Saturday 12th - Back with a Bumpy Start

 The slightly longer than expected close season has still absolutely zoomed by, and it was great to have trains back running today. It was quite busy too with all four locos out either on trains or on test runs after their winter maintenance. Foremarke Hall came down mid-morning:

P&O also came and went light engine, rather rudely during tea break! So the next one was 4270 coming back from Cheltenham:

Today was also the first trial of the new 'ovoid' coal from Neath. A big lorry load turned up on Wednesday:

And our normal Wednesday evening wagon session was slightly diverted to replacing some rotten planks in two MOD ex-BR open wagons to put a load of Shotton coal in:

Measuring up the planks:

And in, job done:

At some point we'll splash some paint on them to tidy them up a bit as they're covered in graffiti at the moment from their time down at Hunting Butts. In the meantime they've already been filled up (Photo - Mark):

And it was just as well that we had all four locos out as initial trials of the ovoids fell rather short of satisfactory. Dinmore Manor missed its crossing point at Winchcombe and had to wait for Foremarke to help take it to Cheltenham and back:

Dinmore came off on the train's return to Toddington, and then at some point Foremarke was swapped out with P&O too!

4270 seemed to do ok but still wolfed a whole bunker down, normally that would see it through 2 days:

While at the end of the day P&O had completely run out having eaten its way through a tender's worth, and Dinmore, having filled up with some better black stuff, now played the part of rescuer to take the train back again!

What a palaver! Thankfully we've got enough Welsh to see us through the races without any drama, after that, who knows...

Anyway, I seem to be labouring under the delusion that I'm writing the loco dept blog here, sorry about that! Back to C&W matters.

The panelling on the CK is really starting to fly on now, Steve and Simon both hard it it:

While Robert was making a start on the dreaded door pillars:

I seem to remember at some point someone hoping these ones might be a little more straightforward. I think that may have turned out to be a little optimistic.

The corridor end doors are looking pretty smart now too, Dave was tidying up the edges:

I was surprised to see the contents of the barn today, the completed Mink has somehow ended up back inside (with the rest of the goods train at Todd there's nowhere obviously permanent to put it right now anyway) followed by the 03 in for more repairs, the toad at the far end, and RBr 1675 on the jack road:

Clive and Ken were disconnecting bits to give it a lift:

And it's up! John carries on investigations underneath:

A pair of legs under the 03 suggested Chris was having another go at investigating the air problems with this shunter:

Some problems were resolved (safety valve replaced) but a couple of leaks remained unresolved.

Meanwhile on the Toad the removal of scrap metal continued, with Richard, Paul and Bob all having a go:

A start was also made on disconnecting the vacuum cylinder on the veranda. It's going to be a bit awkward to lift out:

Away from vehicles in the works, there was plenty else going on. The pile of bubble car seats to be done grow ever smaller as Laura strips down one of the few remaining:

While Jenny builds another up like new, with John working on a chair for the RBr:

Phil was doing some soldering with the blowtorch, but I'm afraid I forgot to ask what the higher purpose was:

The most important repair of the day though goes to John, who sorted out our broken bench for sitting and watching the trains outside the barn, now we're operating again and the weather is cheering up this is essential!

Slightly more seriously essential, Paul and Dennis gave a final clean through of the third rake, the only remaining rake with us - it'll be going up to Broadway on Thursday ready for Gold Cup Day:

With the paintshop still largely empty, I occupied my time painting up some fresh C&W open signs for the galas:

And Dave carried on the vacuuming, now is a good time to get on top of it, how often do we do the roller shutters!?

Finally, I received a very nice present from Mr Rapido the model railway manufacturer. Last year they visited to do some filming with the Gunpowder van to launch their model of the same. As thanks I got several vans in a variety of liveries, naturally one in GWR just the same as ours!

Hopefully if the weather's nice on Tuesday the gang can make a start on tidying up the other side of our real one, as the plan is to have it in this year's goods train we can't really get away with just having the one side painted!

PS Just before I started writing this post our total view counter sailed past a quarter of a million views - thank you to everyone who shows an interest in what we do, it means a lot!