Saturday 11th - An interesting day

Another lengthy post, simply because there was so much going on and some interesting aspects to report.

Beginning today with Upholstery, Jenny and John proudly show and demonstrate the first of the reupholstered seats from TSO 4867. So this is what those two new rolls of the lovely horsechestnut leaf moquette were for. 4867 is scheduled to enter the Works later this year to continue its restoration.

I later caught Jenny and John having an update on progress with RBr 1675. All the chairs for the passenger compartment have been reupholstered.

Returning to Upholstery later in the day to find Jenny and John creating head rests. Jenny carefully sprays adhesive on to shaped plyboard prepared by our Woodwork team.

She then places the shaped pieces of foam onto the board.

She then presses both halves down to ensure good contact.

John meanwhile is marking and then carefully cutting out the foam shapes using a breadsaw. The steady electric sawing ensures a nice clean and accurate edge, which would be impossible to do tidily if cut by hand.

I missed all the trains today bar this one, being somewhat busy with both capturing the various activities and spending much of my time in the Paintshop working on the FK. Bob, Dennis, Paul, Clive, Dave and Ken wave as the DMU heads by on its way back to Toddington and on to Broadway.

A very important activity today was organisng the 3rd Rake ready for Gold Cup Day on Friday. The 3rd Rake is used just for this day and runs from Broadway, conveying racegoers who have come down on the Northern Belle (https://www.classichospitality.co.uk/festival_northernbelleluxurytrain.php). Our Main and Maroon Rakes run on all four days of the Cheltenham Festival.

Neil, the Railway's Operations Manager drove the 03, with Clive, Andy Tu. and Andy Th. as shunters.

A photo taken at the end of the day of the remarshalled 3rd Rake, with NYMR SK 24804 added as the eighth coach. The available seats on all three rakes on all four days of the Festival will have long been sold out.

Back to the Workshop where John S. is measurung up to replace a leaking section of vacuum pipe from the north end of BSK 35308.

John creates a new thread on the cut section of pipe.

The repaired pipe restored.

Making the most of 35308 under cover, Bob M. cleaned up and undercoated some of the Malvern side of the roof. Bob had also undercoated the Cotswold side of the Santa coach roof.

Stuart, our new Workshop Manager, taking a load of offcuts to the scrap metal skip.

Continuing the clear up, Phil removes a rubbish bin, filled to overflowing.

Good progress is being made with FK 13326. Pam sands down some recent filling on the south half of the Cotswold side.

George was on the Malvern side adding more filler. I also mainly worked on that side adding fibre paste and filler, followed by a lot of pad sanding

Pam tops up the areas previously sanded. Her all-in-one helmet, visor and ear defenders make a very useful bit of equipment.

In the Woodwork shop Ainsley builds a new top back panel for one of the two doors taken off the FK.

The old panel removed and in pieces.

Ben works on another door lock, I presume from one of the two doors.

On to a very different door, compartment door 2 from TK 24006.

As with most of the compartment doors from this 72 year old coach, the door and coach numbers are under the top slider attachment.

Dave wished to change the window glass for this door, as described on the attached tape.

Phil has joined Dave and both now work on the glass to go back in. The recessed pull has been extracted ready for cleaning up. This is the original type of window for the corridor doors.

Another interesting find removed from the inside of Door 2, and another 24006 mystery, though probably the answer will be the same as we previously surmised when this has occurred.

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Briefly, a recap of the history of this coach in its latters days is as follows: -

    Based at Bristol in its last days of service when it was in fact the oldest MK 1 in BR stock        when withdrawn and preserved there in 1983.

    Transferred to the West Somerset Railway from BR

    Moved to the Battlesfield Line in May 2001.

    Moved to the Chasewater Line in 2008

    Came to the GWSR on 14th December 2017 

Three photos of its arrival at Winchcombe - it certainly looked in a very sorry state: -

So, how did two brochures from the Strathspey Railway for 1988 end up in Door 02? As with the Severn Valley Railway brochure that was found inside another compartment door, we think it likely that when the coach was in use during its initial preservation a visitor decided to be rid of the brochures by sliding them down the slot in front of the compartment door window.

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Now back to today's activities.

Two birthdays in C&W to celebrate. To add to the usual wonderful range of fattening, but ohhhh so nice goodies, a lemon drizzle cake from John S. and a chocolate tray bake from Andy Th.

Happy Birthday both!

(yes, I did eat two slices of the lemon drizzle! The diet starts tomorrow).

After much recent focus on the metalworking, over to woodworking on RBr 1675 with Steve securing floorboarding at the south end.

He then moved on to the ceiling in this part of the kitchen area, creating and attaching the main supports.

The public corridor at the south end with new plyboard walling in place.

Briefly returning to metalworking, the gradual rebuilding of this window.

The rebuilt and primed window area previously done by Rex.

On one of the noticeboards in the Doors/Woodwork shop, diagrams showing the plans for the doors on 1675.

As well as being our Storekeeper, Kevin will do all sorts of useful work. Our trolleys take quite a lot of punishment, not with just what they have to carry, but more importantly the ground they often have to traverse when going outside. Pneumatic tyres are hugely better when trying to move something heavy over rough and ballasted ground as I well know when trolleying the heavy metal Paintshop bins over to the skip. Hence the need to take care of these conveyances.

Last, but certainly not least, on to the Mogo where the rebuild progresses with remarkable speed. Alex drills the new Cotswold side panelling through the bolt holes in the frame.

Maurice gives the heavy hinges for the large doors at the north end a final clean up.

Paul gathers more scrap from the old north end doors for the skip.

Returning later, Alex was well into completing his job and tightening the new nuts and bolts for this particular panel on the Cotswold side of the van.

Robert prepares two new supports for the heavy dropdown metal section at the north end of the Mogo.

Maurice now primes the cleaned up door hinges from the north end of the Mogo.

Robert does some more work on the large replacement doors for the north end.

The Malvern side completed and looking very good, with the new panels and rebuilt doors now in place.

Two views from the currently open north end of the Mogo. Lots of internal painting to do!

Finally, the icing on the cake. Alex was in for just the morning, and what better way to settle your nerves than to apply the first bit of signwriting to the Mogo. 

And why was he nervous? Well, who wouldn't be if going to the HRA Annual Awards being held in the evening at the NEC. He had been shortlisted for the Lord Faulkner Award for Young Volunteers. He had his lunch and then departed to a chorus of "Good luck Alex" and other well wishes from everyone in the Mess room.

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So, how did it go?

There were five nominees for the award, with each one being displayed before the results were given.

Sadly Alex didn't win, but he was awarded a Special Commendation.

Alex has had an amazing career with the GWSR and at such a young age, being a TTI, Guard, and Shunter, looking after the Guards and TTIs roster, a Director on the Trust Board, being recognised over the whole Railway for his painting and signwriting, and lately becoming the joint leader of the C&W Wagons Team. I wish we had more like him!