Saturday 7th - Glorious weather

Yet another gloriously sunny day and to that extent the post starts off the same as Thursday with Paul back outside and cleaning on the Malvern side of the two display coaches.. 

The back of the Discovery Coach was cleaned on Thursday, so now it is the turn of the Model Railway coach. The paintwork on this side of both vehicles is less weathered, but being the damper side has areas of green algae that need removing. The garden is very popular with our visitors, especially at lunchtimes, and we like using it too on days such as this, so we need to keep everything tidy.

The flow of chairs from RBr 1675 seems to be never ending. Laura begins the removal of the old material, springs and padding from this one.

Well that's the bulk of it removed, which just leaves all the awkward bits of material and staples to clear from the seat base.

This chair is well on the way to completion, with fresh coats of varnish and the seat beautifully re-covered. John begins sorting out the moquette for the seat back.

Returning during the afternoon to find Jenny and Laura both dismantling yet another chair.

John is busy with the wood glue, repairing one of the chairs stripped down during the morning.

My first photo of the day was actually of Laura and Jenny proudly displaying their new name tags that were created by Louise C.

Down below in the Woodwork shop Laura's husband Simon is in the final stage of creating another ceiling frame for one of the vestibules in CK 16221.

With guidance from head woodworker Steve, Simon creates a new wood support block for one of the ceiling lights.

Into the Workshop where Robert is working on one of the liners for the Cotswold side centre doorway on 16221.

Moving across the Workshop where John is using the large crosscut saw to produce a number of short lengths of steel.

After further work on the milling machine the end result will be a number of door locaters as in the example in his left hand. 

John and Andy in discussion while contemplating the new pipework which has just been given a coat of red oxide. I forgot to ask where this was destined (probably RBr 1675)

In the Barn and busy vacuuming out the seating area in 1675 was Ian.

More good progress with the Toad brake van with Maurice undercoating the grab rails.

[Photo: Paul E.]   The Malvern side grab rails already done.

Paul sanding down more of the cabin planking before applying dark grey undercoat.

The newly rebuilt door is also undercoated.

Paul and Maurice enjoying a well-earned lunch break.

Once again taking the advantage of a fine day was Dave, busy sanding down more of TSO 4867.

The recently cleaned up parts now with a coating of red oxide.

It was good to see Rod back in and temporarily returning to the Painting and Prep team. He is working on the remaining bits of filler at the north end of the Cotswold side of the Bubblecar.

As for the south end, yahooo! Out with the Verdant undercoat, but that newly opened tin will need a fair bit of stirring.

[Photo: Rod]  Caught in the act!

The Bubblecar had previously been given a top coat, so with much of the paintwork we should only need to patch with undercoat where filler and sanding has been done, the exception being the door sides and edges which have had a lot of work done on them to fill in the space between the wood frame and metal panelling.

Hopefully the Festival of Steam being held over the Bank Holiday weekend will have the good weather we are currently enjoying. Preparations for the opening up of the Works to our travelling public are already underway, and for the first time we will be enabling the Upholstery shop to be viewed. With 9 engines in steam, four rakes of coaches, a goods train with brake van rides, and the short shunting train at Winchcombe, and 14 miles of glorious Cotswold scenery, it should be a very good gala. Discounted advance tickets available at https://www.gwsr.com/tickets_please.html don't delay!