Weds 29th/Thurs 30th - Business as usual

Another two-day posting, with thanks again to Gerry for taking Wednesday's photos. I haven't any notes for Wednesday so with some of the photos I'm afraid it's educated guesses. With a little detective work with hair and style of overalls, I think I have correctly identified the staff where protective head gear is being worn or the person is facing away from the camera.

Wednesday

 

The refurbishment of the doors off FK 13326 is well on the way to completion (I heard Ainsley say recently that the team would be back to 1675's doors soon). Trevor is fitting another new back panel to one of the two doors currently on the Door Team's benches.

Rod and Ben are working on the second door, here fitting the bottom section. The main panel waits nearby. I noticed that both these doors have yet to have a basic sanding down, so a bit more preparation to do before repainting on 13326 can begin.

Ainsley in pensive mood as he sorts through a box of door parts.

With all four crash pillars at the north end of 13326 totally corroded away, we need to ensure that the back end doesn't collapse when the corridor connection is removed. Rex and Bryan install acro props as temporary support.

More coach doors, this time another compartment door from TK 24006.

Dave H. carefully sands the door to remove the old faded varish. When revarnished these doors really come up well.

Dave D. cuts a groove along (what?). Five more of these rest on the bench to his left.

Simon positions a newly made door threshold on RBr 1675 to check its dimensions when eventually fitted.

Simon make some adjustments to the threshold, while Derek is planning the next section of floor boarding. The new window frame supports that were made by Derek on Tuesday, with a window frame now in place, can be seen just to the left of Simon.

Rex welding on the Malvern side of 1675. 

Chris also working on the Malvern side.

Ken doing likewise on the same side - this may be spot welding the back of the skirting to one of the uprights.

Back to Chris again in what looks to be the kitchen area.

John V. working on the Cotswold side of 1675.

Colin, one half of the Chuckle Brothers (a nickname both he and Geoff love), looks to be fitting the inner frame on one of the windows.

Now this I do know about. Ken is test fitting one of the two vertical supports for the north end corridor connection. These ended up on the paint trestles, where they have now been coated with wood primer ready for undercoating in dark grey.

Thursday

With all the rolling stock on the Works through road being temporarily shunted out on Saturday ready for the high safety wires annual inspection, we needed to remove the thick layer of dust from the roof of 13326. All the vehicle roofs will have dust, but 13326 was particularly bad following the large amount of sanding over the past few weeks. Phil worked his way around the coach and did a great job cleaning up with our hard-working Henry.

Another planning meeting in the kitchen area of RBr 1675 .........................

.................. meant that the Metalwork Team had to down tools for the duration. This provided an ideal opportunity for a clean up of their part of the Workshop. Nick looks on while Gerry and Bob get cracking.

A wander over to the 3rd Rake to capture the Indoor Gang and Dennis at work finds a Henry, but where's Dennis?

In another compartment the Indoor Gang's tools, but where are they? Earlier on they had to dig out a new light shade from our store to replace one that had been broken.

Ah, here they are, enjoying a well-earned break.

Nothing like a good posed photo! Alan, Dennis, Roger and Geoff.

I'm pleased to say that the axlebox problem with the north bogie on SO 4790 in the Main Rake was resolved on Tuesday. The rake will no doubt have been moved back to Toddington on Friday ready for the weekend when we resume a fuller timetable, with both the Main and Maroon rakes running.

More maintenance with Richards II and I off to BSO 9000 in the Main Rake to sort out another LED strip light.

Maurice was back painting the underframe, springs and axleboxes on the Mogo, this time in GW Grey top coat.

The Metalwork Team back in business on 1675 with Nick checking the new sheet metal on the left side of the single kitchen door .......................

................... before fully welding it up.

Gerry in the process of replacing a corroded area on the Cotswold side, cleaning up the edges with an anglegrinder before retrying the fit of the new piece of sheet metal.

Bob was power brushing around this window from 1675.

All three Work areas are now ready for the safety wire inspection, with everything cleared to enable the stock to be shunted out. This included a good tidy up and hence bin loads of sweepings and unwanted items. The last job of the day for Maurice and myself was to empty a number of bins. It would be good if the weather on Saturday was like this.