Tuesday 6th - A typically busy Tuesday

A typically busy Tuesday and a cold day too, but mainly with the sun and blue sky to enjoy when venturing out.

 

Beginning today with the Mogo, Richard and Paul begin stripping down the bottom drop-down section at the south end, as shown in the following photo.

 

 [Photo : Paul E]  The result of their efforts, cleaned up and coated in red oxide.

 [Photo : Paul E]  One of the roof hoops was also removed and given the same treatment.

At the other end of the Barn, good progress continues with the Vanfit. The Malvern side doors are in the process of being mounted.

 More blacking up of the underframe by Maurice.

 

Later in the day, the doors from the Cotswold side have been removed for painting, beginning with the base coat of wood primer.
 

Inside CK 16221 Ian continues the lengthy clean up of the insides of the metal window frames and the ends of the grab rails, the best way for the latter being removal to enable full access.

 

David D. took care of some of the remaining outstanding fittings, such as this length of beading above the emergency window.

Another job was adding the beading along the edge of the skirting board where still required, in this case the north vestibule. 

Towards the end of the day when we had exclusive access to the interior, Pam varnished more of the compartment door frames

Keith had a wealth of items to paint which included compartment table supports, some of which are destined for 16221, as well as more table legs hanging out of view on the hooks. In the background in green primer are the metal seat supports from the cab of Collet 2-8-0 3850 - Keith later undercoated them in Dark Grey. The wooden seat tops are also on the trestles awaiting more coats of varnish.

The modified buckeye support frame receives its first top coat of Goldcup Yellow. I gave it a second coat towards the end of the day and it is now ready to be returned to the Workshop.

I needed to have a walk alongside the Maroon Rake, currently stabled in Platform 2, with respect to checking the condition of CK 16195, which will probably be replaced by 16221 when that is ready. The lovely view from under the Winchcombe - Greet road bridge with the brown leaves and blue sky just had to be photographed.

 Pam gives a second coat to the lettering on her latest sign board.

Then a final coat of cream to the frame, after which the board was placed out of harms way on the wall rack in the background, where the other three currently reside. Alex will soon be making the templates for the final two boards. Pam has really enjoyed doing these and is improving all the time. There is also a plaque to do for the Toddington Cleaners' trolley, and eventually she will be joining Alex with the lettering on the wagons.

Robert and David were busy cutting plyboard when I came in to photograph the Woodwork shop activities.

 It turns out to be building up a stock of veneer back panels for the coach doors.

On to another door, this time one of the compartment doors from TK 24006 which has been brought into the workshop to remove all the old varnish. There's something lovely about cleaning up these old wooden doors and Alan was clearly enjoying the job. Even nicer is applying the new coats of varnish and bringing the whole thing back to life.

Dave, the co-owner of 24006, proudly displays the other door brought in.

When Alan's door was turned over, the base could be seen to have a brass strip. A light sand with 240 paper gently removed the many years of tarnish.

Of particular interest is that both these doors are the originals for 24006, as can be seen under where the hinge plate was placed when the coach was built at Derby in March 1951.