winchcombe Wagon & Wagon

There was a definite emphasis on wagons today, with progress on the Queen Mary, Mink, and the Dogfishes in the barn.

Starting with the Queen Mary, I carried on where I left off yesterday evening with the needle gun, going round the insides of the veranda sides where they meet the floor where there was lots of stubborn delaminating metal rust. Outside, Dave:

Phil:

And Bob (not pictured) picked up the rotary wire brushes to take more old layers of paint off. It really does cut through very well. With Needle-gunning very definitely requiring ear protection you can lose track of what's going on outside, I eventually noticed that Phil and Bob and taken shelter, and looked up to see why!

That looks quite wet! I didn't fancy kneeling in the big puddle that had formed on the floor, so I dashed inside to find out what everyone else was up to.

Dave had retreated to the paintshop to do some tidying up work on the central door on 34929, yes more sanding and filling:

Dennis spent most of the morning looking for a tool we use to clip vacuum hoses on. He eventually found it and here is cleaning it up and making sure it works properly:

Structural work on the dogfish has been completed, and John was conducting a brake test with the portable vacuum pump:

The first one worked pretty well once seals had been changed, the second one not so well. Oh well, win some lose some. He also saw an opportunity with Phil and Bob out of a job and with power wire brushes still out and plugged in, and suggested it would be a good idea to clean up the hand wheels that operate the hopper doors and the brake wheel, so off they went:

Although we'd been instructed not to even come close to them with a paint brush, painting the wheels, and more importantly the lettering saying which way does what, seemed helpful. Hopefully we can do some more intense cosmetic work at some point in the future, especially if they're going to be fairly visible in the yard.

Once the rain had subsided a little and ventured out to find Bob in 24006, painting the ceiling in the corridor:

The rain did stop eventually and we went back outside to do a bit more. I also caught Paul finishing off giving BG 81039 a scrub to remove the green tinge that had grown on the side:

Another shower and we all dashed in again!

It all got a bit much for Phil, it's tough going this wire brushing!

I'm not sure what's crueller, me putting this photo in the blog or the fact that I woke him up with the needle gun, not the gentlest of ways... :-)

We still managed to nip out to see some trains, rain might stop work outside but it doesn't stop us watching the locos pass:

Finally, with the rain set in for the afternoon I carried on painting planks for the GWR Mink. As I had a bit of time left and both sides were ready for it, I also made a start on the sign-writing, Dave caught me at it:

And the "finished" side:

I do enjoy doing that script font on the right hand side, and with the right brush it's actually easier than what you might think of as simpler styles, no need to spend time getting crisp right angled corners and so on, it just flows. It needs another coat yet, but for the photo, it looks done. Well, apart from the minor points of the doors and roof...