Saturday 8th - Plus Overtime

 It was good to be back at Winchcombe today after 2 weekends of absence.

A parcel of goodies awaited me in the admin office when I arrived, Our first 2 new display boards for open days and the like:

They're 1m wide so nice and readable. Come and take a closer look at them during our mixed traction gala at the end of the month when our workshops will be open. 2 more will be had just as soon as I've written and designed them...

Onto today's work then. John knew exactly what his job was today, because Dave's Thursday post told him! Step one, will the offending part come apart in a reasonable manner?

Happily it did. Then it was out with the pipe thread cutter:

and new section of pipe fitted by the end of the day. well done John!

Just George on the CK today, it's good to see some undercoat madder finally go on on the Malvern side, it's fallen quite far behind the Cotswold side now:

Steady progress is being made with the RBr though, Ken was working on one of the corridor connections:

Steve was investigating some of the woodwork inside:

And Ainsley and Ben were contemplating the next door:

Jenny was continuing the work on the 2nd BCK 1st class compartment, in that lovely Horse chestnut Blue:

Maurice and I fitted all the Malvern side stanchions to the Macaw before he carried on top coating the bogie frame, later moving to the inside frame members:

Some wag had alternative thoughts on the livery:

Meanwhile I was itching to do some signwriting. Given the underlying condition of the wagon it was tempting to leave it at just this!

But by the end of the day one side is all sign-written. From this low angle it looks pretty well finished!

Of course there is still the minor job of planking the deck, which I suppose we shall have to contemplate soon.

As you can tell it was a lovely Autumnal day, and when the Sun was out, still pleasantly warm, enough to have lunch outside and watch Dinmore Manor glide past:

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Oh and the overtime? Well although I've not been at Winchcombe for some time, Toddington on a Wednesday evening has continued, mostly focussing on the 2 coal wagons now we've decided we want to run them during the MT gala.

To that end, last Wednesday evening we dismantled the drawbars on the Winchcombe coal wagon, the James Taylor one already having been completed. We knew they were stuck and needed some heat so arranged it positioned over the pit in the shed. After a bit of gentle persuasion it all came out straightforwardly enough:

Then it was a case of inspect, grease by Mark and Richard:

And Greg did the honours reassembling and tightening up:

You'll notice there a through pipe has been fitted for vacuum operation, thank you Neal for doing that.

While they were busy with heavy bits of metal I was fiddling around with some of the smaller lettering:

No, I hadn't had a drink before doing 'MANAGER'! That's how it was, I've no idea why.

We have been pottering on with the GWR water tank in-between times as well, with the timbers now in position and the stanchions rivetted on you can sort of tell what it's going to be:

Last thing Wednesday evening I suddenly thought to get a quick pic of the tank for it that has arrived in the car park too, just for the record:

Sunday I came in again for some more overtime and the coal wagon signwriting is now almost finished, just 'GLOS.' to go go underneath the second Winchcombe (In case you weren't sure where The Winchcombe Coal Company was based)

Much as I've enjoyed it, I'm glad that's the last one for a while, next one to be based at Usk or Par perhaps?...