Saturday 10th - Snow!

Well snow on Sunday, where a few pictures were taken a little further down...

But first, another bright but freezing (literally all day) day with plenty of good progress made.

First photo this time of year is usually the ECS down to CRC for the first Santa run, very icy still!

And looking the other way:

It stayed like this pretty much all day, with only minimal defrosting with some patches in direct sunlight for long periods.

The dirty gang were in full woolly hat regalia this morning to finally lift the Elk off its bogies, John and Andy start the lift:

Up, up and away!

The bogies were wheeled out to be cleaned up and given a good look over:

The goods news is that under the dirt, rust and grime, the condition of this wagon isn't all that bad considering. Aside from the drawhooks as noted a week or two ago, which are well beyond their best! Hopefully we will have a solution to that that doesn't involve spending megabucks on brand new machined forgings.

Both the wagons being worked on today are in the deep freeze otherwise known as the barn too, although some of the team managed to take their components to warmer climes. No such luck for me though, I took the South end door panels off with the disc cutter:

I did take one of the hinges off though and retreated to the workshop with that to clean it up, refresh the threads on the bolt and slap some primer on it. I thought maybe put it back on before taking another off to save confusion!

Paul also had various door components, I think there's a mix of Vanfit and Mogo bits there:

Maurice was nice and snug and warm in the paintshop undercoating the set of Vanfit doors that have now been fettled:

The other side still need a little more, Richard prepares to get the pad sander out:

Robert's forging ahead with the first bit of new timber for the Mogo, this is the drop down 'tailgate' (a bit like on a landrover!) Although we haven't put the timber order in for the Mogo yet, we've got enough thick timber planks left from the Toad rebuild to make a start on these bits:

The Upholstery team were in full flow fitting seats in the CK:

Annoyingly a few didn't quite fit, probably spares that were re-done before the initial restoration was aborted some 10 years ago. John and Laura were on it, thankfully nothing too drastic:

It's really looking good now, not much more to do in here!

In 2nd Class, Phil was sorting out steam heat controls:

While Dave ticked off lots of little painting jobs so hopefully we're almost ready to blitz on the exterior varnishing now:

There was animated discussion between ben and Ainsley regarding this door from the RBr, hopefully they worked out a solution!

Kevin contemplates the racking, now full of RBr bits. On the left is a diagram and list of what and where all the bits are, very organised:

Ken meanwhile was working on the North end, tapping holes for screw threads ready for the major reconstruction:

And then Sunday. The original mission of some wagon related activities was aborted upon arrival at Toddington (Cheltenham and coming over Cleeve hill wasn't so bad first thing) so tea and photos was the order of the day. Still very dull when 4270 waits at the box for instructions:

It turned out Toddington was a good place to hang around, although it's not supposed to see trains during the day, Winchcombe points had totally frozen up so both trains had to come to Todd to run round. 4270 passes the signal box again, this time with a little more colour:

Tom the fireman was feeling cheerful despite the conditions, probably thanks to a footplate cooked brunch!

By now the snow was beginning to set in:

And I hung around just long enough to catch Foremarke Hall also come up, before gingerly retreating:

By this time, Cleeve Hill was no go as someone had got stuck. Going the long way round wasn't too bad but Cheltenham was very dicey, so be careful out there folks!