Saturday 17th - Signwriting and Stirrup pumps

 A more Autumnal feeling today with the temperature set to 'fresh', the steam heating was on on the service trains. The latest batch of coal is from Poland and is rather aromatic...

The early starters as ever were Richard, Paul and Maurice on the Toad, who were fixing the canvas that has finally arrived after much delay:

I had an enjoyable day signwriting a new font, Clive who owns the CK decided he wanted to name his coach after his two daughters, and as one side was all ready, I set to with the chalk and masking tape:

Later on Dave caught me in action:

And the final result with the black shading really lifting the lettering:

Quite pleased how that came out! 2 daughters, and only 1 coach? yes the other side will be different, which won't be confusing at all I'm sure...

Meanwhile, today on The Repair Shop, Robert has bought in an old stirrup pump for expert restorer John to take a look at:

"Well it's going to be quite a challenge Robert, but I'll see what I can do."

[Spool forward]

It's an hour later, and Robert has come to see the final result.

"How are you feeling Robert, what does this mean to you?"

"It was my Grandad's you see, and he single-handedly put out all the fires in London during the blitz using it [-Ed note, check?], and, well, it just means so much to me [overcome with emotion]"

The grand reveal, "Wow, amazing, it's like new!"

"Look at that, it works brilliantly"

"How can I ever thank you enough John, it's such a family heirloom!"

It looked suspiciously like one of the stirrup pumps the evacuees' team use for school visits up at the station to me, but what do I know? :-)

Back to more sensible matters, there was a project meeting in the RBr today with members of the catering team to discuss how it's all going to be fitted out:

Presumably whatever was decided, it didn't need the bit Phil was wrenching off later:

Dave carried on with his crusade against grotty doors being rehung on nearly finished carriages sanding down another RBr door, now we'll be rehanging nearly finished doors on still grotty carriages!

Chris and Ben were examining the two emergency doors, I think the conclusion is that these are so rotten they will need to be completely replaced:

I guess they'll take the various mechanisms off and fit them on some new door skins, modded to suit?

This seat cushion marks the passing of the half way point for John and Laura reupholstering the 2 first class compartments on the BCK, normally they whizz through jobs but there's a lot more to first class seats:

Back to the CK and there was plenty of woodwork going on, after Robert's emotional moment with the stirrup pump he was out with the router cutting more lengths of trim:

Later on a bit of adjustment was required where some new skirting board was interfering with the door fit:

Simon was on ceiling duty, nice to see these panels go in after the problems with the water tank earlier in the year prevented the ceiling going in:

With all the to-ing and fro-ing it was a bit much to do any more gloss painting to I sent Pam out to slap some more undercoat dark grey on the Macaw:

Late afternoon it was still very pleasant outside and I fancied doing something on the Macaw too, so I got out the gloss and did the Cotswold side and solebar in the last couple of hours:

You can see how well Clive and the others have done undercoating all the internal framing too.

As the last of the Autumn sunshine dipped below the hills, we hung on to see Foremarke Hall through on a 'Murder mystery' Fish and Chip Special:

And then wended our way home, before we ended up as the victims!

And lastly, Sunday was another day of signwriting for me, as I made a start on the second coal wagon in the yard at Toddington:

Once again, apologies to my fellow Wednesday evening wagoners for failing to take any pictures of other progress with these, as that will be my only railway attendance for the next few weeks I shall have to try harder!