Saturday 15th - Dodging the Deluges

 Another day where outdoor work was almost completely written off with the unpredictable and fast moving heavy rain clouds.

Another threatening cloud approaches...

Take cover! Quite torrential.

All this rain has meant the weeds have gone a bit wild in the back siding on the Up side, up to chest height in places. We need to get this cleared before we can shunt anything out of here.

Anyway, to today's work:

The Santa coach is very nearly done. Pam vacuumed out the interior making it spic and span before it leaves the works

While Dave did the final bit of roof painting.

A meeting first thing to discuss wheelsets, John has been sorting through our pile of spare sets recently, to figure out what's serviceable, what could be serviceable with work, and what's no use at all. These two were fresh inside to take a look at today.

John and Andy spent the day cleaning them up. The conclusion was that this set could be made ok but would need to be sent away for turning at some point first due to tread damage.

Also in the barn and nearing completion is the first of the two tank wagons, with Maurice on the second top coat on the tank barrel.

Alongside, George was putting the finishing touches on the RBr bogies with the yellow axlebox covers and various other details.

A trip upstairs to upholstery showed good progress with the DFR seats, another batch being collected today. They must be well on the way with this by now.

John's job today was some stands for P'way signs. He dug out a proper engineering flat surface we'd had buried under a workbench for years which was just the job for this.

Onto the RBr then, and Dave was drilling holes in window frames, presumably to accept some wood.

Ainsley and Ben were fiddling around with one of the kitchen doors on the Cotswold side.

Some panelling going on! Steve fits the first couple of side panels in the saloon area. Maybe this area might all come together quite quickly now?

Later in the day Pam splashed some varnish on them too, mainly to protect them for now.

I caught Phil through the window doing something with that dangling wiring too.

Nick was in this morning too for a bit more welding, this time something inside on the floor - either that or it was prayer time, he is facing East here!

The door liner on the Cotswold side emergency door, continues to be challenging, Robert makes another test fit.

Earlier in the day he and Chris had been cutting more cabinets in half, this time for Toddington shop.

I assume this is another boot locker being worked on by Simon, one has appeared in the changing room already.

I'm not quite sure where this vacuum cylinder being overhauled by Ian and Stuart is destined for, possibly FK 13326?

Mid afternoon and our tea break was interrupted by a rotten piece of wood being plonked on our table - we prefer a chocolate éclair thanks! Turns out that it was a piece of wood from 2807's cab floor, and their chairman was rather hoping we could make them a new one. Well, alright then, as long as you don't disturb our tea break again!

Back to the tank wagon - I'd primed the bottom timbers on Thursday, and undercoated them this morning. By late afternoon they were dry enough to be glossed so Bob and Maurice did the honours.

End of play today and the second top coat on the tank was dry enough for me to put the big G W on one side too - very nearly finsihed now and really looking the part, very pleased!

Lastly for today and quick coat of undercoat dark grey on the new Barry wagon doors before I left for the day.

Wednesday Evening at Toddington

Been a while since an update from Toddington - with various people away and inconvenient weather we've had a few evenings off but we were back in force last Wednesday with 5 of us working away.

Dan had done a sterling job with the needle gun around the chain pockets, while Greg followed on with the primer.

Rich and Mark (not pictured) busied themselves freeing some of the spring hanger eye bolts so we can get some new ones made up, and also loosened the bolts for the axle-guard underkeep in preparation for a wheel swap required.

The other bit of excitement was the arrival of two new wagons during the week. The DMU group have decided to put DMBS 51372 up for sale as they have decided it no longer fits into their plans for the running fleet. However they did use it as storage, so they needed something to replace that function, and this is it.

The other side shows they need a bit of cosmetic work, but nothing a scrub up and a coat of paint won't fix.

The underframes look like they might need a bit of work to make these runnable, but the DMU guys have said they'd like to have them fit to run. Not sure about this buffer attachment, standard BR detail I think not!?

And lastly, jumping forward again to Sunday, where I joined the DMU gang for the day to put some finishing touches to spare DMBS 51360's quick paint job from blue to green: