Tuesday 19th - A very productive day

A good number attending on what turned out to be a very productive day.

Starting with the Toad brake van, Stu is removing the worn out planking in one of the doors.

Maurice is back on the south end, wire brushing the upper halves of the vertical girders.

Returning later in the day to find Maurice has coated the cleaned up girders in red oxide and has almost completed undercoating the lower half of this end.

Stu has been similarly busy undercoating the sides

Other parts are also being undercoated.

On the Malvern side there is still some metalworking left to complete.

The final concrete ballast block newly made.

The stripped down door and the support for the vacuum cylinder, which is currently being overhauled in the Workshop.

Our new gala barrier stands are proving to be very useful as this is the second area where they have been put to temporary use, reserving an area in the Workshop for the new floorboarding for the Toad.

It was a lovely morning, so time to get back out and try to complete the main painting of the Gunpowder Van. Phil applies top coat to the south end of the roof on the Malvern side.

All that remained lower down was the Cotswold side underframe area. With the van pulled out to allow more access, Ian applies Underframe Black

Unfortunately the clouds gradually pulled in and annoyingly it started raining, which put paid to any more roof painting. However Ian was able to complete his work as the areas left to paint were in effect under cover. So, bar the bit of roof to finish, main painting is complete and it's now over to Alex to add the embellishments on the Malvern side and at both ends.

We had a good number on the Bubblecar today which was heartening as it has been rather out of the picture with so many other things to get done. Roger works in the north end cab entrance on the Cotswold side. There were never any capping strips fitted to the door frames, and some of the gaps between the wood frame and metal cladding are relatively wide. As such we will probably fill most of these rather than use sealant.

Russ continued with the removal of the window warning signs. The bared areas were then undercoated.

At the south end Richard rubs down the filler that had been applied to the 13 holes next to the guards entrance. The CDR group members had been in last Sunday, put in new screws and then added the filler.

The busy scene looking along the Cotswold side. Russ later moved round to the Malvern side to continue with the window warning sign removal..

Richard later moved on to the job I was doing on Saturday, applying very fine filler to the back of one of the toilet doors from TK 24006. He later undercoated it. The other side has already been varnished, hence the underblanket protection.

Until the rain started Dave was busy chipping the old paint off the roof side at the south end of 24006.

Another tea break over.

As with the underseat grills, cleaning the luggage racks from CK 16221 seems to be endless, but we are getting through them. Alan tackled this one and began a second. A good rub over with soft wire wool certainly brings them back up.