Wednesday 7th / Thursday 8th - Metal and varnish

Two very cold days, with more to come. Nice in the sun, but when walking between the vehicles in the sidings and hunting for items in storage, it was very different. Nevertheless, we cracked on as normal and doing what we love.

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Firstly in reply to a comment about the CK made by Nick Jones at the end of Tuesday's posting.

Nick Jones  December 9th

Weren't those opening windows in some MkI compartment coaches there to allow stretcher patients to be got into and out of the compartment, rather than for "emergency" access

Good to see so much great work going on.

Yes you are correct that the intention was for stretchered patients to be given access to and from a compartment with this type of window. Looking this up on the Web, it seems they were called "stretcher windows" (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/70366-mk-1-ck-window-query/). Our calling this the "emergency window" is probably just us, not an official name.

Thank you for the kind compliment

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Wednesday

The following eight photos taken by Gerry cover some of Wednesday's activities 

Beginning with Ken A. preparing the north end of RBr 1675 for the new base plate and repairs to the bottom sections of the four crash pillars. The replacement sections are in the foreground.

 

Nick said that Ken made amazing progress. The bottom sections of the four pillars are now cut off.

In the Woodshop Geoff is preparing more floor supports for 1675 ..........

.......... which Derek is able to attach to the underfloor crossbearers.

At the north end Chris begins the removal of the ceiling beading.

Trevor looks up for the camera while rebuilding one of the two emergency doors from the seating area in 1675.

Tony B.continues sanding down the first of the two compartment doors from TK 24006 that was started the day before.

The two blue trolleys are invaluable for moving doors and other large flat items. John V. is doing some repairs to the castors.

Thursday

The first photo on Thursday had to be the item that Tony B. found when removing the panel on the second of the two doors brought in from TK 24006. There is no date anywhere on the advert which is a pity, but a clue to its age can be drawn from the fact that they are advertising "colour television". As for the cost of a night's B&B ........................

The part stripped down door. It will be interesting to see if any more items are discovered as we work on these 70 year old doors.

 Dave in the process of sanding down the door.

More doors, this time the newly built ones from the Cotswold side of the Vanfit and receiving a coat of wood primer from Maurice.

And yet another door, this time the last of the rebuilt quarter doors from Rbr 1675. I have just primed the new metal cover. This will now go back into store until needed.

Back to 1675 itself and more progress with the north end repairs. Nick welds another section of new cantrail in place.

Gerry bores a hole through what will be the top of a curved length of z section. This is to enable the communication cord tube to go through. 

Rex finishes off a new curved support that will replace the corroded one shown below.

 

 Bryan cleans up the top of the buffer beam upon which the new base plate will be welded.

 Gerry's new curved z section temporarily held in place.

 Nick and Rex make final adjustments.

Two photos taken at the end of the day. The new z section and new top curved support are welded securely in place. With the corroded bottom sections of the crash pillars removed, the team made sure that the side structure was up to supporting the roof, which it is. The new section of cantrail can also be clearly seen.

Next Wednesday the new base plate will be in place. By close of play next Thursday the four pillar repairs will have been done and the focus will be on final preparations for fitting the preformed end sections.

In the new year, the team will be moving on to the new side skirts. Bryan and Rex are well into making a new device to lift and hold the new sections exactly in place for welding, again tacking will be sufficient.

On to other Workshop activities. Ken R. is sorting out a newly acquired second hand cupboard which will be used for precision tool storage. It will soon be heading to the Paintshop for a repaint

A correction to my mistake in the use of this newly repainted frame. It is in fact our tool for supporting vacuum cylinders during removal and replacement, not buckeyes for which we have another frame. The frame had been modified to decrease its height.

I'm afraid I missed all the outside team today. Richard I returns from the Maroon Rake, which is being stabled in Platform 2 during the Santa season, and happily stated that all the lighting in the rake is now LED. A great job completed, well done Richards I and II, and Steve who has been making up the racks of LEDs for fitting in the lighting units. Also missed was the Indoor Gang who were back in the 4th rake coaches servicing more compartment doors and Paul W. cleaning in the Maroon Rake.

The very long ELK flat wagon is at last lifted. Initially the small jacks had to be used to enable the frame to be lifted high enough so that the carriage jacks could be inserted underneath. The wagon is narrower than the coaches, hence the need to wind each support out to its maximum distance (note the unpainted section!).

 John discusses the activity with Ken while raising the ELK frame

While viewing the ELK lift, Eve scurried into the Barn with a diagram of Winchcombe sidings for the white board. This very useful diagram has been produced by our PWay Dept.

 

On to CK 16221 where the external varnishing has been started, with Phil J. and Richard H. tackling the upper half of the Cotswold side. Phil spotted a few places where a tiny bit of paint snagging was needed so he took care of those as well.

Phil S. was working on the compartment steam heating inside 16221 early in the day, but eventually exclusive access became available and Bob K. got cracking on a mass of varnishing, beginning with a light sand of the new cupboard doors in the north vestibule.

The second coat of varnish goes on. Another 2-3 will be required to bring the new doors up to the level of the existing panelling.

The next bit was the new outer wall panel at the north end of the corridor. Bob then varnished all the compartment walls. We need more coats yet, but the corridor is really coming together, especially now the protective tops of the redundant electric heaters are back in place and the covers are going back over the steam heating pipes.

Finally a photo from Alex.

And just as a record of how cold it was, 22:15 at Toddington after an evening meeting it was -7°C! -Ed.