Saturday 17th - The Final Countdown

 Just a week to go now, and it was still looking very Christmassy at Winchcombe on Saturday:

Bit of a novelty to see snow and leaves still on a few trees.

It's also the final countdown on CK 16221, it really is getting there now, hopefully it should leave the paintshop some time in January. Dave went round ticking off a number of small jobs, here a bit more black paint was needed around the corridor connection:

Jeff started varnishing the window frame son the Malvern side:

Alan was sorting out more tables to fit:

Steve and Simon were both hard at work fitting various other bits too:

I missed a picture of John and Laura in action today, but a look inside at the end of the day revealed several first class compartments looking virtually complete with the cushions in place along with the table:

Just some little details like steam heat control labels, mirrors and picture frames and it's there.

In the deep freeze AKA the barn, the dirty gang were continuing on the Elk. It was back up in the air again, this time to look at the brake mechanism:

Clive turns the now freed wheel while Ken looks underneath to see what it does:

Once it was lowered back in its bogies it was outside over the pit to connect everything back up, it's such a low vehicle this is the only way:

Inevitably I got a bit too close and was treated to a call of "Ah, we need an extra pair of hands!"

Just Maurice and myself on the other wagons in the works, initially Maurice undercoated the outside of the Vanfit doors:

Then moved onto cleaning up the end door hinges from the Mogo that I'd been removing:

John gave me a hand with this when some heat and brute force was required for a particularly stubborn bolt, and then drilled a missing hole in the end to take a split pin:

While I was re-cutting the threads, Kev was next to me polishing up this vacuum cylinder piston:

Saturday's blog is a little later than usual as I was on a guard's turn Sunday, so a few pictures from then to finish off with, Foremarke Hall passes with the early ECS with a fair bit of snow still around:

The other side of the tunnel the thaw was beginning to set in, aided by the drizzle:

It did give quite a good effect though for passengers coming from Cheltenham, you go through the tunnel to the North Pole and it's still all a blanket of white here!

On our 2nd trip, Foremarke again passes as as the light goes:

We had 4270, now on its final few days of its boiler ticket, the steam catching the light:

And at Cheltenham after dropping off our final passengers of the day:

If you want a final ride behind 4270 before it's withdrawn it's out every single day after Boxing Day until we close.

And finally, this is probably my last blog post before the 25th so I'd like to wish all our readers a happy and restful Christmas. I expect there'll be something covering activities during this week and there's usually a few of us hardy souls manage a day or two in-between Christmas and new year, but many thanks for your continued interest in what we do, write and photograph, it makes it all worthwhile. Have a good one!

Alex