Thursday 9th - Almost back to old times

The title really sums up the day with 23 attending and a very busy Mess Room for the morning and lunch breaks. Busy with a number of jobs, I didn't manage to capture everyone, so apologies to those I missed out.

At the time of the photo two of our staff were at Toddington.

Beginning today with BSK 34929, it was very much a day of putting things back and snagging. Phil J. reinstates the freshly painted grab handle by the Malvern side central passenger door.

In the north vestibule this access door is slightly warped and as such showed some of it's unvarnished edge. A wipe down with wood dye, followed by varnish soon made this "invisible".

Over the years various items have been removed from the cupboard area outside the guards compartment leaving a legacy of holes. Richard set to and filled these, and then sanded the whole area. A fresh coat of Excecutive Light Grey will complete the job very nicely.

Meanwhile Jeff visited a number of places within the doorways, tidying up the lines. It is difficult to get tape to sit nicely within the angles in the door frames and as such paint seepage occurs under any poorly seated bits. We spend a reasonable amount of time paint snagging - it may seem fussy, but the extra effort is very worth while and completes the overall job properly.

In yesterday's posting I had Phil S. putting back the innards in the spare light fittings we had recently cleaned up and repainted. The light fittings are actually the ones from TK 24006. Here he is attaching the wires to the little internal units.

Over to the 3rd Rake siding which is currently a storage line for the unused open coaches that have been removed from the Main Rake. What a contrast in the weather - a much better day.

Richards I and II were busy adding new cable under BSO 9000 prior to installing a new battery charging unit. They are very pleased to have a warm, wind-free day for a job like this.

On board TSO 4772 Dennis is busy with the vacuuming.

Further along the rake in FO 3132 "Mary", Roger is making use of an extremely long drill bit while firming up the central headpad. When squeezing past the table to sit in the outer seat, the headpad makes a very useful handhold - in fact it's hard to access the inner seat without using this. Unfortunately over time the pads begin to come loose and require longer screws.

Hopefully this one will do the job !

In the next bay Alan is doing the same repair on another seat back. 

If you are coming to the Railway for the first time, do try and get a seat in this coach - they really are a delight to sit in.

 

CK 16221 was Derby built, so the captive bolts for the grab handles are BSF, not Whitworth. Ken checks that we have the correct nuts for these - where have the originals gone?

Dave is busy with the sander again, but these lengths of beading aren't from his TK. Almost everything being sanded now is from CK 16221. There is now quite a pile of stuff by the Paintshop trestle tables for varnishing from both the TK and CK.

One of several panels recently removed from the CK. Paul carefully unscrews the back to the heater control unit. Interesting seeing "15096" on the back of the panel - wonder when that was chalked on?

With the arrival of the new rubbish skip, time to sort out that big pile of scrap seating piled up in the yard near the Barn. Gerry, Bob S. and Nick take a break from metalworking to do the job. The old metal seat springs were put in the metal skip out of sight on the left. Paul looks on having brought out a pile of scrap beading and panels from the CK.

Later on the sound of grinding outside the Barn drew me out. The team had now moved on to the larger seats. Apologies for the blur - the interior padding was being torn away as I took the photo.

It was nice to have Richard J. back for the day. Richard was Head of C&W for over 18 years prior to becoming the Railway's Chairman. John, Ian and Richard spent the day working on the two bogies destined for TSO 4763 on the other Barn track.

Our very inventive metalwork team have come up trumps again with another creation. Bryan calls me over as Rex and he are just about to trial their new equipment for helping to lower the heavy bases of axleboxes.

With the axlebox nuts loosened, the base can begin to be lowered.

This may seem a bit over the top, but when you have an axlebox full of a mix of oil and water, you don't want the base section crashing down with that mix splashing over all and sundry. Well done chaps! Bar the jack, the rest of the equipment is now on a Paintshop trestle and will re-emerge in the usual Goldcup yellow.