Thurs 19th / Sat 21st - So much going on and a special visit

Wow, what a busy couple of days! So another huge posting, especially for Saturday when we had a visit from the entire Trust Board. During the latter day I took over 60 photos, however panic ye not! I often take successive photos of a particular aspect and pick the best when writing up the blog, so Saturday's selection won't actually contain that number.

Thursday

Many thanks to Gerry again, who in Nick's absence has forwarded more photos of progress on RBr 1675.

Thursday was a glorious day - chilly in the Barn and in the shade, but outside in the sun it was feeling quite warm as the day progressed.

It never takes long to have tyres refreshed at St Philips Marsh, Bristol. Just two days and the bogies are back.

The shiny freshly-turned tyres reflecting the blue sky.

It's the winter shutdown, so shunting will be very regular for the next month and a half. Now where's the warflat going? No doubt it's in the way! This was actually the process of getting RMB 1876 back into the Maroon Rake.

Returning to the Barn later to find the newly returned bogies now on the jack road and maintenance now underway by Richard and John.

Watched by Ken, John was using our mini vacuum pump to check BSO 9000's vacuum braking.

Roger checks the fit of a new back panel on the Malvern side north end door of NYMR SK 24804.

More new door back panels being lightly sanded by Phil following first or second coats of varnish and prior to adding a second or third. I gave them all a final coat on Saturday.

[Photo : Gerry]  The north end of RBr 1675 with the roof repairs above the cantrail clearly visible.

 [Photo : Gerry]  A closer view.

Gerry cleans up the associated length of gutter.

 [Photo : Gerry]  Similar repairs being carried out by Rex, welding on a new section of roof.

 [Photo : Gerry]  Job largely done. Out with the angle grinder.

[Photo : Gerry]  Preparations for the Trust Board visit are well underway with a tape corridor being created.  The kitchen and, below, the utility area.

 Bryan highlights a raised section of plyboard.

Think it might be a while before I'm standing here and requesting a bacon bap, piece of cake and a cup of tea! 

The passenger corridor and counter area, with temporary boarding in place.

[Photo : Gerry]  The seating area, again fully covered with temporary boarding and able to be put down easily thanks to Derek's hard work installing all the floor supports on the new crossbearers, in turn installed by the Metalwork Team.

 [Photo : Gerry]  Derek measuring up for more floor supports.

Just the one photo of work on CK 16221 today with Rod going round the coach ensuring the nuts are tight on the bolts securing the edges of the floor boarding - we found some still to be tightened. Phil tidied up some lining out where needed on the Malvern side doors and frames that had been worked on to make then easier to open and close.

More jobs underway with respect to the Trust Board visit. In fact the Paintshop floor hadn't been vacuumed for quite some time - smacked wrists for me!

 Paul vacuums round the entrance hall.

There was also a great deal of bin emptying. Two of our Paintshop bins are very heavy and, with the high skips that we now have, really need two people to lift comfortably.
 

This handle on the Upholstery Shop door has been coming loose for a while. Roger attempts to secure it, but in the end it will probably end up the same as the Mess Room door, with hand plates and the latch removed.

 

On the subject of doors, Dave and Robert's TK 24006 continues to throw up surprises. Another of the compartment sliding doors has its identity stamped on it, but this time under the base of the handle. Unfortunately it didn't take much sanding to almost remove the "5" (for Door 5) - the stamping on the other doors was more robust.

Wiring up has been completed and the new battery testing container for the two Richards (nicknamed "The Gin Palace") is almost ready. When the weather warms up it will be painted in Roto Orange to match the other containers alongside the Works, this colour blending in well with the cladding on the Bill Ellesmere Building and the Barn, and the brick wall of the Workshop.

Saturday

A somewhat different day as far as the weather was concerned, being bitterly cold with fog gradually thickening during the day.

No glorious views of the Cotswold escarpment today!

Hard frost covers everything as the fog masks the station.

It's 9.30 and the Trust Board have arrived. Ian gives a general introduction to the current work being undertaken before beginning the tour. On Ian's right, Bryony (daughter of Roger in Thursday's activities) and Alex are the youngest members. Clive, third from the left, is now our Rolling Stock Director on the PLC Board, and still our C&W Deputy!

Following visits to Upholstery and Woodwork/Doors, the Paintshop was next and a walk through CK 16221. Just prior to this I had galloped through the coach removing the bits of spare carpet and giving the floor a sweep with a dustpan and brush.

The vehicle that the Board specifically wanted to see was RBr 1675 as the Trust is funding the work on this. Philip Young, the Trust Chairman, stands just in front.

I didn't catch what was being said but there was certainly something making them all laugh.

 

Finally the seating area.

Hopefully they were impressed with the progress so far. The contrast between the major reconstruction of 1675 and the almost completed 16221 must be the most extreme "before and after" pair we have ever had! 

After this final photo of the display that Ian had put up prior to the visit, I wandered off to pastures new, but I believe Ian took them into the Barn to view the work out there.

An early visit to Upholstery had me puzzled as to what Laura and Jenny were doing. They were in fact measurung up for a mobile platform to enable easier and safer access to the higher parts of their storage racking. Very sensible!.

Returning later I found John, Jenny and Laura all busy repairing seat side panels from the first class compartments in CK 16195.

Duh, now which went where? No, Dave's not really stuck. He is really contemplating a repair to Door 5 from TK 24006.

Back to more sanding down. These doors really do come up well when new coats of varnish are applied.

It's amazing what passengers slide down between the compartment door window and bottom part of its frame. So far accumulated from the 24006's compartment doors: a 1963 florin (the old 2/- coin - remember them?), the 10p equivalent, a West Somerset Railway ticket and description of the line (the coach was based there for a while), and a Severn Valley Railway ticket (now that is a mystery, because the coach was never based there, but it was probably from someone who had recently visited that railway as well). In the Paintshop we have two mounted frames full of early memorabilia from our own railway, all deposited within the compartment doors of SK 25451.

On to something very different with John S. carefully removing the remains of a steam heating pipe from within the end section. No magic trick here - the saw blade would have been removed and then remounted once inside the end section.

With remains of the old pipe removed, John carefully winds round the cleaning tool to remove any residue and give a good clean thread.

A close-up of the cleaned thread. The next job will be to drill out the two sawn off bolts. I meant to ask where this is from, but it's probably 1675.

Woodwork had a very busy day, initially storing the recent deliveries of both heavy and light plyboard in their container. Simon and Alan move yet another of the heavy boards using one of the excellent blue trolleys.

The rest of the day was spent fitting the floor bearers in 1675. These fit on top of Derek's crossbearer supports.

 

Steve carefully trims the initial cut lengths, and incidentally creates some good sturdy paint stirrers (thank you Steve!).

Simon and Alan then prepare them further ready for fitting, as seen below.

Ken in the process of fitting the vertical back supports for the corridor connection U section.

The important pattern for the two curved corridor connection back plates.

George is doing a great job cleaning up the rubber draught excluder on 16221's doorframes. We try to be careful, but despite occasional taping up, paint does get onto the rubber. It looks so much better when nice and clean.

On to progress with the Mogo where Paul and Michael (the latter joining us during the shutdown period from being a signalman, guard and duty officer) are busy cleaning up more of the metal frame and removing stubborn bolts.

Maurice is similarly cleaning up the Malvern side doorframe, while Paul vacuums up the dust from his recent work.

Back to Winter shutdown work with Robert preparing to refit the base of the Malvern side guards door from BSO 9000.

Meanwhile Ben (a horologist by trade) has been doing wonderful things with our door locks, completely stripping them down and giving them a top class servicing.

Returning later on to find the guards door back in one piece, but Ben, Robert and Ainsley in discussion about the working of the door handle. Not sure what the wood glue was doing there, unless used by Robert to help secure the door base.

I missed the door being put back on, but got there in time to see Ben giving it some final checks.

Kevin has had a busy time lately packing stuff off to storage that hasn't been required with the refurbishment of 16221.

Returning to the early part of the day in the Barn where the Dirty Gang prepare to work on one of the bogies brought in from  the Works siding. The tarpaulin had sunken in several places with the weight of rainwater, so no surprise that Andy is able to display this huge shard of thick ice.

I then took a number of photos of the gradual removal of the tarpaulin, the best of which is above. There was much laughter from Andy Th. and Richard with Andy Tu. drawing the short straw as a lot of the runoff landed on his feet!

We had had a good sweep up, vacuum round and tidy up in the Barn on Thursday, this bit being very clean. This was actually more for us rather than the Trust Board visit.

Work now begins in earnest with initially the removal of the tie bar on the Malvern side of the bogie.

The north end has been lifted and the wheelset removed.

The reason for this was to remove the cracked axlebox cover.

The replacement box will be taken from a permanently static vehicle in the yard and the cracked box fitted in its place.

The Dirty Gang were out in force today with six attending. This is the most I have seen in for a while and concentration had moved to the two returned bogies.

Finally a warm welcome to Stuart who has joined C&W and the Dirty Gang.