Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Carriage & Wagon Dept.

The day started at the normal speed, and rapidly gained momentum, Bryan and Rex marked up the first floor cross member for drilling. Bob cut up an enormous number of spacers for this and all the others to come.

This approach has worked very well, we can now carry on with the rest of the kitchen floor but only replacing one bearer at a time. We prepared both outer sides of the carriage, which enabled us to slide the complete section through, a quick check and weld .

We intend to do this to every floor support, with additional sections where heavy kitchen equipment will be fitted.

Bryan drilling the sections ready for the spacers to be welded in, this is where the floor panels are fixed in place.

Although you can’t see him, Bob is cutting many tube spacers for the floor bearers ….. we are going to need a lot.

Robert kindly made these woods up for us, it’s these bolted to the members which then have the floor panels fixed to them.

Dave is carefully cleaning luggage racks.

Carpenter Dave is working on what looks like a step.

Trevor is drilling a door panel.

Geoff doing a bit of fine trimming.

Colin is going home …. His day is done.

Ainsley happily poses with a door fit he is satisfied with.

Dave continues flatting down another area of the ‘Bubble Car’.

Bob is making ways with the next section of floor to come out, it is somewhat dark in there so flood lights are a must.

An aerial view of Jenny and John working on a seat back …..I think.

Finally a couple of shots of todays crew taking a well earned break.

A very wet day meant there was little chance of getting back to the Gunpowder Van. We are progressing well with that and will return to it as soon as the weather permits so as to get it ready for the Gala in early June. So today we devoted a lot more time to the Bubblecar.

However to begin with something a little different.

Alex has already published a photo of the casting of the concrete blocks that will be used as ballast for the Toad brake van. Richard called me through to the Barn to take some further photos of their production.

Richard has written the weights of the blocks on each. The small ones are 22.5 kg, the larger 27.5 kg.

A number of small dated plaques were found in the scrap metal ballast, one of which he has inset in the latest block.

A general view of the Toad with all side planking now removed.

Following removal of the last planking, Paul cuts off the hanging nuts and bolts. More for the scrap metal skip.

Meanwhile Maurice is cleaning off the old paint from the metal frame.

The ballast boxes are given a coat of black paint. It must be a very long time since the base of the van looked this clean, most likely when the Toad was built.

This harps back to last year with the roller shutter raised and a pleasant tea break. By now the rain had somewhat intensified.

Moving on to progress with the Bubblecar. On Sunday members of the Cotswold Diesel Railcar Group had come in and removed all the passenger windows, the glass and rubber seals for each being stored behind the relevant opening.

With the openings now clear we were able to make good progress removing the rust which had formed along some of the bottom and side edges. Ian was first off on the Cotswold side and found that overall the rust was generally only light and the metal sheeting cleaned up well. All the cleaned areas will have a rust cure applied.

Rather more rust on this one.

By the afternoon Ian at the far end had been joined by Russ, while Roger tackled the north end. The window edges were given a sanding all round to ensure a smooth finish and cater for any other rust spots that may have been present.

Jeff and Richard tackled the Malvern side. Besides cleaning up the window edges, the bodysides are being given an overall vertical sanding down in preparation for repainting.

The paint delivery received today includes the remaining paints and the varnish required, and hopefully the 64 year old Bubblecar will soon be looking good again.

With the repairs underway, a fresh coating of teak oil for our yard benches. With the warmer days on their way, we need to get these finished and back outside. We have been donated a heavy metal-ended bench which will need some new planking, but it will be a welcome addition for when we have a large number in attendance.

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Now to end with something a little different.

Besides the GWSR, I am also a life member of the Cotswold Canals Trust and occasionally help out at the CCT shop at Saul Junction on the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal.

It's a very pleasant place to spend a day and on a good sunny day we get plenty of visitors. This was certainly the case on Sunday (27th). The photo was quickly taken in a quiet moment. The junction with the Stroudwater Canal is just in front of the white footbridge in the far distance.

There are lots of lovely things to buy, including a variety of soft drinks, sweets and ice creams - a good hot day and the latter in particular sell in large numbers. There is also tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and even herbal drinks for which all we request is a small donation. We also act as a chandlery, selling a number of handy items for the boat owners, even bags of coal, logs and kindling..

No orange overalls here! Just the Trust fleece as it was a liitle chilly to begin with.

This is a very special corner of the shop where all the items have been made by Louise. The little knitted animals on the top shelf are especially popular. All money from the sale of these items goes to the Trust and to date this has raised almost £4000. During the pandemic Louise also made about 800 masks, almost all of which were sold, either here at Saul or at the Trust's headquarters in Stroud.

The elephant mural was also made by Louise. There are also other craft items for sale such as hand soaps, canalware (cups, tea pots, buckets - all beautifully painted), and paintings. There are also three screens showing continually changing photos of the Cotswold Canals, both the restored and unrestored sections, wildlife and a speeded up journey along the 16 miles of the main canal from Sharpness to Gloucester (similar to the famous 4 minutes London-Brighton train journey of many years ago).

Anyone is welcome!

"OK, where are the biscuits?!"

The view west towards Frampton-on-Severn on a hot day in May 2021, with the flag flying to indicate that the shop is open. The Trust's electric boat "Adventure" is to the left of the flag. On certain days short trips are on offer and the boat is available for chartered trips.