Tuesday 12th - Pretty in pink!

After the very quiet Tuesday last week, it was back to the more normal attendance for Tuesdays with 10 of us in. Add to this John H. who came in and then nipped up to Toddington to sort out a leaking vacuum hose, and Peter H. from our Maintenance Team who also appeared for a while, and we felt we were really back up to strength.

Many thanks to Alex for looking after last Tuesday and doing the blog posting while I was on holiday in Wenford Bridge again. 

As expected, the main push today was the Queen Mary van. The 40th Anniversary Gala looms ever closer and we need to have this ready in time.

Paul undercoats the various prepared wood sections for the van - there were more planks on two trestles behind me which will replace those cut away from the veranda sides.

 On to the van itself. Maurice began cleaning up the south end vacuum pipe.

Stu was back in and took on more undercoating in the made-up pink (combination of white and madder undercoats).

One of the jobs listed by Alex was to give the cabin a good tidy up and thorough vacuum. I extended this to the verandas as well. Henry looks on to a much improved south veranda.

 

By now Maurice had removed the vacuum hose and was making a very thorough job with the pipe.

 Roger appeared and took over the clearing up.

With the undercoating in the Paintshop completed, Paul continued with the cleaning up of the Malvern side of the north end bogie.

Having removed the worst of the paint flakes and other dross, Roger resorted to vacuuming the rest of the cabin and then moved out to the north veranda. The whole van platform looked so much better tidied up and cleaned.

Cleaning up completed, Paul began undercoating in the dark grey.

Bob appeared and took on the blacking up of the Malvern side of the south bogie.

Time for the morning break, so a quick shot of the north end with the fresh pinking-up literally just completed by Stu. The top sections of both ends need some metalwork repairs which is why the undercoating has only been partially done.

As it was a quiet day we were able to do some further work on BSK 34929. Richard sanded and then filled where necessary the right hand guards door pillar on the Cotswold side of the coach.

Keith had whole load of work waiting on the painting trestles. Beginning with undercoating the new scotches, then adding another coat of black gloss to the new step (destined to replace a rotten one on one of the 3rd Rake coaches), black glossing the table legs for 34929 (these had been screwed down so no fear of them toppling over!), and finally continuing all the primary and secondary varnishing of the beading and panels from TK 24006. The undercoat on the scotches dried quickly, so later on were coated in yellow (just "C&W" to paint on each, add the blue string and they're done!).

Meanwhile Dave H. had produced yet more panels from 24006 for sanding, so Alan got cracking with 80 sandpaper, then finishing off with 120 and finer as required to completely remove the ancient varnish.

In theory we are now back to using the Mess room, but these fine days keep dragging us back out, especially as we can watch the passing trains. The little van in the background is the "Barry Wagon 1388". The correct description is a 10 ton Iron Mink built by Metropolitan Carriage & Wagon Works for the Barry Railway (hence the "B R") in 1914. 

Another small job with 34929 was to finish off the painting on both corridor end doors where repairs to the French key locking had been made.

Dave H had been busy loosening more of the seating in 24006 for storage in one of our vehicles used for this purpose. Roger and I helped in the removal process.

Available work on the Queen Mary diminished as the afternoon progressed so Stu transferred to 34929 and added more varnish to the disabled vesibule.

Returning to the Queen Mary to find a much cleaner cabin. Paul had cleaned up the little stove and flue pipe.

The final colours begin to go on as Maurice and Bob apply the red gloss to the north end buffer beam. Maurice had already done the south end.

A final photo to finish off the day with the van now really beginning to look the biz. A good number of the items on Alex's list had been done. Had we had more time we could have got the ceilings undercoated, but the remaining items needed what was painted today to dry first.

Foremarke Hall on the last train marks the end of the day. Just a few weeks left now before the end of the main running season. We have our viewing area outside the Paintshop back with the ballast train elsewhere in the yard.

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Finally a little indulgence to end today's posting.

When first staying at Wenford Bridge in September 2020 we walked most of the Camel Trail, which in effect is the old Wenford China Clay line to Boscarne Junction and then on the Wadebridge and Padstow. Our favourite sections were Wenford to Helland Bridge and then from there to Nanstallon Halt, just beyond Boscarne (ref my blog posting of 1st October 2020 "A Devon and Cornwall Interlude"). It was a treat to walk both sections again, the second and longer section once again being our favourite.

In 2020 no trains were running on the B&W because of the pandemic. We had no luck this time either as the Bodmin-Boscarne arm of the B&W was being tamped. However the Camel Trail Tea Garden just beyond Nanstallon Halt was open and made a great lunch stop before returning to Helland bridge.

When nearing Dunmere Halt the Camel Trail takes a diversion towards the Bodmin direction to join the Bodmin-Wadebridge-Padstow section and avoid the very busy A389. We took this diversion in September 2020 and did so again on our outward journey. However the original route taken by the china clay line to Dunmere still exists and can be walked, so on our return this time we opted to do this and were rewarded by finding another buried set of tracks across the road. We had first seen this at Helland Bridge.

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Just over a week before Alex and I had driven to Exmoor to visit the L & B on the Saturday of their Autumn Gala. It was another excellent day with a lot going on. We did miss seeing "Lyd", the Manning Wardle replica from the Ffestiniog, but it was nice to see the replacement, another WW1 loco (unfortunately I haven't got the details).

We had a number of rides on the line. Also the little loco "Faith" (Pam's favourite) was doing brake van rides, so that just had to be done - "Faith" is still for sale - I hope it remains on the line if it does sell. We also took a ride on the extended miniature line which this time had a mini version of "Lyn".

So a small selection of the many photos taken during the day.