Tuesday 9th - Back to normal

Great vibes continue to come in after the Gala, in particular the success of the freight train and the Queen Mary brake van rides which made over £1000!

There are now many videos on You Tube of the weekend and entering "GWSR 40th anniversary gala" will display any number for viewing, including one taken of the ride in the Queen Mary van.

After the brilliant Gala weekend, it's back down to earth and the return to normal - well, not quite as service trains are now finished until after Christmas. We still have PWay rail replacement trains as required, Race Specials, and of course the Santa season beginning at the end of November.

Gala sandwich boards and signs collected on Sunday evening and dumped in the lobby ready for dismantling, and returning along with the display boards to their home on top of the store room racking.

On to the day's efforts and at last we could begin the lining out on the Malvern side of BSK 34929. The outer tapes for the lower line are in place on the north section, but Richard spotted a tiny bit between the tapes needing a touch of filler. With the tapes in place it had to be some very careful sanding to avoid damaging them.

At the south end Maurice watches Stu carefully positioning the upper tape.

With the two outer tapes in place, the centre tape is now added. This creates the spaces to be painted for the two outer yellow sections of the lower line. The position of the centre tape is accurately marked in pencil using one of the brilliant little line gauges created many years ago by Rod, when he was a member of the Painting Team.

With all tapes in place Maurice works along with the yellow paint.

Richard has now moved over to the Cotswold north end door to do further repair work on the frame after some more trimming had to be done to ensure the door closes easily without sticking.

The end result with the door frame and edge repainted in madder undercoat.

Keith was once again busy on the trestles with a variety of painting jobs. The Toddington light frames received a second top coat, and then it was catch-up time with these brackets that have been made for the back of train headboards (they have been sitting around in red oxide for quite some time and had received just one coat of black gloss). They will be taken up to Toddington, along with the lamps, next Tuesday.

Next to be done are the handrails for 34929.

Progress with the Bubblecar seats continues apace. Martin (a member of C&W and the Cotswold Diesel Railcar Group) recently brought down another batch from Toddington, which await in the lobby. Meanwhile in Upholstery, Dave is repairing part of a wooden seat base.

Returning to the BSK where Richard is now continuing repair work, this time on the Malvern side guards door, again after an amount of remedial work had to be done to ensure ease of working.

The initial lower line yellow painting has been completed and allowed to dry to a tacky state, and is now receiving a second coat by Keith. In the background where Richard and Maurice are talking is the guards door - this and the two sections either side still need a second top coat, but Richard's efforts should mean that we can now get this done.

Richard adds a second coat of yellow to the top line.

With the yellow painting completed, all the tape is now removed. The lower section of the top line and central section of the lower line are now ready for gloss black. A good day's work and heartening progress towards getting 34929 completed.

Ainsley, as our new head of the Door Team, came in today and continued reorganising their work area. The two large cupboards have been undercoated - these will make excellent storage. The bench with the added facility, allowing a door to be placed edge on, has been moved to the centre of the three.

A dismantled lock was put in the decreasing machine and is now ready for reconstructing.