Wednesday 28th - A few photos

 The title says it all, a few photos ..... as usual I was rather busy and Gerry is on holiday. This did not detract from what was going on.

Bob had suggested cracking on with end skin removal on 13326, with two large acrows holding the roof up he removed something like 500mm . This will give plenty of room to weld in approx 400mm of crash pillar to each pillar, before this happens we remove the corroded buffer plate.

The new plate which is made by South Devon Engineering is then accurately clamped in place and fully welded, then the new pillar sections will be welded and the end frame is then complete. We will then be fitting new end skin panels, these look superb with no ripples or dents.

Ainsley is fine tuning a door fit, the doorfit team are doing an amazing job and the metalwork team are helping when needed.

We are using a belt and braces approach to the door fitting, after discussions with the doorfit team we have found a robust improvement to the mounting plates. This makes their life much easier where drilling and tapping is required.

Another inboard job was to make and weld in situ 15 small plates for Colin to attach the bottom pieces of 3 window frames, thanks to Rex for holding them in place while I welded them.

Meanwhile in upholstery, its all happening with Eve and John fixing a seat back repair for Rbr1672.

And its lunchtime, and not raining so here we are on the patio........

....... Watching Dinmore Manor heading north, carrying a large number of travellers.

Next week is the 'Diesel Gala' hope to see you all there, we are open on all 3 days.

Tuesday 27th - Cooling down

 It was a relief for the weather to cool down a bit today, although the rain was a tad unwelcome with plenty of outdoor work on the cards. But starting off with the Santa coach...

It was good to welcome Stu back, and he got stuck straight in with glossing the crimson on the Malvern side.

Ian and Derek were drilling footboards for the coach too. Although they aren't strictly necessary, it does look a bit odd without them.

Stu soon cracked on with the glossing - nearly there with the topcoat on this side now, while Keith followed on behind painting the now fitted footboards.

I popped the number on the Cotswold side,

And then gave one half its first coat of varnish - varnishing half a coach is enough for one day, not the most fun jobs!

David was in today instead of his normal Wednesday this week and started off repainting the blanked off end doors,

Before moving onto doing a bit more sanding on the Tool van. Not too much left to go on this now.

Dave and Robert were absent for much of the morning off collecting a donation of timber. Here's Robert with Anthony, who very thought of us, thank you!

Of course when they got back, it all needed to be unloaded...

Alan found another compartment door to sand down from TK 24006 - it feels like this coach must have at least 20 compartments the amount of doors that seem to have been done!

A wander outside saw Foremarke Hall on the Cheltenham Spa Express, under slightly duller skies than we've been used to the last couple of weeks.

John had a new wheelset to play with today, brought in from our pile of spares, this one will be made serviceable and added to our 'float' to allow swaps. Today it was take the axlebox off to overhaul them, while Bob looks on.

Finally for today, Maurice - at various points joined by Ian and I - cracked on with undercoating the first creosote tank. Thankfully the rain eased off after morning tea and everything soon dried off. The solebar, headstocks and end stanchions all round have now been done and the lower portion of the tank on the one side. Shot-blasting certainly speeds the process up!

Monday 26th - Something Different For Me

 9 for carriage Cleaning today. Team Leader John back from his holidays (although he was cook on train 1 on Saturday and steward on train 1 yesterday) so already back in the groove! So he got promoted back to Toilet Cleaner. There were Paul, Tim (also back from hols) and Peter on outside but Greg, usually inside, was on his holidays. So time for me to pick up a caddy and do windows, tables and floors with a GTech. Haven't done that for quite a while.

Inside coach 'A' in rake 1.

This started off as a clean cloth in this coach. Look after doing the tables!

Kath at work

And Rich

Rich did leave RCS in peace while they were stock taking - they couldn't communicate over the noise of the Ghostbuster.

And here is Tim desperately trying to avoid the camera, while Paul and Peter look on.

Neil had arranged for the 'A' coaches to be on the platform, so they could be washed. As Tim is taller than the rest of us he can reach the carriages at the other end of the train although they are off the platform, so all 7 in each rake got a wash today. At the south end of the platform there is also working room to stand back, unlike under the bridge.

Out of site but just as busy inside were Nigel and Sarah.

Saturday 24th - A hot airless day

 Another busy Saturday with some new work appearing.

First item on the agenda after opening up was a brisk walk through the Works to view the Creosote Tank wagon. Our grit blaster had come in on Friday to complete the job and now here it is with a coating of red oxide.

First job for Alex and Maurice was to check the four axleboxes for any ingress of sand and if ok top up each one with the appropriate oil.

 Alex has made out a whiteboard exclusively for the wagon.

Maurice begins the undercoating in Dark Grey .............

................. later joined by Alex. Alex later left for the day as he was guard on the evening Fish and Chip Special.

I later went back to see how it was going to find Maurice now busy with the Underframe Black.

 

It was a hot airless day with not even a gentle breeze, and quite frankly there were times when flopping into a seat seemed the best thing and who could blame Phil, Andy, Paul and Dennis doing just that. I missed Paul and Dennis working in the 3rd Rake - it must have been like a sauna.

Looking immaculate, P&O strides by after a lengthy wait.

Early in the day Simon very kindly carried both of the new rolls of moquette up the stairs to the Upholstery shop and saved the use of the hoist. These had been brought to us by a member of the FODR.

John carefully trims the existing moulded foam on one of the stripped seat backs.

 

Having laid the new foam on a stripped down seat cushion, Laura lays out the canvas which will be glued on to the foam.

Jenny holds the foam steady while Laura trims the excess away. The canvas is then stapled to the seat base.

In the left cormer, Laura and Jenny. In the right corner the seat cushion. And we're off with a fine tussle getting that moquette good and smooth before fixing it down over the foam.. 

 The very neatly stacked seat parts and cut sections of moquette.

Two chairs in for repair from RBr 1672 in the Main Rake, the left one now ready to go back, while the one on the right awaits repair. 

Pam has arrived and gets ready for a good day's painting. "Am I back on the Santa Coach Dave?"

"Very much so Pam". The first job is to apply top coat Cream to the door and doorway edges on the Malvern side of the Santa Coach. I was inside giving the new north vestibule ceiling a second coat of Black emulsion.

Then on to the first coat of Crimson on the Malvern side south end large panel.

George's first job was top coating the new footboards which are to replace the rotten ones found on the 4th Rake coaches.

Then on to the north end of the Santa Coach to add more gloss paint to the existing black work.

 A very different job for Alan and Simon, preparing the way for some boot lockers for our changing room.

Strange hieroglyphics in the Woodwork/Doors shop.

Our new member Chris prepares more battens on which to fix the new internal panelling in RBr 1675.

When I first met Chris a week or so ago he looked familiar. When I learnt his full name, the penny dropped. Could he be the same Chris that I knew 60 or so years ago at Cheltenham Grammer School? As they say, it's a very small world, and we were soon swapping memories of the old school, masters long past, train spotting, and loco shed trips.

I seem to have missed Robert again, but I think he was involved with door liners on RBr 1675. We've had quite a battle with the doors, frames and the liners, so the notice on this old liner is very relevant.

Ben and Ainsley have another good look at the fitting of the Cotswold side emergency door .............

........... and I wasn't surprised to see Ben back with the anglegrinder.

Andy was back under the south end of FK 13326 making preparations for the removal of the drawhook and tailpin to see if the latter requires replacing.

If you wash your own cup, don't be surpised to find a sudden deluge of dirty cups coming your way. "Ah, you washing up Ben?" "Well done, here's mine - cheers!".

Recent work by the Metalwork Team has been the creation of some new supports for overhead lights for the work benches. Nick welds more box section steel in the creation of yet another lighting support.

Not forgetting Kevin who continues to do a great job looking after all our storage, whether small or large items, especially after all the donations over the past two months.

Now on to Alex's new sandwich board. The inside has been udercoated, but a little more work in the shape of a beading surround has been added before the outside faces are painted.

"Hey, this isn't your usual car!". Following his work in the morning Nick had left for the day, but had very kindly returned during the afternoon to do some welding to help out S&T. Many thanks Nick.