Saturday 18th - Nearly there

Not long to go before the big day now, but still a goodly amount done. Starting off out in the barn where 4763 was a focus for much activity. The dirty gang started off with some spring adjustments to the newly fitted bogies:

This was then followed by a quick shunt up and down the yard to settle all the suspension and see what effect it had had:

By the afternoon, focus had moved onto investigating for steam leaks, with the aid of some smoke and a vacuum cleaner lashed up connected to the steam heat pipe:

Also on 4763 was Simon and Steve (not pictured) doing some internal repairs; here Simon is resealing a window:

On the adjacent through road Paul and Richard carried on with work to strip the toad down. The aim being that when this comes into the workshop properly once the Mink is finished, Nick and his gang can hit the ground running with the metalwork repairs required on the lower sections.

Life was fairly quiet in the workshop, just Phil working on more light fittings and fixtures:

Speaking of light fixtures, Robert showed me the chrome plated ones for 24006 when  went to see what they were up to, he took them home and soaked them in vinegar which brought them right up to a shine again:

Today though it was back to veneer sanding in the compartments, I think they are getting there with this mammoth task!

16221 did see work done towards it today although most of its activity was in the woodwork shop. Robert was on the bandsaw cutting various parts out:

While Ainsley was fitting the wood sections to one of the door skins:

John, Jenny and Laura were back on bubble car seats today, here cutting some of the fabric for the backs of the seats:

Onto 34929 with Dave and I on the final hurdles. Dave was applying filler round the last door and frame to be signed off by the door team to cover all the screws:

While I applied the number and "GUARD" lettering on the Cotswold side (Thanks to Dave for the photo):

And later on painted the black waistline between the 2 yellow bands on this section too.

This will probably be my last post before Christmas, so I'll take this opportunity to wish all our readers a very merry Christmas, thank you for the interest shown in what we do, the views and comments makes it all worthwhile.