Thursday 22nd - A typical Thursday

 Another varied day both in and out of the Works.

 

Beginning today with a wide-angle shot of the Indoor Gang having a well-earned rest. I once again missed them doing their essential work, this time ensuring all the compartment doors in this 3rd Rake SK worked smoothly and repairing a toilet door.

 Not so many tools needed this time.

 

Just along from the 3rd Rake, the Macaw continues to receive attention. Much of the undercoating has been completed and the top coating started, leaving the drawbars and awkward to get at bits to derust and prime. Clive digs deep, clearing off rust from one of the latter.

Back to the Paintshop and Clive's coach, it was just Richard working in 16221 today. The corridor had lengths of new skirting, which needed painting. However, the first job has to be a whiz through with the new Henry to remove the latest accumulations of dust, shavings, etc from the internal rebuild.

With skirting now primed ready for undercoating, Richard removes the masking tape as we aren't sure when the painting will be done. If Robert is still working in the corridor on Tuesday, we will leave the undercoating until Thursday.

On to the next job. Undercoating the first class compartment ceiling that has in the past been painted as it probably isn't laminate. Richard completed about half; the rest will be done on Tuesday.

On to RBr 1675 where Bryan uses the giant grinder to remove a vertical section of panelling and expose the left side of the door frame. Always a tight fit, this doorway will be very slightly widened to make future door opening a lot easier.

Gerry rechecks the redundant kitchen doorway that will be filled in, using two narrow vertical panels from this area and new aluminium sheeting.

Returning to 1675 later on to find Gerry removing the metal panelling from the left half of the south end.

One of Ken's numerous jobs was removing the remnants of the old footboard bolts from the metal supports. More often than not, they are very worn and corroded, with the central sections completely rusted in. With the rotten footboard removed, this usually involves cutting with an angle grinder to remove either the bolt head or the nut beneath, and then hoping to be able to knock out the central section. In the worst cases drilling out is the only way.

 

It was good to see Ken A. back after a long time away and completing the repairs to the U frame from one of 1675's corridor connections.

 

A coating of red oxide completes the job.

Back to my latest door from 1675 with the sanding down and general clean up almost finished.

The main side and edges painted with light grey undercoat. If I get the chance I will undercoat the reverse side on Tuesday, and the Door team get yet another nice clean door to rebuild.

Meanwhile, Ainsley and I retrieve two aluminium doors from storage. The blue trolley, one of two we use, is a real bonus for door transfers. I don't know from where we got them, but we have had them for some time.

 

One was put into our stores area in the Workshop, the other directly on to one of the team's benches and it wasn't long before stripping down started.

The magic of our Upholstery team. It won't be long before this ....................

....................... becomes this. Nick included a photo of the completed first class seat in yesterday's posting, and I just had to photograph it again.

This interesting list was placed on top of one of the piles of pre-cut Horsechestnut Leaf moquette. It comprises different parts of the seat and attachments - sides, tops, etc.