Saturday 20th - Going grey

 A relatively quiet day in the workshops but busy on the trains, and good progress made with a couple of projects too.

On the woodworking side on the RBr, Alan was continuing with the floor.

While Robert had a nice little wood-working project cutting the joints for the frame of one of the emergency doors.

On the metalworking front, John was making a new window cut-out for a window on the Malvern side, here using the old patch as a template.

A bit of nudging here and there and clamped in place, ready for Nick to weld in place when he's next in.

We were treated to two forms of express superpower today, with Pendennis Castle on train 1 and P&O on train 2. Sometimes we get a bit used to this sort of thing, so it's good to step back and occasionally consider that the idea of 4079 and P&O passing each other on a railway that stretched between Broadway and Cheltenham would have been unthinkable even 30 years ago probably.

It was a nice warm sunny day with lighting conducing to a 'going away' shot with the Castle. It's in service now every operating day up to and including the 1st June, so catch it while you can.

Back in the workshops and John is measuring up the moquette for the next seat back for the Dean Forest TSO.

A little bit of adjustment required on the seat to allow it t fit our standard templates.

I only managed to capture Paul and Dennis on their way back from cleaning the 4th rake after the steam gala, sorry guys, you were too efficient! :) Ken also got the North end corridor connection off the FK today, as this is having a new end welded on.

With no wagons currently in the works (We have the next projects lined up and funds in place, just need a driver to push them in!) I cracked on with the Santa coach. Determined to get some grey on it before Dave returned from his holiday, I spent the morning working on half the Cotswold side finishing off the filling and sanding before splashing out the undercoat grey.

Pam did the same on another section, which needed a bit more work, but we are now steadily ticking sections off for undercoating. One more pass with a little more filler then onto the livery undercoat, then it'll all come together quite quickly.

And finally, Paul was in shock as John and I did the washing up after tea break!