Monday 1st - That Was Different!

 It's Monday so it must be Carriage Cleaning. Routine trip - down to Toddington, round the island, into a deserted Toddington - NO!! The driveway was jam packed with cars parked down each side, barely a space down the middle. The old garden centre carpark was even more packed - a BBC Drama Unit had made camp! They are filming for a new series of the drama "Shakespeare and Hathaway". 

We went in through the sliding gate to be met by Peter the gardener. The unit needed our hose off platform 2 to get  a water supply to their vehicles. (Must have tea!). That was going to be entertaining as both rakes were in the station and needed washing.

Nigel P and Greg were inside rake 2 (first time it hade been in a platform for some weeks) with John and Paul washing the Malvern side of it. So Mrs Blogger and I went inside the main set, rake 1. Now anyone who was there last week, or looked on the Broadway webcam, will know it was busy. In fact full and standing on most trains most of the days. Combination of half-term and last week of the shareholder vouchers. We are very pleased to see that, but the inside of this rake (the only one used every day) reflected how busy it had been. In 11 years of carriage cleaning we have never seen a train needing so much tidying. The picture below shows a crushed biscuit in a far and awkward to get at corner (under a table). Hurray for the Ghostbuster! Much of the train was similar.

Later Mark and Paul moved over to washing the Cotswold side of rake 1, while John attended to all the toilets on both sets.

Now you may recall that this platform hose had gone on it's hols to the film encampment, so the hose had to be detached from platform 1 and re-assembled here on 2. After that it had to be returned to it's rightful place.

None of this is rocket science but it does add a lot of physical effort for the old codgers who do this! 

But we enjoy presenting a smart train and there is real satisfaction when it is done. You can come to the Gala this weekend knowing that the trains are well turned out. See you there!