Saturday 11th - Ring the bells !!!

Indeed it was a day to celebrate but more on that later.

Beginning today in the Barn with the final work on the two bogies destined for TSO 4763, which is sitting on the through road..

Using two spanners Andy Tu. is undoing the nuts securing one of the brake hangers on the north wheelset of this bogie. 

Alan meanwhile has removed a hanger from the other side of the bogie and is preparing to clean it up.

In the Workshop John had been requested to make some disks that would be used to ensure that the brake hangers were centrally located i.e. the brake pads rubbed the centre of the wheel tyre, not the inner edge or the rim. The circular cutter made a noise somewhat reminiscent of a Sci Fi "B" movie.

One of the old disks used as an example.

A vertical view of a brake hanger on the south wheelset.

Andy Th. uses the pressure oiler on the south bogie.

John has taken some sample disks to Andy Tu. for trial fitting. Meanwhile Alan and Clive continue working on the other side.

Disks were required at different thicknesses. However the inner circle cutter began to give up and as such John resorted to the lathe to do the job.

 Some of the disks made by John.

Much later in the day Ian fired up the 03, the refurbished bogies were pulled out and TSO 4763 transferred to the jack road.

The end of the day with the coach body raised, 4763's original bogies in the foreground, and the refurbished ones under the coach. The original ones will in turn be refurbished and then used to replace those under TSO 4798.

The Toad Brake Van has also been brought into the Barn, where stripping down will continue in the dry.

 

The rebuild of the Mink A Van continues with the three recently painted end planks now going on. Richard inside the van positions each plank in turn and Paul carefully drills the necessary holes ready for the bolts. With the securing bolts pushed through the plank and metal frame by Richard, Paul can add the nuts and proceed to tighten each one.

From the busy activity in the Barn and north end of the Workshop, in the quiet of the store area our indefaticable store keeper Kevin continues doing a great job, here sorting out a quantity of new wire brushes. These soon become gunged up with all sorts of muck when used on bogies and undersides of coach bodies, so need regular replacing. Everything is so much easier to find nowadays - all sorted out neatly and labelled. Well done Kevin, a cracking effort!

On to Clive's CK 16221 where George is quietly continuing his work on the coach ends. Now cleaning up inside the north end vestibule, George has made a great job on the ends, with some very good undercoating in dark grey.

Inside the south end of 16221 Dave E. is preparing one of the corridor skirting boards and giving it a trial fit.

Some more adjustment is needed, so back to the Woodwork Shop. The cutouts are for the bodyside ribs.

Ken is attaching new springs to the sliders from one of 16221's corridor connection doors. This is a very good job because these heavy sliding doors can become very difficult to move, especially when they have been left in the open position for a long time.

 

Working with the aluminium doors from 16221, wooden inserts are essential. Ainsley carefully trims another section prior to glueing it inside the door edge.

Towards the end of the day Robert had taken over the job. These inserts provide the means of attaching the various parts of the door where this is no longer possible with the normal locations - steel screws are notoriously difficult to remove from aluminium, the two metals in effect "welding" together.

Dave H. was back on sanding panels from 16221, leaving Robert to work on inside their coach, TK 24006.

The pile of sanded panels and beading from 16221 for varnishing continues to grow at the end of the Paintshop. The larger ones on the left are the remainder of the original batch from 24006, as are the ones on the trestle which received their second coat of varnish today (note the reflections in the wet varnish). Other items visible on the trestles are some more cleaned up scotches for internal use, and the dismantled axlebox tool described in Thursday's posting, all primed ready for painting.

I'm sure Father Christmas would be happy to oblige if he could! This was discovered inside the blue notepaper box (on the trestles in the preceding photo).

Walking through the Paintshop a familiar black triangle of folded up wings was spotted on the floor. This little fellow had no doubt been woken up from hibernation by the warmth from the Workshop heater. Attempts to find him a nice quiet place inside failed and when the opportunity arose he flew out of the open lobby doorway. 

On the Paintshop wall and in the lobby, our new C&W Carriage Component Reference Scheme describes the new way of identifying the various parts of the coach. As a common reference point the position of the dynamo has been selected. It means that should our coaches be turned the references in the coach records will be consistent. So, Malvern and Cotswold side, while ok for the transient nature of blog postings, will disappear in records. Some door renumbering will be inevitable, but it is hoped the long term advantages will overcome this.

Upstairs in Upholstery Laura, Jenny and John are tackling another seat back from the Bubblecar. As described in Wednesday's posting, the removal of the old staples and bits of material from these is a very fiddley job.

We keep the Meet The Teams section of our blog up to date, hence a lovely photo of new member Laura with which to update the Upholstery Team section. Last Saturday Alex had already provided a great photo of Laura's husband Simon, and the Woodwork section has now been similarly updated.

It took me a while to find Simon, until Steve said he was working in TSO 4763, repairing a table leg fitting.

Steve was gradually working his way through our currently out-of-use Open coaches in the 3rd Rake siding and identifying what needed attention. I imagine it will be quite a list. I already have several things that I have identified for a repaint, one being the guard's corridor in BSO 9000. 

Further along the rake Dennis had moved to FO 3132 "Mary" with his vacuuming. This is inevitably a job that needs doing a number of times with all the traipsing in and out while repair and maintenance work is taking place, but it does mean that the coaches will be in a good state when the normal rakes are reassembled prior to the 2022 running season.

As it's a Saturday, you may have been wondering where Alex was. Today he was guard on Train 2, very ably assisted by TTI Islay. Both of course are attired in the traditional Christmas jumpers and festively attired caps.

So why are we ringing the bells? I think the notice below says it all !!!

At long long last, the doors on BSK 34929 are finished. It has been a very long hard road for the Door and Woodwork Teams, but Ainsley's email the day before indicating that Door 9 (old number) was finished, was confirmed by Steve who checked it this morning.

At last the Painting and Prep team can complete the exterior repainting of the coach. We are going to be very busy next week.

The big smile from Robert after all the efforts with the door frame. Well done team, a great job!