Saturday 2nd - Has the hoovering really ended?

 Another day with plenty of jobs ticked off various lists. First up was the Pass-Comm equipment on the North end of the RBr.

John applies a bit of heat to get the remains of the old pipe out.

New pipe being bent by John and Andy - this is the long vertical pipe that joins the main vacuum pipe to the Pass-Comm equipment higher up. Unfortunately the picture I thought I got of it installed didn't take, sorry chaps! Will get that another day.

The other main job today on the mechanical side was to take apart and put back together the drawbar on the North end of 5042. Ian, Tony and Andy start the disassembly process.

A bit later on and the buckeye is off and the gang are working on the main drawbar assembly.

By the end of the day it was all greased up and put back together, complete with new tail pin assembly. 

Back in the main workshop Alan was speeding along those waistline joins.

Ainsley was puzzled how something that was taken off somehow still won't fit when you come to put it on again having changed nothing in this particular instance, and Robert was making some adjustments to a door liner. Both of them got there in the end I think.

Stuart was servicing DA valves in the morning, later they appeared on our painting tables for a splash of paint.

In the paintshop, the big vacuuming operation continues. Yes even the walls are being hoovered!

Dave did take a break to paint the stack of spacers needed by Stuart for Commonwealth bogie adjustment.

I went round on the scaffold tower to vacuum the roofs of both tool vans. we still need to take the metal roof off of most of No.92, but it least we won't get covered in dust again doing so now.

In the afternoon Clive, Stuart and I had a stroll down Hunting Butts to look at some of the wagons down there, mostly for P'way requirements but a couple potentially for refurbishment into the freight train too. Watch this space as they say... (None of those pictured will feature, that's just the end of the tunnel)

Returning mid afternoon and the last of the major painting on No.4 was being done - Maurice second top-coated the last big panel and Bob finished off the underframe blacking. It's mostly just handrails and other bits and pieces to finish painting now.

I got back just in time to see the upholstery folks leaving for the day, and Jenny was able to show me the last of the DFR seats have now been stripped down ready for recovering.

And they had also done this chair - quite where its destination is I'm not sure but of course up to their usual superb standard.