Tuesday 8th - All kinds of things

A busy day with all sorts of things going on. We might be lacking a coach in the Paintshop but this does provide a lot of space to spread out and, with one less vehicle to work on, we have the opportunity to get some other things taken care of.

 

Maurice started the ball rolling by dismantling the new stands for the gala viewing area,   ...............

 ............... this making the cleaning up of the tubes a lot easier without the securing bolts.

Richard's first job was giving a fresh coat of undercoat Dark Grey to the station sandwich board. Alex had to sand this back down after his initial repainting as the old lettering had been somewhat obstinate in its removal and remains had shown through the new paint.

Leaning against the Paintshop wall for a week or so had been three corridor heating pipe covers from CK 16221. Roger gives these a good sanding prior to coating in silver Hammerite. In the background is a pile of underseat grills probably from 16221's compartments which will require the same treatment.

Ainsley cleans up the edges of this aluminium door from 16221 prior to adding a fresh coat of undercoat Light Grey.

It was nice to see Pat back with us. He did a great job vacuuming around the Workshop, including cleaning up the lower section of the roller shutter. With so much sanding in the past few months of items from both TK 24006 and 16221, the layer of dust was considerable. To this end I later vacuumed throughout 16221 as much as possible, especially as some wall panel re-varnishing has been going on in there. 

Steve, Head of Woodwork, was also in and working on the internal sliding door area in 16221, but I kept missing him, hence no photo (sorry Steve!).

Richards I and II came in today instead of their usual Thursday. Richard II wades through his records, all of which are also now on our computer. They announced that they had completed their work in RBr 1672 and all electrical appliances, including the new water heaters, were working perfectly. Another job completed ready for the new season. Well done both!

 

In Upholstery Dave was busy cutting the necessary notches in the new seat bases for RBr 1675's chairs.

Another photo of the first chair to be refurbished, now well on the way to completion. The new inner covering for the back has foam padding and, having tested the chair on Saturday, I can say that it is very comfortable. A few years ago on an ordinary mid-week day, even with our rake of 8 coaches, the train was packed and I had to travel in the RBr the whole length of the line from Cheltenham to Broadway. Repeating that with one of the new chairs would be bliss! 

Three more revarnished chairs now await the team when they turn up on Wednesday.

New plyboard on one of the bubblecar seat backs. There is still a pile of seating from the bubblecar to be reupholstered. They haven't been abandoned! The chance to see what could be done with the RBr's chairs has provided a nice break and a change from the standard type of seating.

 

And now for something completely different, as John Cleese had famously said. Maurice has now joined Richard to work on the Toad brake van. Both are suitably togged up for the work in hand.

With angle grinders buzzing away, corroded metal plating is being removed. It was a good day to be out; the initial bitingly-cold wind had eased and there was no rain.

While outside, the opportunity to take a lovely photo of the 03 and newly refurbished Mink A van.

Ainsley tests the hinge pins on 16221's centre vestibule door.

The front part of the bases of the seven compartment doors in 16221 have been varnished. Keith, having cleaned up the metal backs of these, now applies silver Hammerite. In the background the final of the three chairs from RBr 1675 has been given its second coat of varnish. At the end of the day it was dry and was taken up to Upholstery to join the other two (as previously mentioned).

Keith then took over where Maurice had been working, completing the sanding down of the yellow tubes. The next job was to add white undercoat to the bases. The whole lot will be painted in yellow top coat.

Roger and Richard moved outside to do some more prep on the container.

Richard had earlier on been doing a bodywork paint repair on one of the North York Moors coaches, so returned to complete the job. Roger got going with the main painting on the container and by the end of the day had completed almost all the west end and the side. This just leaves the awkward bit behind the oil tank and the doors end to paint.