Wednesday 21st - A bit of heavy metal

With time moving on the metalwork team try to be together on arranged days, this is particularly useful when we have large heavy items to move into place. With just a few pieces to remove, and then prepare for welding, we decided to give it a go and get the south end buffer plate in position before the end of play.

Removing the remnants of the south end buffer plate on 1675. The gas axe makes short work of it and then a clean up with a grinder, all nice and flat.

These plates are incredibly heavy, so as seniors we feel its right to use mechanical assistance.

After careful checking I (Nick) moved in and welded it in place.

With the puddle welds done, underside and inner edges will be next.

Meanwhile back in Admin. Ian and Eve quietly doing all the paperwork bits .... I have invited Eve to be trained as a welder ...... she declined the offer.

While on the personnel theme, here is Colin and Geoff otherwise known as the Chuckle Brothers .... two rather good carpenters.

Stephen is I think assembling yet another seat back/base ......

..... This is what they look like when complete.

The rest of the upholstery team are hard at it, as usual.

Back in 1675, Gerry is measuring up to close off a doorway to the corridor, he is standing in what will be a superb kitchen/food preparation area ..... there will be photos eventually.

Bryan is removing a badly corroded door pillar, we have found it much easier to remove the whole thing and build with new full sections. We work in conjunction with the doorfit team, so when they move in their job is more straightforward.

Speaking of doorfit, Trevor is fitting a re-furbished lock assembly.

And to finish, it would have been rude to have walked past Alex's latest creation, and not taken a photo.

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I'll sneak in here with a report on the evening shift at Toddington, seeing as I won't be at Winchcombe for a couple of weeks due to other commitments and I finally remembered to take some photos.

Arrival at 5:30ish presented a bit of an 'Oh' moment - how do I get in now?:

One new coal dock assembled, from the sleepers we took up on the Macaw a few weeks ago. Filled with a mix of Polish and Columbian I'm told, the Welsh is on the blink again.

Anyway, to wagons. Although the initial brief on the 2 coal wagons was just to make them look pretty rather than any ideas of actually running them, now that we've mostly done that (I'm still plodding on with the signwriting!) thoughts turned to 'Well, actually...'

To that effect, we've had the drawbars out on James Taylor, Winchcombe to follow, and some pipe for vac through-piping has been bent up, but tonight was axleboxes. Dan got stuck in, Mark supervising here:

There were plenty to go around, Rich took on some more, this one right where I was right in the middle of some lettering:

Never mind, I'll go and find another bit. Meanwhile Greg went round the underframes with some more black, inevitably having painted the lower bits first they got dripped on and scuffed with subsequent work, but Greg was on it:

Everything was given a good check over and a thorough clean, spiders who had set up camp in the axleboxes displaced, and the pads were left soaking: