Tuesday 14th - As they happen

Another busy day with some good progress on the FK, Mogo and Santa coach. 

For a change the photos are in time order as the events happen, rather than by subject.

My first job was to get the four new scotches for BCK 21092 into the guards compartment. The 3rd Rake was in Platform 2, ready to be taken up to Broadway on Friday for Gold Cup Day. While on the coach I just had to have another look at the first class compartments with the newly refurbsihed seating. They look stunning and a real credit to the Upholstery Team.

 

In the Barn Richard was removing the old transfers from the Malvern side and ends of the Santa coach. It was a lot warmer in there than of late and later on, as the day turned into a lovely sunny one, Ian raised the roller shutter.

Ian began his day completing the sanding down of the paintwork on the Cotswold side.

Alex had listed a number of jobs for Maurice (Paul was away). However Maurice instead took on the job of trimming the new bolts on the Mogo where this hadn't been done.

David D. began building something large in the Paintshop. Whatever could this be? It's certainly not for the RBr!

On to FK 13326 and the Malvern side where Stu carries on with the sanding/filling job. There is quite a bit to do on both sides. I worked at the north end, in particular sanding the side of the gutter, which I feel we don't clean up enough on some of our coaches, before working down to the door and along the side to and including the toilet window.

Robert prepares the blocks that he had previously cut for fitting to the large dropdown plates at the ends of the Mogo.

There is a problem with a sticking window on one of the two doors taken off 13326. Ainsley begins removing the back panel to investigate the working of the lazy tongs.

David is still busy with his creation.

Dave H. continues his refurbishment of compartment Door 2 from his coach TK 24006, gently sanding the veneer so as not to go through it. Interestingly this door was actually fitted to Compartment 3 and should have been stamped as such as there is already a Door 2 correctly fitted to Compartment 2 - a mix-up perhaps when this series of TKs was being built in 1951?

A visit to the office means passing through Upholstery, so an opportunity to catch up with some more of their excellent work. Another seat base from TSO 4867 waits to be stripped and rebuilt with the horsechestnut leaf moquette, which appears to be cut to size and sits nearby.

Two more photos of the new head rests being created by Jenny and John on Saturday.

More bundles of moquette with their futures mapped out.

Just to the left of the above bundles, not a selection of screws (they are in the light blue tin below), but some very yummy looking chocolates. If anyone from Upholstery is reading this post - no, I didn't take any! 😇

This is looking to be quite a sturdy structure, with another sheet of plyboard standing nearby ready to be fitted to box in the frame.

Maurice said he used to have a nickname at work, so working on the Mogo seems very appropriate!

It really was turning out to be a lovely warm spring day and no doubt a treat for the racegoers. The rain did return much later as the last of us left for the day. With all three rakes back to 8-coach strength and the 3rd Rake in the station, the yard looks somewhat empty.

Alan worked on the north half of the Cotswold side of the FK, adding more filler where needed, in particular on the central door frame.

The three areas on the Cotswold side that had all the peeling paint have cleaned up very well and had two coats of red oxide. We managed to "ease in" the existing surrounding area with some careful pad sanding, but to finish the job Pam applies a thin skim of filler along the main joins on all three panels.

Derek largely completed the stripping out of the north vestibule in preparation for the main rebuilding of the north end. The old lino and floorboarding lie alongside the coach and can probably be skipped, but a check will be made first to see if the latter needs to be kept to provide a pattern for when the new floor is eventually put in.

Pam carefully sands the skims with 120 paper and our new pad sander.

Back in the Barn Richard and Ian are now sanding down the Malvern side. Although the FK is the lower priority, as it is a bigger job with the need to rebuild the two ends, and we seem to be putting in a lot more effort on that, in reality the Santa coach will be very easy to progress. There are no windows, only three doors on the Malvern side, and bar the metalwork repairs which are already part completed, the coach is in very good condition.

Back to Dave who has now completed the sanding of the outer side of Door 2 and is removing the handle.

Unfortunately I missed the two race trains with their happy racegoers on their way to Cheltenham, but managed to photograph one of the late afternoon trains returning to Cheltenham just as our new coach was passing. All the coaches have the names of famous horses placed in two or three windows on each side. I noticed "Arkle" on the windows in one of the 3rd Rake coaches.

Maurice has long completed the trimming and priming of the overlong bolts, and with the primer drying quickly is now well into adding undercoat.

So what was the large structure being created by David in the Paintshop? It turns out to be a new partition that will be fitted into the space at the end of the vacuum cylinder maintenance and storage area. Apparently it is for leaning windows removed during major refurbishments - we already have a limited A-frame (in the background) for this purpose, but it sounds as though we need more storage space. I hope we don't lose the bench as there are times when both benches in this area are needed.

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Finally, with our new running season now underway, how's the blog doing?

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