Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th - A busy three days

A three day posting so as to ease the flow a little, especially after Alex's excellent one of Saturday's freight charter which we had no doubt would end up with a high viewing total. The video was great - that lovely dum-dum-dum sound of the wagons on the rail joints - wonderful stuff! We all really enjoyed seeing the train go by the Works. Our GW freight train will continue to grow - let's have some more charters!

Tuesday

 

Pam's signwriting improves each time. She carefully adds a second coat of cream. Two boards now completed, with four more to go, and other projects on the way, the next being a plaque in memory of cleaner Phil Hooton. 

Some more seat tops for CK 16221 being varnished by Keith, who then gave the last of the three second class compartment doors a final coat. 

Fitting the luggage racks in 16221's second class compartments was much easier as no changes had been made and thus no new holes needed drilling. Dave H. and I soon had them all in place. 

David D. continued adding a thin beading along the edge of the skirting boards, this time in the vestibules. The addition of the beading throughout most of the coach gives a lot more to do for the Painting Team, but it looks so much better. 

Richard adds wood dye to the beading in one of the toilet compartments. We usually paint the beading and it "disappears" being the same colour paint, but this time keeping the strips as varnished wood looks very smart.

It's a long job cleaning the internal window frames throughout the coach, but Ian is doing a great job in the second class compartments. They look so much better with all the years of tarnish removed.

Ainsley test fits another newly cut aluminium panel to the back of one of the kitchen doors from RBr 1675.

 

A number of the newly added crossbearers in 1675's seating area are given a coat of red oxide by Derek. This will enable him to begin adding the floorboard supports.

Out to the Barn entrance, made a little warmer with the roller shutter up as the sun is shining. Maurice adds the Bauxite/Freight Brown mix of top coat to the north end of the vanfit, in effect completing the first coat - presume a second one is being added?

 

Robert is working on one of the new doors for the Malvern side of the van. I caught him completing a lengthy sawing session.

It was cold out, especially in the shade (hence Stu's heavy coat and wooly hat), but ok to complete the filling on the Malvern side of BSK 35308 that Pat had been doing last week.

Nicely sanded down and Madder undercoat added. Well done Stu. Given another decent day when we are in and we will get this top coated. The next bit that needs repairing is just above the guards door handle. The guards corridor still has to be finished, but is already looking very much better.

The afternoon is slowly fading with the escarpment looking glorious in the lowering sun.
 

Wednesday

A few photos taken by Gerry and Rex of activities during the day.

[Photo : Rex]  The metalwork repairs on 1675 is coming on in leaps and bounds, but there is still a huge amount to do. New panelling has been put in place for the south end windows on the Malvern side.

[Photo : Gerry]  Chris continues the preparations for fitting the second pair of preformed end panels.

[Photo : Gerry]  As we proceed along the Malvern side, more and more of the cantrail and attached frame under the roof edge is proving to be severely corroded.

[Photo : Gerry]   Rex busy with the grinder - cleaning up more welds along the edge of the new preformed panel on the Cotswold side?

[Photo : Gerry]  Ken A. enjoying his work - his long time metalworking experience is a great boon to the team.

[Photo : Gerry]  That emergency window has commanded a lot of our time, but just for once I think Geoff and Colin are sorting out the missing panelling. Ben finally got the window to close properly, as previously reported, so hopefully it isn't causing a problem - he is looking happy so I guess all was well.

Thursday 

On to Thursday and a good attendance with a lot happening. It's often the Mess Room that is the attendance indicator and there certainly weren't many free seats during the 11 a.m. break.

Beginning with Eve in the office who did a very useful job creating contact notices for displaying in our cars on very busy days when our car park is crammed. Also very useful when we have a large lorry delivering and occasionally a car has to be moved to allow a turning area.

 Dennis giving the seating in FK 13326 in the 3rd Rake a deep clean. 

A selection of "buried treasure" found in the first few compartments.

Looking very nice and welcoming after its clean. 13326 is unique on the Railway as it is the only coach with this charcoal check moquette. Not everyone likes it, but as I love dark grey I think it looks lovely.

A new door panel for NYMR SK 24804 with Roger and Alan checking the fit. It did need some more adjustment but the predicted heavy spell of rain that swept through I believe prevented the final fitting.

An ensemble of electricians. Richards I and II discuss current plans while Steve is creating more led lighting for our coaches, which is all good news for our coach batteries.

 On now to CK 16221. First job of the day? Another vac through and tidy up!

At the moment there is a lot of work conflict within the coach, so for example main panel varnishing in the corridor and vestibules is currently not possible. However Jeff was able to get some undercoating done on unpainted skirting board and some of the new beading.

Dave H. has been experimenting with suitable mirrors for the second class compartments. However I remembered that Clive has a framed batch that he obtained at an auction, which I guess he may wish to try and fit. We will see on Saturday if he is in.

Quite a collection of mirrors from our store with different logos for both British Railways and British Rail.

Dave E. was back on cleaning the tables for 16221 and making a very good job of it.

We need new table legs for 16221, so using a standard one as a pattern John V. has made a new batch to which he is giving a final clean up.

The other end of each table top needs a support for securing it to the compartment wall. John also made a batch of these. Both these and the new legs will now be sanded and wiped over with thinners, before being given a coat of primer and then painted.

 

The rebuild of the toilet compartments in 16221 continues with Phil S. adding the handles.

A note left by our Friday Maintenance Team on the north end toilet tank.

Bob might have been prevented from corridor wall varnishing, but instead he varnished the new beading in the north end toilet compartment. A fiddly job needing a small brush.

 

 

Phil J. was also using little brushes to do the tidying up of the external paintwork, which involves everything from repairing odd knocks on door edges to touching up little bits that were missed and the odd tiny paint run where the lining out meets a door stop or the tape has lifted when doing a door edge or doorframe. All fussy sounding but it really does make a difference.

 

Rod glues in the rubber cushion at the top of the window frame on one of the kitchen doors for 1675. That wedge to keep the droplight in place is very necessary. The lazy tongs are very strong and can close the window with quite a bang when a door is lying flat. However that feature is also very useful for ensuring the cushion strip is held in tightly while the adhesive is drying.

 

Finally back to RBr 1675 where Ian is listing the detail necessary for the kitchen rebuild. 

 

The section of corroded cantrail has to come out. Phil S. assists Gerry with locating and the removal of the communication cord chain.

 

With the chain now hanging down on the right, Gerry carefully begins cutting out the corroded metal. 

 

The next section of chain can now be removed.

 

Meanwhile at the south end Rex assists Nick with the rebuilding of the cantrail and roof section.

 

 

Rex watches me photographing the new south end of the coach, the centre panel having recently been added.

 

Nick trial fits a replacement section of roof panel .................

 

.................. and then proceeds to weld it on. 

 

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Overall another good mid week batch of work. Let's see what the weekend brings.