Tuesday 26th - Good progress, gala preparations and a visitor
Another busy day with some good progress, preparations underway for the Diesel Gala at the weekend, and a stranger in the camp.
Beginning today with the "Cheltenham High Street" Toad brakevan, rebuilding the upper end walls of the cabin was well underway. Richard and Robert are testing the fit of some new wood panels.
A later photo of Robert on his way to the Toad having just made these new sections.
Meanwhile during the day Paul and Stu were busy fitting some new floor planking.
With Stu inside the veranda holding down the new planks, Paul drills holes ready for the fixings.
With the Cotswold side secured, over to the Malvern side.
While all this was going on Maurice was top coating the metal roof supports.
Richard has confirmed that all the curved wood crossmembers are being replaced with new ones.
The first photo of the day was actually taken hours earlier showing Ainsley giving the vestibules and corridor in CK 16221 a thorough vacuuming. This essential job simply has to be done regularly to keep the levels of dust down, especially after all the recent filling/sanding work on the Cotswold side doorways.
Ainsley's next job was adding the draught excluder to the doorway thresholds.
After each length of excluder was glued in, Ainsley shut the doors to ensure the rubber remained firmly pressed to the wooden threshold while the glue dried.
Late in the day, with his other jobs finished, Alex began working on the Cotswold side north end doorway to get this ready for painting. A filling/sanding session was followed by the application of sealant where required.
The final job was to grey up the right hand capping strip and end panel. We are keen to get the doorways on this side completed so that the lining out tape can go on and livery undercoating can begin.
The day started out very overcast, but as the morning progressed there were definite signs of it brightening up. The 3rd and 4th rakes stand ready for the Gala on Friday.
Definitely patches of blue sky appearing as some of the team watch the Ivatt Mogul pass by while enjoying lunch.
The fire buckets are from Winchcombe. They were painted there and then brought down for Alex to do his bit with the lettering. However first we need to paint the handles and bases black. Keith lightly sanded the handles, applied primer which soon dried, and was well into the black glossing.
Bob continued the application of Light Grey undercoat on the Malvern side of TSO 4867's roof.
Alex in his element with the recently painted notice board for Cheltenham.
With the Gala weekend rapidly approaching it was time to get cracking with the tidying up and general sweeping and vacuuming. I had already done a lot of the former and had swept out half of the Paintshop. Alan appeared and completed the other half as well as sweeping up a lot of the detritus along the sides and under the ends of RBr 1675 in the Workshop. The yellow barrier stands for the viewing area at the end of the Barn were also reconstructed ready for putting out on Thursday afternoon.
Foremarke Hall pounds past the Bubblecar, which is stabled in an excellent position for viewing from the trains during the Gala.
Swinging round to capture the whole train with gleaming BSKD 34929 passing, while Alex takes a break from working on the bogie bolster to exchange waves with the passengers.
A strange rumbling sound soon had us rushing out to see what was approaching. The unique sound gave it away of course and we correctly guessed it was our visiting Deltic on a trial run.
I checked one of my early 60s ABC's when I got home and unnamed D9019, as it was then, hadn't been underlined. A cop!
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To finish off, another type of transport albeit several hundred years older. Having already done a short postscript about the Cotswold Canal Trust's shop at Saul Junction at the west end of the Stroudwater Canal, what better than to feature the east end of the Severn and Thames Canal at Inglesham where it joins the Thames and 28 miles from it's beginning in Stroud.
So instead of my usual Saturday attendance at C&W, I took the day off to attend the special Open Day at Inglesham, just west of Lechlade.
Inglesham roundhouse and the footbridge over the Thames come into view, so not far now.
We leave the Thames and enter the canal. Both the roundhouse and bridge are private so we won't be able to access either. Through the bridge is the newly rebuilt lock.
The plan of the area. When we arrived there was already a good number of visitors and wonderful smells drifting over from the catering tent.
The display board showing a very early drawing of the site not long after the canal had fully opened in 1789, early photos of the site over the years, and on the right photos of the area before and during the restoration of the lock structure.
A close-up of the print that was published in 1793, with roundhouse, bridge and lock gates. In the background is Lechlade church.
There were five roundhouses built along the canal. As well as here, they were at Marston Maisey, Cerney Wick, Coates, and Chalford, and along wirth other buildings along the canal, were built to house the watchmen, or lengthmen as they were also known.
The rebuilt walls of the lock.
One of the lock paddles.
The Trust owns a short length of the old canal bed. The towpaths on both sides are clear and make a very pleasant walk.
Looking back towards the visitor area.
The end of the walk and currently as far as we can go. Beyond the overgrowth is the route towards Kempsford, Eisey, Latton and the Cotswold Water Park, which in effect is Phase 2 of the overall restoration of the two canals from Saul to Inglesham.
The view from the footbridge over the Thames towards Lechlade and the walk back to the Riverside Park.
More photos from the day, taken by Mike Gallagher, the CCTs official photographer, can be seen at:
https://cotswoldcanalsrestoration.co.uk/photos-from-inglesham/
The CCT's main website is at:
https://cotswoldcanals.org/
Both Maurice and I do volunteer work for the CCT, Maurice with one of the many workparties maintaining the current restored stretch between Eastington and Brimscombe, and myself at Saul shop.
