Saturday 19th - Another long day

Normally Alex would be doing the blog for Saturday, but Guard duty on the Main Rake called, so I'm afraid it's me yet again.

 We will be sorry when 78019 has to return to its home - it's a great little engine.

 And here he is, doing a great job as always. He would be back with us about mid afternoon.

Alex's plans for the Paintshop today were simple - dusty jobs in the morning, painting in the afternoon. Maurice begins the dusty work with the Malvern side of Tool Van 92.

 Pam got cracking on the south end of the van.

 More new planking being fitted by Robert at the north end of No. 92.

Painting does not include basic priming, so Clive got going on the northern half of the Malvern side of Tool Van 4, the south half having been done previously.

Time passes and by now we were into the painting phase. Maurice had transferred to priming the north end of No. 4

Alex was now back with us and, having mixed red with some white undercoat to create the appropriate undercoat colour for PO Red, he then applied this to the south end of No. 4.

Chris carefully reattaches his black painted support units, rebuilding them bit by bit. The final job will be to overpaint the heads of the screws and bolts with gloss black. The first of the two tank wagons will then be complete.

This little chap on the Barn floor was in danger of being trodden on. A quick rescue and he was flying away to safety.

TSO 5042 was on the jacks to have a steam leak fixed. Andy Tu. works on the area concerned.

The leak turned out to be the pipe flange which couples to the sheep's head unit. It was put on the lathe to clean up and attempt to remove the bit of broken pipe inside.

This wasn't successful, so it resorted to Phil with a hacksaw to remove the offending bit of broken pipe.

Moving to the vacuum cylinder area of the Workshop, Andy Th. and Stu are overhauling one of them, here cleaning out the actual cylinder extracted from within the vacuum chamber.

Next job is cleaning the piston.

The cleaned cylinder with its rubber seal.

The cleaned outer vacuum chamber.

Dennis and Paul take a well earned break and watch "P&O" come by with a well filled Maroon Rake. Passenger numbers on the main trains are very good with the holidays in full swing. Sadly the DMU shuttle isn't so well patronised.

Progress with our "tidy up and protect" exercise with SO 4806 is good. Dave continues the general coating of the Cotswold side with green primer. I later completed the removal of all the rusting paint on the south entry door, and then got the door frame and half the door coated in primer.

Pam lightly sands the undercoated ceiling strip panels for the RBr ....................

............... and then, with the Paintshop's dusty phase over, begins top coating them.

Three of our Woodwork Team busy at the north end of the RBr. Alan and Simon are refitting the compartment sliding door, while Steven is working on the wall panelling.

No guesses what Phil is back doing. He must be fitting electric wiring in his sleep!

Ben working on the liners for the Cotswold side kitchen door.

Another set of refurbished scotches, the yellow ones for outside in the yard, the red ones for inside the Works. Yes, we know the painting isn't top class - they are only scotches, which will have a short merry life under wheels, eventually ending up sqashed and broken in the skip!

Oh dear, machine problems again in Upholstery? John carefully attaches the magnetized screw to the end of his screwdriver before very carefully positioning it where it is to be attached.

Laura lends a hand.

I previously reported this seat back as one of our's being re-covered. Wrong! I was fooled by the excellent condition of the Trojan moquette. It is in fact another of the seats from the DFR, now being stripped by Helen.

There are still a number of seat backs and cushions to be refurbished for the DFR, so a little way to go yet before Upholstery complete the first contract. The work so far with the second contract has been to sort out the templates needed for the plyboard inner pieces and experiment with the moquette sections needed for the smaller Mk 2 seating.

Jenny carefully positions the hardboard base for this seat cushion.

We rarely get asked to give tours of the Works now and I really miss giving them, so it was a real pleasure to do one on Tuesday and now again today. This time for three of our Lineside Clearance Team who suddenly found themselves at a loose end when their planned day didn't work out. And as often happens the tour spent more time in Upholstery than anywhere else in the Works. I think it's because the Upholstery Dept and the depth of the work they do is a complete surprise to visitors, whereas everything else, while no less interesting, is more or less what they expect to see.

A very satisfying moment as the first of the top coats begins to go on Tool Van 4.

While Alex top coats, Maurice primes the window surround on the door.

Yes, the clock in the background in the last photo really did say nearly 6. It was almost 7 by the time we had finished our end of day cuppa (with doughnuts for Alex), but a satisfying day with a lot done.