Tuesday 8th - A very welcome visit

Today was a bit special as we knew that the 1030 train from Cheltenham would be bringing Paul back for a visit. Having had to suspend volunteering after having had a mild stroke, it's great to know he is improving daily and we hope he will eventually be able to return to the Wagon Team.

Stu, Pam, Paul, Maurice and Alex, enjoying a tea break outside the Coffee Pot Cafe on the station.

Also very pleasant was that I was able give an impromptu tour of the Works to a very nice couple from Argentina, who were fascinated by the levels of work we are able to achieve. It also meant that they were able to get out of the rain for a while, the wet day once again restricting all our work to indoor jobs. As I left early I didn't capture all that was going on, so apologies to those I missed.

Much of the work was based around the two tool vans again where good progress is being made. Robert concentrated on the south corner of Tool Van 4, where the wood rot has been particularly bad. He followed this later on using the multi-tool to produce a cleaner cut.

 

 

 Stu finished the sanding down on the north end of No. 4.

Top coating at the moment isn't possible other than in the Workshop or Barn. Keith adds the gloss black to the new steps for Tool Van 4. Other paint jobs that could be done involved just undercoating.

Alex and Pam were back on the Cotswold side of No. 92, which would have been finished, bar the door, probably not long after I had left.

Derek removed more rotten planking from the north end of 92.

Dave had been itching to get back outside to do more tidying up of SO 4806 (S & T's workshop), but with little let up in the weather I doubt if he was able to do this by the end of the working day. So for both himself and Alan it was back to sanding down TK 24006's compartment doors.

 

The 1030 crossover at Winchcombe. A Type 2 Standard and a black Manor on a wet day. If the rakes were in Carmine & Cream, it could be mid-Wales in the 1950s.