Tuesday 30th - How do you follow that?!

Gosh, yes, how do you follow Alex's excellent posting for Saturday? It certainly had a high viewing count.

So, back down to earth.

Just seven of us in today, but we made some good progress despite the low attendance.

We arrived to hear that we have yet another broken droplight, this time on TSO 4614. The coach had been brought down from Toddington the day before. When in the stationmaster's office later in the day I heard that the coach is needed for this Thursday, so I hope the Door Team were able to fix it.

An unusual view looking towards the Works and the station from the Cotswold side of the yard.

While outside, the chance to have another look at what is next in line for the Paintshop when the Santa Coach is repainted. Above the GWR Creosote Tank 43914 standing outside the Barn; below the first of the two GWR tool vans No. 4 alongside the Works.

 

This was the other tool van, no. 92, after we had repainted it in 2009. It will be good to have both vans looking like this again.

As expected much of the day's work was concentrated on the Santa Coach. With secondary filling now underway on the greyed-up sides, we needed to do more on the two ends to keep everything in balance. David worked at the south end, initially removing flaking paint on the Malvern side of the corridor connection.

Richard concentrated on the north end, removing a lot of the flaking paint on the connection wood.

Later on David had the angle grinder in action, cleaning up the loose paint, with the underlying BR blue being revealed.

Although the roof has already been painted, we felt that the edge just behind and above the gutter on the Malvern side needed more cleaning up. It had also gone a bit green with algae. So Maurice also resorted to angle grinding to remove the crusty edge. Maurice then followed up with etch primer.

I went over the Cotswold side marking out with chalk all the areas that needed secondary filling. Alan then followed on with the filler.

With a lot of digging out completed Richard applied red oxide where needed, later following on with the fibre paste (bridging filler) where there were large gaps.

 David was also adding fibre paste at his end of the coach.

 Maurice finished his day vacuuming the Malvern side of the roof.

 

Moving back to mid morning and the first northbound train, very appropriately "The Cornishman",  headed by 7903 "Foremarke Hall".

Then on to lunchtime and now sat on the S&T trailer in Platform 2 Bay. No guesses as to why Pam and I like sitting here for lunch on a warm sunny day.

On to other work. In the Barn Bob is now undercoating the roof of FK 13326.

 Inside RBr 1675 Derek was painting creocote on the underside of the floorboarding.

Robert cut a new liner for this Malvern side doorway and was assessing its fit.

Robert also made a unit to fit on one of our tool cupboard shelves, so that the tools could be stored individually and not in a tangled pile. I imagine he plans (or has been requested) to make similar for the other shelves. A good idea because they need it.

Everytime I park my car in the alcove outside the yard gate, Maurice and I always comment on the incomplete top coating on the solebar on the Toad brake van. Well, time we did something about it, so Maurice had a break from the Santa coach roof and applied the GW Grey where needed. In fact it wasn't just the sole bar as can be seen in the photo. It all looked so much better when the job was finished.

Saturday 27th - Wagons and Castles

 A warm and sunny day, a good day to do a spot of shunting to extract the next wagon projects, the works currently being in the unhappy situation of having no wagon projects contained within. 

The ones we wanted were obviously not the ones near the front of the queue, nor were they next to each other, so a bit of chopping and changing was required. The team pause to watch the service train cross, train 1 in the charge of Foremarke Hall.

Ah, these are the two we want! GWR Tool Van No.4 and GWR 'Creosote Tank' 43914. Both are looking rather sorry for themselves. Last done up 15-20 years ago, and both over 100 years old, some of the oldest rolling stock we have.

We have two of each type of these wagons, and the plan is to do all four of them up cosmetically to park in No.2 siding at Toddington alongside the goods shed. In one go this tidies up that area for the passing public and gives a purpose to 4 wagons we would probably never run in our usual goods trains.

Eventually the tool vans should look like this:

(Courtesy SVRwiki.com https://www.svrwiki.com/File:112on_30.3.2021.jpg)

I've found two definite liveries for the creosote tanks (most pictures they are covered in a thick layer of grime)

We'll do the first one in black with white lettering...

And the second one in white with red lettering and a dark red horizontal band - should look quite striking! Both pictures are reproduced from 'Great Western Wagons Appendix' by J.H. Russell.

I spent some time looking round the new projects discussing some timber repairs required with our new volunteer Steven. Unfortunately I did my usual trick of totally failing to take any pictures of what I was doing, which in this case included introducing Steven to the department, sorry!!

I did manage to get a few pictures of some of the other activities. The RBr bogies are looking good now as Andy continues with the underframe blacking.

The woodworkers were out in force again too, Steve and Alan cutting another sheet of plywood.

Simon and Alan fitting more roof batons.

And Steve at work in one of the storage cupboards.

Robert meanwhile was continuing with the challenge of door liners, at least now working to the correct profile after the metalwork got adjusted during the week.

Progress on the Santa coach continues, with no wagons yet inside Maurice cleaned up around the gutter line and lower section of the roof.

George found more bits of bubbling paint and rust around where the window used to be to pick out and fill. Both sides are now completely in light grey undercoat, so hopefully it won't be long before a bit of secondary filling is finished and the livery undercoat starts to appear.

With the new ends for FK13326 now purchased work is picking up on this coach again. Ken spent the day sat down drilling holes in the corridor connector.

While John was applying the hot spanner to a bit of stubborn pipework from the water tank filler.

The Upholstery gang seem to be getting on well with the Dean Forest setas, with Jenny and Laura behind both finishing off another seat back.

Pam had something from S&T to look after today, not entirely sure what, some sort of box to protect something I think.

Dave spent the afternoon outside tidying up the wooden panelling covering the corridor on the discovery coach, where the paint had faded to virtually nothing leaving bare wood.

Of course working outside does have its advantages. Several headboards were out today, Foremarke Hall apparently on the Cambrian Coast Express here.

Pendennis Castle is still with us too and sounding absolutely glorious, you can hear it accelerating all the way until it's time to slack off for Hayles!

Another day, another Castle, remarkable just how well off we are in preservation. Sunday I finally got round to doing a Shakespeare Express. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgecombe was in charge and looked in immaculate condition at Stratford.

It looked even better at Birmingham Moor Street though, where a good deal of effort has been made to return the station to GWR style.

In fact it was so good it was worthy of a picture with no train. Almost enough to start to give one ideas about new buildings at Toddington...

Weds/Thurs 24th/25th - Good progress

Wednesday

 Many thanks to Gerry and Nick for taking the photos for Wednesday.

 

[Photo : Gerry]  Progress with the two emergency doors for RBr 1675, with Ben working on some of the intricate mechanism of the first door ......................

 

[Photo : Gerry]  ................. with Trevor working on the second door.

[Photo : Gerry]   The camera catches our nonagenarian Colin by surprise as he enters the RBr .......

 

[Photo : Gerry]   ............... to see Geoff and Simon working on the kitchen floor, which has now been reinforced with a tubular framework ready for the heavy units when they are eventually installed.

 

[Photo : Gerry]   The new tubular framework can be clearly seen, to which wood supports are being attached. Simon drills through both wood strips and the intervening metal tube before adding the nut and blot.

[Photo : Gerry]  Problems with door fitting have been resolved by our new Works Manager Stuart, who noted that the new z bars weren't quite the correct curvature. A solution has been found in that the bars are cut in the appropriate places and then rewelded. Nick and Rex are in the process of sorting out one of the new bars on the Malvern side of 1675.

[Photo : Gerry]  Rex cutting a new section of tubing from our store in the Barn. Not sure what this was going to build - more strengthening for either the kitchen floor (though that now looks complete) or the skirting panels?

 [Photo : Gerry]   Also in the Barn is Chris doing more preparation at the north end of FK 13326 ready for the new end panels.

 [Photo : Gerry]  Our endologist Ken is cleaning up more parts from the north end corridor connection. These were later hung on the hooks at the south end of the Paintshop with a "priority" note attached (it was actioned as detailed in the Thursday part). 

[Photo : Nick]  Eve happily working in her new additional role in the Upholstery shop, laying out new moquette on one of the seat backs from the Forest of Dean Railway.

 ******************************

Thursday

 

Back to RBr 1675 with Richards I and II discussing the proposed electrics for the kitchen area.

 

Gerry prepares another of the curved z bars for the correct doorway alignment.

 Rex using the plasma cutter to obtain another section of sheet metal for rebuilding the skin of 1675.

An interesting job for Bryan who is using a special tool for reprofiling the drainage tubes that are fitted to the bottom part of the internal window frames.

 

Excellent service by our paint supplier T&R Williamson based at Ripon, Yorks. A new 2.5L tin of Underframe Black sits on the bogie that Tony was repainting on Tuesday. The paint was ordered by email on Wednesday morning and arrived by courier just after lunchtime today - thank you Jeremy! 

 Ken A. cutting a piece of tube ready to weld onto a new framework ..............

 

 ............... which turns out to be yet another new tool in the making. This will be used to hold lighting when working inside a coach during a rebuild. 

Making the most of Pendennis Castle while we have her, as she heads north on the first train of the day returning from Cheltenham.

Another photo of Upholstery's progress with the FODR seating.

 

The new order from South Devon Railway Engineering arrived on Wednesday.

Rex, Bryan and Gerry steadily wheel each half end panel round to the back of the FK 13326 ready for rebuilding both ends.

Ken R. has been busy - the stripped down north end of 13326.

Now on to progress with the Santa coach (SK 25618). Jeff eases out with filler the welding on metalwork repairs at the north end.

With most of the filling completed on the remaining original paintwork on the Malvern side of the coach, we can grey up this too. After a final check for any unsanded filler, Bob wipes over the surface with thinners.

Meanwhile on the Cotswold side Phil J. pad sands more filler.

Phil B. applies Gloss Black to the cleaned up south bogie. We would normally apply the oil resistant Underframe Black, but as this is a non-running coach the amount of oil getting onto the frame will be minimal.

By now Bob was well into greying up on the Malvern side.

As was Phil J. who had completed the filler sanding for this part of the coach.

Much later on Bob had completed the main panelling and was now painting the central door. While Phil had moved round to this side and was painting the bogie beam.

The end of the day with the Malvern side completely greyed up, leaving just various bits of secondary filling to be done.

The Cotswold side almost finished, also leaving some secondary filling to be done.

It's lunchtime and Pendennis has arrived on its second northbound run.

78019 arrives on its second southbound run.

It looks powerful, and it certainly is! We will miss this engine when she departs at the end of the month.

Way down the yard and in the coach at the end of the 3rd Rake, the covering on the floor into the corridor connection was coming adrift. Geoff and Alan cut a piece of lino from our remnants and carefully laid it so that it fitted well and free'd up the connection door which had been dragging on the floor.

Continuing on from Tuesday, Dave was back outside and happily making the most of this glorious weather, tidying up the paintwork on this BG.

 

The various bits from 13326's corridor connection that Ken R. needed painting, now completed and ready to go back when the metalworking has been done and the connection can be remounted.