Tuesday 21st - Queen Mary priorities

A lovely sunny day to work outside and what better than on the giant Queen Mary brake van. 

One appreciates its sheer size when trying to work out how we are going to set up the taped enclosure at the end of the Barn which we traditionally put in place for the visiting public (for viewing and photographing the trains) during our Galas. The Diesel Gala is this coming weekend.

On the Malvern side of the van Alex is removing the last of the wooden battens from the original planking. As previously mentioned, it's great to see the original S R on this side too. It will be a lovely sight to have this vehicle fully painted in Southern Railway freight livery, especially knowing that it still has its original planking in place.

On the Cotswold side Maurice is power cleaning up more of the metal ducket.

Roger is in the south veranda sweeping up the latest results of sanding and general paint chipping being done here.

With his work above completed, Alex is back to needle gunning the main frame.

Stu did a number of jobs before joining the team on the Queen Mary, including priming more wood sections for the Mink A van.

There is still a reluctance to return to our Mess Room, especially on a lovely morning. We are going to miss this when the days pull in again.

It wasn't all about goods vehicles today. Alan is cleaning up the table legs for the four compartments in BSK 34929. He later coated these in red oxide.

Keith was giving edges of the table tops a further coat of varnish. He then went on to varnishing more of the beading from TK 24006. His first job had been to give a coating of undercoat white to a display board for the gala.

Kevin was busy sorting out more of our spares. All his hard work over the years has made our lives at C&W a lot easier.

After lunch Stu undercoated the hand wheels on Dogfish ballast wagon 992930.

Back to the Queen Mary and with a lot more metalwork exposed, Maurice proceeded to paint on more of the green anti-corrosive primer.

Almost the end of the afternoon tea break, but being such a nice day, nobody was in a rush to return to work.

Alex contemplates his next job with the Queen Mary. He's been on that phone again!

There was a definite look of determination as he acknowledges someone's gesturing hands.

While Alex uses the mini-air lance (where's our long one disappeared to?!) to remove the dust and paint particles, Stu continues with the priming.

The final job of the day on the van was to put back all the nuts removed from the sides when the metal cladding was taken off.

I spent a lot of the day tidying up parts of the Works and preparing the Paintshop for our Saturday gala visitors. Alan takes over the job of vacuuming the floor, with Keith assisting with the broom. Stu and Maurice began their day sweeping the main path through the Barn. The main setting up will be done on Thursday, with the final on-the-day bits done on the Saturday and Sunday before we open up.