Saturday 26th - Double Out-shopping

 Today was the big day for two vehicles in the works to emerge into the daylight, along with another round of general shunting to prepare for the new season. A wander outside the barn first thing showed a perfect sunny dry day, except...

What's that stop board doing there!? It marked the limit of possession for the tamper, and rather restricted what movements we could do. Happily we could still do the main events, so here's TSO 5042 after its 6 week repaint:

Apologies it's into the sun, I'll have another go when it's on the other side of the yard.

And then GWR Mink A 124589 after a total rebuild and overhaul:

It looks fantastic, well done to Richard and Paul who did the majority of the work on this.

It was soon shunted round the back alongside the Toad which is next in, giving a pleasing "before and after"

By now I'd also managed to fit the replica works plates too.

So, on to the toad. The shunting restrictions precluded it being brought a bit closer to civilisation, but that didn't stop Paul, and for a few ours myself, continuing to clear out the ballast boxes of scrap metal:

There's several tons of it, and it's all interlocked and rusted together! But we shifted a fair amount. 2 of the biggest "finds" today were these ratchets, possibly part of a DC brake assembly?

And the smallest was this box of scented snuff!

Back inside, and we have a somewhat unusual sight for more than a couple of hours at a time, an empty paintshop:

There's a gap in our carriage schedule for this space, so something a little different is being lined up for the next project. In the meantime, it was a good opportunity to have a more thorough clean-up than is usually afforded. Dave tried out the new Dyson donated last week, with excellent results:

And Bob cleared out the tracks - it's been a long time since we did this!

A photo I forgot to include on Dave's blog on Thursday was one of him sorting out another temporary door guard on 16221 taken by Richard:

On to 16221 today then, and more good progress was to be had. Simon and Steve carried on panelling the corridor side, it feels like great strides of progress are being made when this happens:

While in the woodwork shop David and Robert carry on production of door furniture, today panels and uprights:

There was still some old panelling for Dave to sand down:

While Dave was refitting some in one of the compartments:

Undisturbed by all the movement downstairs, Laura and Jenny continued stripping down the last of the bubble car seats:

I think they had recovered these by the end of the day, but I'm afraid I forgot to go up and take another photo.

Out in the barn BCK 21092 had its heater pipework finished off by Ken:

Assisted by John and Andy, who admonished me for capturing "The least technical part of the process" in making some brackets for the pipes:

Outside RBr 1672 was having its brake rigging reconnected over the pit, which first required it to be drained, Phil doing the honours:

The dirty gang then moved in, doing one end, pulling it a bit further up, then the other:

And by the end of the day, was replaced in the barn with its sister 1675, yes it's finally in:

This is going to be a pretty major project, initially it's in for a full assessment to be made of work to be done so we won't be jumping in head first just yet.

Thursday 24th - Getting ready for Saturday

No surprise that the final run up to the Works shunt on Saturday and the pre-season activities on the Maroon rake involved most of the staff in today. However progress with CK 16221 and the Mink A van continued.

Beginning with the Maroon rake, which now comprises the full eight coaches, though this will be just for the race trains. Then we will be back to seven.

In our infamous BSKD 34929 Paul is busy cleaning the new disabled compartment.

With the heating connections completed under the north end compartment, the seating has been put back and Geoff and Alan, our hardworking Indoor Gang, are reinstating the table.

Then there will be the seat numbers to put back.

Still to fit in the guards compartment are the keeps for the metal flags - these have been temporarily removed from other brake coaches to act as templates.

The 34929 spectre of door trouble rises again, this time with the Malvern side north end one where the lock is catching as the door is closed. Ben removes the striker plate to take it back to the Workshop and try and resolve the problem. And in true 34929 fashion the Cotswold side double door closes easily but the handle now won't return to horizontal unless twisted by hand - this was working fine when the coach was in the Paintshop. Arrrrgh!

Good news with RMB 1876, the wet ceiling problem in the central vestibule did turn out to be a roof leak. Bob M's treatment with the bitumastic paint provided the cure and the new ceiling panel has dried out, in turn allowing Bob K. to add a coat of primer. We'll go straight to top coat white on Saturday.

One of Alex's pre-season jobs is to add our new location numbering system to the coach ends (shown in a later photo). With so many coaches, keeping a record of what has been done is a very good idea - Alex updates his list.

Gas inspections for our RMBs were planned for today, but unfortunately a last minute cancellation meant the coaches in Platform 1 had to be returned.

On now to CK 16221 with the first job of the day for the Indoor Gang. Alan, assisted by Geoff, is installing a drain pipe in one of the new window frames.

The new pipe, which will be trimmed to a couple of inches below the body side and painted black.

Geoff now adds some battening ready for the plyboard panel to be added.

With the laminate either broken or generally in a poor state, the owner Clive is happy for the second class corridor to be fitted with plyboard. With three or four coats of varnish it will look really good when completed and a great improvement on what was originally there

One of the second class compartment laminated panels has broken. So do we also replace the laminate in this compartment with varnished plyboard? We await Clive's decision.

In the north vestibule Robert is sanding down more of the veneer panelling. A huge amount of effort has gone into doing this throughout the coach - are we nearing the end?

On the benches Dave is finishing off another access door from 16221. There are now a number of 16221's doors in the Paintshop either waiting for varnish or in the process of being done.

Boards removed from the bottoms of the compartment walls under the windows. All are in a poor state and will need replacing.

During a quiet spell Alex continues his white lettering on the new works plates for the Mink A and Queen Mary vans. This job was later taken on by Michael, who had been looking after the signalbox while the shunting was going on.

Nick tests a new receptacle for one of the locking bars from the Mink A van.

Now to finish it off with a little welding. Before starting Nick poses while I take the photo.

On now to RBr 1672. Following the repairs to the corridor floor and adjacent kitchen door area, the final job was to top coat the latter in GW Brown.

Finally on to the final work for TSO 5042. In the south end corridor connection Phil removes the curled up bits of old lino poking out from under the track for the large sliding door. The bare wood underneath was then painted.

5042 has its new location numbers added to each side of the connection.

On Wednesday David had cleaned all the windows on the Cotswold side. Today it was the turn of the Malvern side with Jeff and Bob M. doing the job.

One door back panel needed a second coat of varnish. The backs of all the doors look really good now when opened.

Another little job was to repaint the communication cord flags red.

How did we miss this? A late discovery by Jeff when he went to clean this window was to find that the trough at the top of the main pane didn't have any sealant and the edge of the glass was showing. So Phil applied paintable sealant to the exposed trough and later coated it in cream gloss.

So, that's it. The quick repaint job took 6 weeks as planned and has come out very well, especially as the three vestibules have also been completely refreshed too. Roger took care of the sliders so they all work.

To finish off the day, Alex, Michael and myself prepared the Paintshop, Workshop and Barn ready for the shunt on Saturday, clearing everything away from under and around the coaches and Mink van. 5042 and 1672 will be returned to the rakes, while 16221 will come back into the Workshop and RBr 1675 will be brought into the Barn. 

So what's coming into the Paintshop now that the repaint of Class 26 26043 (formerly D5343) has been postponed? Watch this space!