Saturday 9th - Paying our respects

 Once again I was wearing multiple hats today so I didn't quite get round everyone before disappearing off to wave flags. But I think I captured most work going on on CK 16221, so we'll start there with Ben servicing a door lock:

On the coach itself Ainsley and Robert had a door each:

 

And John was happy making some more door plates for them:

Steve was shaping another of those pesky door liners, I'm old enough to remember when one of the team said rather hopefully that he thought they'd be a bit easier on this coach!

Simon was once again making great strides on panelling, another unwieldy piece carefully cut to shape is being manoeuvred in, it looks like it's for a vestibule end somewhere:

I too was in the workshop today unusually, I set up camp on one of the benches for a therapeutic session cutting up metal/plastic printed signs:

No not just because I don't like them! They will form part of my sign-written replacements, I needed something to paint the individual times on that can be easily changed, and it's always good to recycle. These had been lying around since 2019 I think, we have to get a new set for each station for each timetable printed each year which is expensive and not very sustainable.

Elsewhere in the workshop there were other non-coach activities. Andy has been going round auditing our scaffold towers and was instigating a colour code system of some sort today. Quite what blue denotes I have no idea yet!

While Kevin was making sure he was on top of all our supplies of cutting and grinding discs and the like, and generally keeping our store area functioning.

Just Phil on the RBr today, continuing the dismantling (it didn't look like a dismantlement today...) underneath:

Even upholstery had switched from RBr chairs to a running repair for a change. I think this is from one of our FKs, and necessitated digging out a role of moquette we have had longer than John has been a volunteer:

I didn't ask how old that makes it, but it does show it's worth hanging on to things.

There was lots of activity on the toad today, Nick was in to finish off the Cotswold side of the toad:

(left pic thanks to Richard, both of us were of course safely behind something to avoid the glare)

Paul and Maurice carried on removing old paint:

After I'd gone, the new panel was in green primer, and Maurice has got the oxide out again:

Photos thanks to Paul there.

The paintshop was relatively quiet, which allowed Bob to make great strides on the roof, I think he must have finished all the undercoating as he was on to top coat before I left:

Alan was also in to start on the side lighting for the paintshop. This will make it easier to see where we've missed a bit!

Last on the agenda is the gunpowder van. On Friday afternoon after a gala meeting Mark and I thought we'd have a go at doing the drawbar exam. The split pins put up quite a fight but after some conversations with the angle grinder they eventually gave up. More awkward was the nut. Although it was far from sized, winding it off was nonetheless extremely awkward:

Thanks to the vacuum through pipe, we could only get less than 1/8th of a turn at a time, each time having to flip the very heavy spanner to get the different angle. Even taking shifts, it took us quite a while, and we ran out of time and energy to finish the job.

Back to Saturday then and Pam (nice to see Pam back in again) and Dave were on 2nd top-coating and roof cleaning duties respectively:

It'll soon be over to me for the signwriting - doing the second side is never as exciting as the first!

Come midday and all work ceased for an important occasion much delayed by Covid lockdowns, the scattering of ashes of our former head of department and my blogging predecessor Peter Bennett. It was a perfect day for it and we must have been quite a sight all gathered in our orange workwear along with Peter's family to remember him and his love for the railway. We had some very touching poems read out by his daughters and some lovely memories from his wife Jane.

Just yards away from Carriage & Wagon he can keep an eye on us for ever more.

Afterwards we enjoyed a light lunch and exchanged memories of Peter with his family, and it was good to finally mark his passing properly, his funeral having been during the full lockdown. RIP Peter.

One last photo from Saturday, things are still slowly getting back to normal, this time with the return of our Fish and Chip evening specials. Many customers had held onto their bookings since 2020 rather than ask for refunds which was much appreciated and helped tide us over what has been an incredibly difficult time, and it was nice to get back into the swing of these again.