Tuesday 8th - A big leap forward

Apologies for the lack of a Saturday posting. I was the only one from the Painting Team available to work on TSO 5042 and with the pressing need to get this finished I had to abandon my usual additional reporting role. Alex, Bob M. and Michael were all involved with the annual Guards/TTIs seminar, while Pam had a car accident the day before. Thankfully she is ok, but is now without a car, so was also unable to come in.

So, no blog reporting, but as a result I was able to top coat the whole of the Cotswold side of 5042 (bar the windows and door/doorway sides) and grabbed a quick photo before leaving for the day. Thank you Robert for staying on to allow me to finish as lone working is verboten. We left just after 6.

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Now on to Tuesday.

Stu was the first of the Painting Team to arrive and before starting work on 5042 we took a walk around the coach. The top coating on both sides had come out very well, so the decision was made - we go with one top coat instead of our usual two. There is still a lot to do, and with our deadline getting ever nearer, it seemed a sensible decision because should an earlier shunt be required we would be in a better position to be able to achieve that - after all it is only meant to be a "quick repaint".

 Richard got going with the windows on the Cotswold side ............................

 

............... while Stu started on the sides of the doors and doorframes. 

All that remained to top coat on the roof was the centre section, so Phil being the first in of the roofing gang got the job.

Roger carried on with where he left off last week and completed the undercoating and several other jobs on the south end.

 Bob black glossed the north end.

The next job for Stu was to black gloss the grab and door handles, door stops and tops of the droplights on the Malvern side. The bottom tape had to be removed first of course.

With the roof completed Phil joined Richard and finished the window painting.

While all this was going on Maurice worked his way along the Cotswold side, black glossing the sole bar and steps. Bob later carried on with the other side to finish the job.

The other big leap forward was seeing the first of the doors fitted to the Mink A van. The second door was fitted later on and both were aligned perfectly. The van's owner later visited and was delighted with the progress. No wonder because this really is a top class effort put in by Richard and Paul.

Later in the day Paul adds a second top coat to the other pair of doors.

After seeing a finished product, and then preparing for the next big stage, this is almost back to basics as Paul primes some wood spars that will be used as beading along the top of the van's sides.

The repair work on RBr 1672 has been in our news a lot recently. With most of the excellent work done by Nick and the team now finished, it is the turn of the Painting team to finish off as far as possible the repairs to the door pillars and surrounding panelling. On Saturday Tony and Bob B. had put on some fibre paste filler to cover some minor rust holes. So when not taking photos, I sanded this down, and applied more filler, sanded, and applied more filler, sanded, etc, etc. 

A final overall sanding and undercoating in brown had it all looking very much better. Still more work required in the area (capping strip to fit, new floorboarding, etc), but we are getting there, and when that has been finished we will add a final top coat of GW Brown.

Ainsley was working on this door on CK 16221 trying to release the lock. I tried to assist by securing the bolt on the other side of the door, but to no avail. The door was later removed to the Door Team's benches.

A later photograph captures Ainsley building up the back of a door. I forgot to ask if this was the same one. All these parts have been created by the Woodwork Team.

The new cleaning materials cupboard for BSO 9000 was given a second top coat by Keith. Below is the alcove in the disabled compartment where the cupboard will reside, and a pile of cleaning materials ready to go in! By the end of the day the paint had dried and Keith was able to put back the handles and budget lock.

Keith gives a coat of primer to the four guards rails that will provide protection where there are coach doorways that have had doors removed and are not being used for access. This will be followed by undercoat White and top coat Yellow.

With all that done it was back to more varnishing, and later staining with yet more sanded beading appearing from CK 16195.

Dave prepares even more! The corridor, vestibules and first class compartments in the CK are going to look quite something with all this put back in place and given a final overall coat of varnish.

Never one to stay still for long, with all that beading cleaned up and taken down the Paintshop for Keith, Dave got back to sanding down one of the compartment doors from the CK. Behind him another awaits its turn.

It was a very different tranquil world in the Upholstery Shop. Dave, back from his holiday abroad, was tackling another of the Bubblecar's seats and removing the spring layer. The wood base was in definite need of repair.

Just prior to leaving at the end of the day, two final shots of 5042 and the day's progress.

More will be done at the south end on Wednesday, and on Thursday we can begin the lining out, and if Bob K. is in, complete the painting in the two end vestibules.