Tuesday 1st - Odds and ends

After the weekend's major shunt and now with a part empty Works, there was quite a miscellany of activites today.

Alex suggested the above last thing on Saturday with respect to our now vacant Paintshop. Interesting thought, though I think I might have trouble buying invisible paint from Williamsons. I imagine the paint code and name would be 810818INVI Brush Finish Invisible 😁

It's actually quite rare to have an empty Paintshop for as long as 2-3 weeks, as it is nearly always "coach out - next one in". So we have a chance to spread out with all available trestles, especially with so many doors to varnish and more on the way as the restoration of CK 16221 proceeds.

So, the start of a number of ad-hoc jobs with Maurice working on our two Gala Open Day sandwich boards to remove remnants of tape used to hold the notices. In the background is another station board that Alex had been cleaning up.

The next job was to give all three boards a coating of undercoat Dark Grey. Time for a bit of relaxation while you paint!

Job completed. Alex will now add blackboard paint to the main faces ready for signwriting, and gloss brown to the frames and backs.

Alan finishes off the open doorway safety barriers ready for adding the wasp stripes.

And then back to giving another coat of varnish to the many parts from CK 16221.

In Upholstery Dave was involved with woodwork for a change, producing more seat bases for the chairs from RBr 1675.

As explained in a previous posting, these have to be made in two halves to enable access between the chair legs.

One of many boards with the patterns drawn out and ready for cutting.

Another one of the ad-hoc jobs will be to paint the goods wagon container to match the other two. As it turns out we have an almost full 5 litre tin of the Roto Orange available, so weather permitting this one will also soon blend in with the others and our Works. Bob cleans off the peeling plastic signs.

Up at Platform 2 where the reconstructed Maroon Rake is currently stabled, some final bits of paint snagging on BSKD 34929 that somehow got missed while the coach was in the Paintshop. Things are a lot more obvious in the daylight! This was mainly around the door windows, while the two ceiling light surrounds in the Guards corridor needed touching up with silver Hammerite.

Sometimes it takes a dull day to get a good photo of a newly refurbished coach.

Richard adds undercoat to the new primed ceiling in the centre vestibule in RMB 1876.

With the Covid-related notices rapidly disappearing, we are left with the cleaning up. Both CK 16195 and TSO 5023 had very unsightly bits of tape stuck to the insides of all the windows and it took a lot of hard work with a scraper, soft wire wool and meths to remove it. However Richard persevered and managed to do both coaches - well done, an excellent effort!

Progress with CK 16195's doors continues. Ainsley carefully bores the holes in a new top panel ready for the brass screw cups to be inserted.

Inside one of 16221's second class compartments Dave carefully reinstates the repaired section of laminate panelling. While it makes sense to replace all the broken and tarnished formica in the second class corridor, Clive (who owns the coach) wishes the compartments to remain as authentic as possible, so we won't be replacing any compartment formica panelling with wood veneer.

Over now to the Toad brake van and what an interesting project this is turning out to be. Richard and Paul look up at the camera with smiles of contentment and, when looking at the piles of scrap metal that have been removed from underneath the floorboards and the hard work in removing it all, those smiles are fully justified.

Paul shovels out general dross which at first sight looks like an archaeological dig with a horde of coins appearing. Unfortunately the metal disks are nothing more than that! When looking at this and the pile of scrap outside, it is amazing that the little snuff tin lid, as reported by Alex in Saturday's posting, was found.

It's staggering what was loaded underneath the floor and the above pile is only part of it. The van when in use in galas had always been reported as being somewhat unstable and when initially viewed it was very obvious that all this scrap metal had simply been piled in with no thought to correct balancing. What it must have been like when in use on the big railway on a fast freight is anyone's guess! The intention is to refill just the central troughs with concrete, which should give a far better balance. The rebuild of the Toad will definitely be one to watch.

Finally two photos of newly repainted TSO 5042, as previously mentioned the dull day making photography much easier than Alex reported with his shot against the sun on Saturday.