Tuesday 18th - Another glorious day and a bit of history

It was another beautiful Autumn day, with most of us enjoying lunch outside and the temptation just to sit and enjoy the sun was very strong.

Great to enjoy lunch sat on one of the Baguley-Drewery railcar trucks with Foremarke Hall just a few yards away.

Back to the work on CK 16221 with our flooring contractors Bob and son Pete (with magnificant beard) making great progress laying the first of the grey marmoleum.

We had a good painting session on the CK with almost all the Malvern side given its first top coat, and Maurice (above) and Stu (below) doing a great job.

 

On the Cotswold side south half Richard took on the black lining out; Alex had done the yellow on Saturday.

This just leaves the corner and end door to line out. The Cotswold side will then be finished, bar the varnishing of course.

 Ian completed the Underframe Black painting on the north end.

He then moved round to the Malvern side to complete the various parts under the frame that we intended to paint. Further Gloss Black was added to the sole bar.

A pleasant surprise early in the day was to see Pat walking into the Paintshop. Living in South Wales, he comes up for several days and stays locally. This week he is with us Tuesday and Wednesday, and then working in the Coffee Pot Cafe on the station on Thursday. 

A long outstanding job has been the removal of some flaking paint in the guards corridor and disbabled area in BCK 21092. With the flaking paint removed and that area coated in Undercoat Cream, Pat repaints the remaining parts of the wall in Executive Light Grey top coat. He intended repainting more of this area on his second day in.

Alan takes on the job I started on Saturday, removing more old paint from the last of the doors for RBr 1675. I carried on after Alan had left for the day. Just a bit more clearing and then it can be given a coat of Undercoat Light Grey, a job passed on for David A. the next day.

In the Door/Wood shop Ainsley cleans up ... er .. not sure where this is from, but I think two of them ended up on the painting trestels. 

A new heavy wooden base for one of the quarter doors from 1675.

There was a stack of items for Keith to paint, including the new sign boards which will go up inside the Works. With the boards primed by Alex on Saturday. Keith paints the frames in Undercoat Cream. The centres will be painted in Undercoat Brown.

 Tony was continuing the maintenance of one of the two bogies currently in the Barn

 

Popping out to see Clive working on the Macaw, just in time to catch the DMU on the penultimate run of the day to Cheltenham.

 

A lot of work has gone into bringing the Macaw bogie bolster back to its current very presentable condition. Still quite a bit to top coat, mainly inside now, before it can be replanked. This side still has to receive its signwriting, a job Alex has asked Pam to do.

 

It really was a glorious day.

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Richard Unitt

In a recent posting I mentioned that Richard Unitt, who was our Head Painter for many years and my mentor when I joined C&W, had passed away. Unfortunately Richard had retired before Peter Bennett had started our first C&W blog and as such we were not immediately able to locate a range of photos from which to choose for our Memorial Wall. However we now have two good photos of Richard thanks to C & W's Phil S. and Neil H. from the Friends of Winchcombe Station.

[Photo : Phil S.]  This was possibly taken not long after C&W moved into the old Goods Shed, which of course we now call the Workshop.

[Photo : Neil H.]  - The date is 31st May 2008 with Richard doing the lettering on this 1903 LSWR wagon. 

Owned by John Randall (our former Head of Upholstery and now deceased), the wagon was based in the old goods shed at Broadway, which is located in the caravan site there and now owned by them. I have very fond memories of working on this wagon during the first five months of my time at C&W. Half of the plank floor was left out so that the drawbar mechanism could be viewed. When moved to Broadway it was displayed complete with an old railway Scamell truck and manekins, and so the story goes, there were complaints from the ladies using their shower facilities that they were being spied upon by men looking out of the goods shed window! The manekins I believe were moved to less conspicuos positions. Please do correct me if anyone knows anything different.

Meanwhile Alex has said that we (the Railway) have been asked if we could repaint the wagon as the paintwork is now looking drab. - more than that, it is now parked outside the goods shed, so understandably it has sadly deteriorated.