Thursday 16th - All change

 

 

It's the third day of Cheltenham Races and the Thursday gang did not want to miss the first of the two special trains.

P&O had the honour to be the first one through with the Main Rake in tow.

That 3-cylinder sandpaper shuffle, so prominent with the Bullied pacifics, clearly heard as the engine passes. While Geoff and I take photos, Steve and Rex look on.

Michael B. was the guard. The train looked very full and certainly confirms Classic Hospitality's comment that all the four days of race trains are fully booked, usually months in advance.

Flashback to 14th March 2019 at Toddington. The waiting race trains look pretty impressive with gleaming "Dinmore Manor" and "P&O", and the "At The Races" headboards prominently displayed.

Back to work with Ainsley re-attaching the back panels and window surrounds after servicing the central door on the Cotswold side of FK 13326.

On the Malvern side Bob continues the general sanding of the paintwork at the north end.

[Photo : Gerry]  Gerry captured me using 240 paper to provide the final finish to the filler on this part of the Cotswold side. The surface after this treatment feels incredibly smooth. After this it was back to the pad sander with 120 paper to work on the various areas of top-up filling.

As reported by Nick in Wednesday's post, the major work to rebuild the north end will begin soon. As such there was a glut of activity today, beginning with Phil removing the electric connectors.

Roger was uncovering the screws holding the left side door pillar in the adjacent Malvern side doorway.

Phil's next job was the removal of the heavy cabling and connectors for the redundant electric heating.

It was all change in this part of the Workshop which will make for better use of the space. The new partition being built by David D. on Tuesday will go across in the gap to the left of the large wooden frame. The rack and general storage area at the back will be replaced by cupboards, which will be better for the various window parts which currently end up covered in dust. The second work bench has been moved to where the old belt sanding table was located. Three windows removed from RBr 1675 temporarily lean against the first work bench.

It was also all change in the yard with a series of shunting moves.

The empty looking yard with the 3rd Rake in the station.

With the race trains now at Cheltenham, the 3rd Rake leaves for Broadway to be ready for Gold Cup Day when all three rakes are in use. Andy Tu. was second man and had given me a cheery wave as they went by.

With the all clear given, the 03 moves on to the Works siding .............

................. and pulls out the Fruit C van and LMS Guards van.

The consist is then backed onto the BR Vanfit and "Gloucester RU" Toad brakevan.

With the LMS Brakevan removed, the remaining three are shunted into Platform 1 Bay, the former location of the Santa coach.

Now on to 1675 and the seating area which is beginning to look more like an empty shell with almost all of the windows now removed. However as Nick said in yesterday's post, all repairs are being made no matter how small. Rex is cleaning up around this window.

Gerry is doing the same on the Malvern side.

Inside 16875 Bryan is removing old internal wood framing.

Further along Geoff and Alan are working out how to get on to the scaffold platform and still be able to access the window frame. This side of the Workshop is somewhat restricted to say the least - there's many a time when you wish for just one more foot of space.

Success! Now on with the job in hand with Geoff cleaning the paint and filler off the window screws in preparation for its removal.

As stated above, it does look strange with all the windows out.

Angle grinders everywhere. Bryan is now outside and joins in the cleaning up around the windows. The primed backs of the new skirting are very obvious.

Rex has moved inside and now works on the inside of his window.

Kevin, our hard working storekeeper, exits one of our containers after another tidy up and reorganisation, with clear labelling everywhere.