Tuesday 27th - Mainly the CK and RBr, with an L&BR ending

Apologies about there being no blog posting for last Saturday. Alex was enjoying the NYMR Gala, while Pam and I travelled to North Devon to visit the L&BR for their Autumn Gala. 

More of the latter later in this posting, but in the meantime here is a wrap-up of Tuesday's efforts, mainly comprising work on CK 16221 and RBr 1675.

Beginning with Ian, who is still working on the Malvern side doorways on 16221. In this case paintable sealant was a better solution than normal filler.

Richard continued his undercoating of the single compartment ceiling that in the past had been painted.

All the interior sides of the windows are tarnished and need to be cleaned up. Pam begins in one of the first class compartments, using a combination of wire wool and 240 sandpaper.

After finishing his initial jobs Keith joins Pam in the next compartment. The work is somewhat time consuming but the results in both compartments were very good. Pam managed to complete a third compartment, so just a single first class one left to do. There are of course the windows in all the second class compartments and the corridor that will need to be done.

Robert had once again spent the morning with the Wartime Evacuation Experience team, taking charge of another group of school children. With that over it was back working inside 16221, attaching more draught excluder, this time in the Cotswold side south doorway.

Richard finished off the top part of the south end, adding matt black to the connection rain cover.

Still more varnishing required for the remaining compartment doors. This second class door needed a second coat ............

 .............  while the first class one at the other end of the Paintshop is probably into its third coating. The more the better!

One of the jobs Alex listed on the white board is to clean and paint the north bogie (the south end one is temporary so will be left). Alan begins the clean-up, though thankfully very little had congealed oil to remove.

Alan took on the Malvern side, and intended coming in the next day to complete the job.

When Alan had left for the day, I finished off this side with a little sanding to remove any rough patches and, happy that cleaning had been done as much as possible, ran over the whole side of the bogie with the vacuum cleaner. It was very satisfying to see the change as the Underframe Black went on. Obviously we will have to move the coach slightly to complete the wheels!

On to 1675 where Derek was adding more floor supports to the steel cross members. It will be good to see the new plyboard floor go in instead of all the rough temporary sections currently in place.

In the Woodwork/Doors shop Ainsley continues working on one of the two doors obtained from storage last week. The lazy tongs securing is once again proving a battle to release.

On the next table Rod finishes off the cleaning up on the back of this door. The curved window sections are fiddley and difficult to clean with a pad sander, so scrapers and old screwdrivers are the usual replacements.

 

My last door was brought into the shop and I painted the back in light grey undercoat. Over to the Door team now for the rebuild.

Ainsley had finished stripping down his door, so it was transferred to the Workshop where I began its cleaning up.

Outside avoiding the occasional showers was Dave, applying red oxide to one of our storage vehicles. This is a very useful job as it not only provides some protection, but in effect tidys up the vehicle's appearance.

It was a good long day with the little EODTC group enjoying a final cuppa and chat before leaving for home.

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The L. & B. R. 2022 Autumn Gala - 24th/25th September

Another excellent Gala put on by this wonderful little railway, and with some glorious weather too. The Autumn Gala is always the final weekend of September to be as close as possible to the final weekend of the original railway in 1935. 

For Pam and I it was an early start on Saturday, but following a good run down, with both the M5 and A39 behaving well, we made it just in time for the first train to Woody Bay from the new parking area at Killington Lane. This saved a lot of time from the previous gala weekends when shuttle buses were run from the car park at Blackmoor Gate to Woody Bay.

The first train of the day had "Lyd", the recreated Manning Wardle, visiting from the Ffestiniog Railway. It was good to see her back again.

This photo just had to be taken with "Lyn", the recreated Baldwin, and "Lyd" next to each other. Unfortunately I missed the double header which ran later on. Just imagine the day when the Railway's own recreated Manning Wardles, "Yeo" and "Exe", are up and running.

 The third engine in steam was "Axe", the WW1 veteran.

"Lyd" waiting with the next train to Killington Lane. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long before it will be "the next train to Parracombe".

A busy scene with "Lyd" and "Axe". "Lyn" was at the rear end of "Axe"s train.

In the new Woody Bay Tearoom is a large panel with the basic history of the line, with one of Eric Leslie's lovely watercolours as centrepiece. To the left the line up of replica nameplates of the five engines.

A panel dedicated to Eric Leslie, who's delightful watercolour paintings have graced the L&B magazine, posters, and many books about the L&B for many years.

New at Woody Bay is the Woody Gate Garden Railway, a live steam 16mm gauge railway which will be running every Saturday, weather permitting.

The little train didn't hang about once it had been released, hence the blurred image as it speeds by.

For anyone interested in more information on Woody Gate, their website is https://www.twomoorsgroup.org/woody-bay-garden-railway. There is an excellent montage of photos showing the construction of the railway, which began in February this year.

There were many stands in the marquee some with working models, including this one of Parracombe Halt. 

On the other side of the bridge is St Petrocks Church and "Fairview", previously owned by Len Wooder and his wife, who used to make delicious cream teas. Len had a lovely 16mm garden railway based on the L&B which he happily demonstrated when they had visitors. The house has been sold and the railway now long gone, but when I saw it in 1986 it was a delight.

The miniature traction engines were back, this one giving rides again between the station and miniature railway and car park.

As always a display of veteran cars, this lovely little Austin receiving a lot of attention.

The miniature railway was again in action with "Lyn" at the head.

This time it was topping and tailing. I didn't note the name of this lovely loco (enlarging the photo unfortunately doesn't help).

The Victorian Re-enactors were at Woody Bay again, in fact more this time than I have ever seen. We were much honoured to receive a visit from Her Royal Highness.

With so much to look at, we didn't have so many train rides and as such I kept missing "Lyn". However I did get this footplate view from the train.

It is impossible to become tired of the views of Exmoor from the train, with the Welsh coast in the far distance.

A final sequence of the penultimate train of the day returning to Woody Bay, the last photo reminding me of the one taken by Roger Kidner on 29th September 1935 of the very last train, with Leslie Catchpole collecting his camera from beside the track - it must have been a very poignant moment.