Tuesday 7th - It's March so it's bound to snow

Typically for March it snowed. Well it did on the hills with Winter having we hope its last fling There was very little snow lower down in Cheltenham and Winchcombe. [It all came back much heavier overnight and when typing this up on Wednesday morning, the flakes were steadily falling, but thankfully little was settling and what was on the ground was slowly melting].

 

Keith top coated the new plates for the "Gloucester RU" Toad brakevan. Nice little white lettering job for somebody (you in on Thursday Jeff?)  

 

A nice range of spanners green-banded (I forget the reason for this)

More excellent progress with the Mogo today, beginning with the retrieval of more marine plyboard from the container.

The first board, having been cut to size by Robert, is then checked for fit.

The very heavy drop-down plate has been removed from the north end and, having been cleaned up, awaits priming. 

The first half of one of the folding north end doors is removed. 

 Maurice now begins the removal of the locking bar from the opposite door.

While we were assisting Maurice with the end door removal, Paul had started priming the end plate. 

The number of new plyboard panels being primed or ready for undercoating was now filling the north end of the Paintshop.

Paul meanwhile was cleaning up the door furniture that had been removed from the end doors, which he later primed.

Towards the end of the day, the plyboard priming had almost been completed by Maurice, and Pam abandoned her work on the FK to begin undercoating the panels where the primer was dry..

It's good to see the first set of doors back on RBr 1675. These are the kichen doors on the Cotswold side of the coach.

We had 15 attending, a good turnout for a Tuesday.

During the morning Ian and I had mounted the "Cadbury" painting on the Paintshop inner wall. This had previously been above the Changing Room doors in the lobby. How times have changed since that was our only train!

With the Santa coach now in the Works, the priorities have changed with that being the more important. However we will keep the momentum going on the FK despite it now being the bigger of the two jobs. Richard sanded the windows on the Malvern side.

On the Cotswold side, where more had been progressed, Pam and Alan continued the digging out, priming and filling.

 

Derek continued the dismantling inside the north end vestibule in preparation for the major metalworking.

One of the nearby compartments is being used for storage, the seating being covered with heavy blanklets for protection. One of the south end compartments is similarly protected for when that vestibule is also stripped.

The heavy end sliding door has been removed and lent against the Paintshop wall for cleaning up and the exterior face repainted. All that remains is the opposite end panel with the lighting controls and toilet occupancy sign - a job for Phil S.

Lots of buzzing in the Barn with Tony and Ian sanding down the Cotswold side of the Santa coach. Bob was cleaning up and etch priming this side of the roof.

With the team gone home for the day, time to vac through and steadily remove the pink tinge on the floor.

With the vacuuming completed, a nice clean floor. The upper panels down the far end of the coach remain to be sanded, but otherwise a great start to the minor repairs and repaint job. The Santa coach will be swapped with the FK, probably when we have the high safety cables serviced, so that the main repainting can be done in the Paintshop and the heavy end repairs on the FK in the Barn.

Late afternoon and what a change in the weather.