Thursday 2nd - A 10-year old coincidence

 A busy day with a lot of running around, so apologies for less photos this time. Also I didn't take any photos of the new token frame reported by Nick in Wednesday's post, but suffice to say that, with Stu welding and Gerry assisting, a lot of progress was made. It's pretty big to say the least!

The Main Rake begins its return to Toddington behind D6948 in readiness for the new running season.

The PWay train reappeared later and was shunted into its siding on the far side of the yard.

Continuing on from Tuesday's post, the urgent work to get SK 25488 paint repaired was able to be successfully concluded with Phil tackling the upper cream panelling.

The repair work ranged from small patches to full panels on both sides of the coach. As stated on Tuesday there wasn't time to do a full repaint, especially, as correctly guessed, the coach goes back out on Saturday and will join the Maroon Rake ready for the Race Specials (eight coach rakes are now required for these). The bodywork anyway needs a full sanding and a lot of filler. Hopefully we will be able to do a full repaint later in the year.

Back to the Paintshop where bodyside preparation on FK 13326 continues. It was nice to see David in today, instead of his normal Wednesday working, and reaming out more cracked paint and filler on the Malvern side.

David had previously applied red oxide on some of the bared metal on the Cotswold side. Martin concentrated on filling both these and other patches.

Just the one photo of RBr 1675 today with Rex welding inside the Cotswold side double door area.  A lot of spot welding of the new skirt panels to the left of the doorway had been done the day before.

Maurice's first job had been to top coat the undercoated Mogo side panels which were on the Paintshop trestles. This ensured that they will be ready for final fitting on Saturday. Next a quick vac round the sole bar area enabled further painting of this.

Then more top coating of the main frame.

CK 16221 "Abigail-Charlotte", looking really great, had been shunted out of the Barn on Wednesday to enable the construction of the token frame for S&T. 

Dave took on more window cleaning. A lot easier to see missed bits now the coach is out of the Barn. 

There was activity both in and out throughout the day. Dennis checked the toilet tanks but found that the north end one leaked, so that toilet is locked out until it can be fixed.

Alan and Roger went round checking that the sliders functioned properly. They attempted to fix the set with the broken handle, but being non-standard they were unable to find a suitable replacement in our storage - they haven't given up. Sadly the three blown double-glazed windows remain - thankfully two are in the corridor, leaving just the one in one of the first class compartments - hopefully these will eventuallty be replaced.

The Richards were conducting their pre-operational checks of the batteries, not just with the 16221, but I think the Maroon Rake in general as I spotted then outside one of the coaches way down the yard.

It was a perfect day for all the various outside jobs - a chilly wind but the day was dry and sunny. The inside was getting cleaned where dust had gathered - it will be swept and vacuumed throughout on Saturday. A few minor varnish repairs will also be done - it's impossible to prevent occasional small knocks and scratches when trying to manipulate seating down the corridor and into compartments, especially the huge and very heavy first class seating.

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Now a flashback 10 years to the day. On 2nd March 2013 and also a lovely sunny day ........

................... 16195, our other CK, was undergoing its refurbishment and was temporarily shunted out to the yard.

Coincidence or what?!