Wednesday 27th - Moving on

 Hello again, after a longer than usual holiday period its nice to be back. I think I am safe in saying the hot metal work is now complete on Rbr 1675, we can now turn our attention to 13326 and get some work done in the barn before it gets cold. Steve and Bob had done a brilliant job in prepping the North end of 13326 ready for welding in the new sections. With a bit of push and nudge everything lined up and was tacked into position. Its always best to clamp everything in place to prevent warping with the considerable amount of heat generated.

With the acrows removed, the framework is now holding the roof up. Full welding is next followed by the new skin panels. We also make provision for any water that gets in, can also get out .... should be good for another 60 years.

Eve having also been away on holiday, found a fair bit of admin to catch up on.

Next door Jenny is finishing the last of a seat set for Dean Forest Railway, they look fantastic.

Back in the main workshop, Gerry is refurbishing yet another window frame for 1675.

This is probably where it will be going.

Geoff and Rex doing a bit of fine adjustment, as mentioned with the hot work done they can now forge ahead with interior panelling etc.

Ainsley and a hand, looking for that perfect fit .......

Trevor looks somewhat surprised, here he is fitting door closure strips .... each one is bespoke and not an easy task.

Phil is quietly working on wiring in the kitchen area of 1675.

Geoff inside 1675, he has probably just cracked a joke, hence David grinning behind him ..... love that Hi Viz.

John is already writing up service records, a huge task given the number of carriages.

Before the metal bashers get there Derek is checking interior panelling on 13226 South End.

Simon in the woodwork shop making dust.

Back to Phil ..... he never stops .... well he does for tea.

Tom looking a bit serious, must be the weather.

Rex is also on window frames, he just loves them.

Thats me doing a small job for S&T .... we are always happy to help Malcolm and his team.

Many thanks to Gerry for the super photos.

Until next week.

Tuesday 26th - Some good progress at the Works and a bit of L & B

Another busy day at the Works despite two of our regulars, Robert and Ian, being away this week.

 

Beginning today with a walk down the yard to see the culmination of Dave H's efforts to improve the look of the old Army RBr. What a difference! From algae covered windows and a mish-mash of old paint to something which now looks so much better for our passing travellers. Well done Dave!

 On the way back to the Works, completed Tool Van 4 looks terrific in the sun.

 

For comparison, Tool Van 92 when it was last refurbished in 2009 (date of photo 13 July 2009)

Back to the present. With all the linseed oil coating nicely dried, Maurice begins priming the north end of 92.

 Towards the end of the day he had made a start on the south end.

 For most of us it was back to SK 25488, and sand, sand, sand. Stu cleared up the final parts of the Cotswold side lower panel.

As previously mentioned, the four opening doors and their frames (the centre doors are sealed shut) need a lot of work, initially sanding and removing the cracked paint, and then filling where needed. Richard made a start on the Cotswold side south door.

Pam and Alan worked on the Malvern side, and when not doing logistics and grabbing photos, I joined them at the south end.

Oh the joys as the first paint goes on. Stu applies our base undercoat of light grey to the Cotswold side.

So, good progress with 25488. Still a long way to go, but we are cracking on with the job. Alex had listed the Model Railway TPO as priority, but having had a deluge first thing this morning and the threat of more rain, which did appear in the afternoon and was just as heavy, we gave up on further work there.

Keith gave another coat of black to the large washers for the bogie traction rods. Unfortunately they have not surprisingly ended up with a coating of pink dust.

The first angle irons from the Monster Van woodwork which Derek is currently repairing. Derek had cleaned then up with an angle grinder, enabling Keith to add a coat of red oxide.

While walking through Upholstery, I couldn't resist taking a couple of photos of the seating parts ready to be returned to the FODR. Everything neatly stacked with the small parts packed and labelled.

The final job of the day. Out with the soft brooms for a big sweep up.

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LYNTON & BARNSTAPLE RAILWAY GALA - 23/24 SEPTEMBER

Another Lynton & Barnstaple Railway Gala arrives, so it's back again for another Saturday visit.

There are loads of photos on the L&B's Facebook which are well worth a look. My photos below are just a sample from the ones I took.

The visiting engines are Hunslets ' Lilla' and ' Hugh Napier' from the Ffestiniog. The L&B was due to have restored WHR "Russell", but following problems with the loco, the two Hunslets were sent instead and proved to be a hit with the visitors.

On both locos, sliding panels at the back allowed the fire to be raked through and cleaned, and it made firing somewhat easier. The two locos only separated for the run-around at Woody Bay and Killington Lane.

The pride of the fleet is obviously "Lyn", which spent much of the day working with the Hunslets, topping and tailing the three-coach rake.

 World War I veteran "Axe" was on the two coach train.

The 7¼" gauge miniature railway had a lovely Thompson 01 no. 63874. Unfortunately when Pam and I went up for a ride, the loco had shed two pins and had to be retired. After that the stand-in loco could only take a single trailer and, having already waited a long time while they were trying to sort things out, we decided to return to the main trains. Hopefully it was fixed in time for Sunday's visitors.

There were three traction engines, all in steam, with one of the two small ones giving lifts up and down the steep road from the station.

 

I know we have great views from our Cotswold line, but from Woody Bay and down the line, they are superb. The Welsh coast could be clearly seen.

 

And on to the future. The newly acquired loco Bagnall 2819, formerly known as "Charles Wytock", will be fully restored.

This wonderful 5" gauge model of the original "Yeo" was built by John Fysh, a model engineer for over 50 years, who has sadly passed away. It has been gifted to the 762 Club, who were responsible for the building of "Lyn" and are currently recreating two of the original Manning Wardles "Yeo" and "Exe".

www.lynton-rail.co.uk/news/view/762-cub-progress-report-september-2023 

Overall it was an excellent day, with a lot of visitors and a very happy atmosphere. Who wouldn't be happy visiting this wonderful little railway. Pam's smile says it all.

Monday 25th - Will It Work?

 

Regular readers will know that we had a trial polishing session on a maroon coach on July 28th. Last Friday was the first chance we had to do more, so Paul and myself turned up on a nice sunny morning to have another go. Also with us to start with was Stuart, C&W workshop manager, with all the kit. Now many of you out there will be sceptical that polishing will last a worthwhile time. Stuart is ex Tyseley and has assured us the compound/paste/polish we use will last, provided we also give it a standard wax polish. That hasn't happened (been concentrating on normal Monday work) so when we examined our previous efforts we reluctantly concluded it was starting to fade. So we did that again before moving on to the next section. That was going well - until our nice sunny day turned in to a sudden downpour - end of session! So the plan today was to wax polish the areas we have done. We need to know if it works as there is no way we can sustain polishing an entire train every 8 weeks. But if we don't try we will never know. It is worth noting that with the orientation of our line the Cotswold side of the carriages takes a lot more wear from the weather than the Malvern side.

Picture above is Paul hard at work on Friday.

So it was 10 today - holidays still ongoing. Paul starts early and by the time I arrived washing of the maroon rake in P2 was well underway. Priority then for Paul and myself was to turtle wax the half carriage that we had treated on Friday. We can then monitor this over the coming weeks to see if it is going to be viable. If you are regularly at the railway please keep an eye on this area to see how it is doing.

It was good to have Nigel back, after bringing home souvenir Covid from his holiday in Denmark. He was joined inside by Jane, John (back from hols - toilets!), Kath and Nick. David, Lawrie and Tim were outside as usual.

And here are Lawrie and Tim finishing rake 1 in P1.

Saturday 23rd - And lots of other things

 I'm afraid I was a bit rubbish on blog duty on Saturday and I think I missed a fair bit of activity. In fairness I also forgot to take any pictures of what I was doing either! But there's a fair bit else featured to make up.

Anyway, starting in upholstery today where work was already well under way by the time I emerged from the mess room after a discussion over GWR wagon wheel profiles (exciting, I know!). There's just a few DFR seats left to be recovered and most of them are pictured here.

Meanwhile Helen was on the sewing machine with another cushion cover to sell. Two very profitable exercises for GWSR C&W, well done upholstery team!

With the corridor connection on the RBr mounted last week, James Andy and John spent today connecting up the various linkages and other associated bits and pieces.

Robert was shaving another door liner, some of these are getting very thin, just the way it's ended up with where the Z sections are.

Inside Phil was doing battle with the tangle of wires for the lighting in the saloon.

Alan was repairing this window frame that was cracked, then removing the residue from the previous rubber sealant.

5042 bogie work continued with John cleaning up some more bits in the workshop...

Before fitting them onto the bogies.

The coach went for a trundle up and down the yard to see if everything was all good. Unfortunately one of the axleboxes in the replacement bogie stuck in the guides and didn't want to move, so up in the air again to resolve that.

Another batch of spacer packers for Commonwealth bogie traction rods has been made, these all received a coat of underframe black by George.

Kevin spent a good proportion of the day moving RBr bits out of one of the wagons into the workshop storage area so they are a bit more to hand, and if the wagon disappears for demo goods trains we don't need to try and get it back again! Most of it was very heavy, so some light duties at the end of the day with the routine tidy up of the tools area.

That was all I managed for Saturday, apart from doing some more signwriting on the model railway coach.

So, a few pictures from Toddington wagon activities.

The GWR water tank has been awaiting some new parts to be machined for some time, these have now very kindly been done by the machine shop lads at Toddington. We now need to chop off the ends of the old tie rods and weld these new bits on.

The chaired sleeper wagon is approaching completion on the cosmetic side. In the background 2807 is beginning to look very shiny.

If you're not on Facebook, you might have missed that 2807 has made its first moves since withdrawal for overhaul, I found an excuse to be there, for more pictures and videos do look at the 2807 group's blog gwr2807.blogspot.com/2023/09/she-moves.html

Sunday and the Toddington wagon group fancied playing with the train set *ahem* essential shunting.

The object was to retrieve the Fruit C which needs to be tripped down to Winchcombe for Santa use, and a starfish (not the one pictured) to retrieve DMU engines from within it and for a scheduled quick repaint.

After chopping and changing a few times, much to the delight of interested bystanders, we pushed the rest back into the North siding. Thanks to DOO Andy for those pics.

Lastly, as Dave mentioned last week, I was swanning around on the SVR for their autumn gala with a small contingent from Toddington, so just a few photos. B1 Mayflower was one of the headline guests, a rare appearance on a heritage railway, usually working on the mainline, it was in fine form.

Everybody loves a pannier, and 7714 on a local at Arley was just spot on.

Obviously you have to compare goods trains. Theirs was very nice, in the charge of guest Bagnall 'Vulcan'.

They've got a chaired sleeper wagon in their set too. This one is a lot older than ours though.

Speaking of old wagons, a bit of a novelty at Bewdley on the back siding, a GWR wagon in red! Yes, this is correct (probably) not grey, there is good evidence that before 1904 the GWR painted their wagons a 'bright red' and this is an interpretation of that. We do have a couple of wagons potentially old enough for this livery....

Of course a highlight of the SVR's Autumn gala is the all night running, this was Arley at about midnight, waiting to pass the late night goods train going in the other direction. absolutely magical.

We left our double header of the Bagnall and the Ivatt tank at Bewdley at about 2.30am to grab a few hours' sleep, a very enjoyable night was had by all, even if some felt a bit worse for wear by morning!

One last picture of Kidderminster Railway Museum housed in the original GWR warehouse, with a few wagons including a nice GWR hand crane parked outside. Food for thought for the garden centre site development at Toddington....

Dave and Pam were at the Lynton and Barnstaple for their gala this weekend, so no doubt some photos will be forthcoming of that soon as well.