Tuesday 16th - All sorts going on

Already half way through the month and another busy Tuesday with a good number attending.

Beginning outside the Barn with the ex-GW Toad brake van.

Toads and water go very well together in nature, but not when the Toad is a former GW brake van and the water is inside the cabin. Barely visible against the leaden sky is the temporary solution to help prevent the water ingress - a former catering-sized metal can which fitted very neatly over the chimney and surrounding hole!

Bob got rid of the water that had accumulated in the stove top and around the base. The latter had overflowed and was the cause of the wet floor. He and I then cleared out all the accumulated rubbish, bits of wood, cushions and chairs. It will be good to get this van rebuilt and running again, especially as it used to be one of the two brake vans giving rides during galas.

Bob then moved into the Workshop and on to the end of CK 16221 to sand down some of the filler on the Malvern side of the north end corridor connection.

Dave was in Upholstery and continuing with the rebuilding of the Bubblecar seats. With the seat base size carefully marked out in the foam, the electric breadknife makes a perfect job of trimming off the excess.

The seat based concerned, newly covered with hessian.

Ainsley was doing an extra day, initially cleaning up the back of the droplight on this door from CK 16221.

He was later cleaning up some door handles in our new mini grit blaster.

Connected up to the compressor, this very handy equipment makes a great job of cleaning small items. The heavy in-built gloves providing the protection still enable enough manouverability inside the box.

For some parts he resorted to the angle grinder.

Alan was sanding more panels from TK 24006. When ready it was taken into the Paintshop and very quickly given a coat of varnish.

Inside 24006 Dave was reinstating some of the high corridor panelling to reduce the ever increasing quantity of cleaned up and revarnished panels, beading and other bits steadily accumulating in the compartment chosen for storage.

 Roger and Dave taking care of things at the end of the morning tea break.

Occasionally a raid of the Woodwork shop bins provides some very useful items. In this case lengths of off-cut, which when further cut into approx 15 inch pieces, make great paint stirrers.

On to the Paintshop where Keith is giving the newly created vacuum cylinder support frame a coat of yellow paint.

In fact Keith had a host of jobs awaiting him, including giving a final coat of varnish to the lamp frames destined for the new building at Toddington. These will be reconstructed and taken up on Thursday. In the forground more of TK 24006's beading, cleaned up and ready for varnishing.

Now on to progress with BSK 34929, with the Malvern side painting not far from completion. Maurice adds a second top coat to the section between the centre passenger and guards doors, in effect completing the maroon painting on this side.

Stu meanwhile has taped up both the upper and lower lines from the guards door to the south end, and begins adding the black centre section of the lower line.

Returning later on to find the job completed and the lower line tapes being removed.

Maurice took a break from lining out and instead black glossed the door handles and stops.

It was good to see Russ back in. The first job of the day was to look over the counter and store area in RMB 1808 which he will be manning when the 3rd Rake is used for our Santa Specials between Toddington and Winchcombe. Then on to the Cotswold side north end door and corner area which is still in madder undercoat. A light sand down first to key the surface and remove any unwanted bits.

Then the first top coat of Maroon. It's good to see this door and area painted at last after all the earlier problems here.

The Cotswold side guards door had been undercoated but the paint finish was somewhat rough, as though bits had been blown onto the wet paint. Roger sands it down before applying a fresh coat of madder.

The next job was to key the initial top coating from the guards door frame to the south end ready for the second top coat.

Returning to the Malvern side to find the south end fully lined out, a real treat to see.

Finally, Dave H. brought in a hinge from his 1951-built TK 24006 to show me. Close inspection revealed the "B R ( M )" stamped on one of the blades, showing the coaches origin on the Midland Region, just three years after the railways were nationalised.