Tuesday 28th - Lining out and thresholds

 A relatively quiet day but some very good progress all round.  Not surprisingly most of the effort was focussed on SK 25488.

Richard got cracking on the lining out on the Malvern side of 25488, initially removing the original line tape remaining and then applying fresh tape to mark out the yellow band for the top line.

Stu got going on the Cotswold side to complete the second top coating. By the time I captured him he had finished all the central cream panels and had progressed to the lower section.

 Richard had progressed to the south end with his yellow band.

Roger completed the black glossing of the buffer area at the south end Malvern side, and then went on tidying up various parts at the sol bar level.

Keith's first job was to second top coat the two diesel seat frames (these will be picked up by Upholstery on Wednesday). He then moved on to the door for 25488's south corridor connection, giving that a second cream top coat.

 Then it was more painting at the north end connection.

Roger gave the coach a good vac throughout. There are some minor improvements to some of the varnishing needed and as well as some general cleaning.

It's good to see the lining out on the way at last. The masking tape will be removed as soon as the yellow band is completed.

 A final shot of the Cotswold side with Stu well on the way to completing the top coating.

Maurice added more Flexacryl to the roof of Tool Van 92 - I meant to check whether this was the final bit.

Later on some tidying up of the GW Brown under the battens. Maurice has certainly done the lion's share of the painting of 92.

On the Malvern side of RBr 1675 I found Ainsley furiously brushing down the south end bogie area, before having a good sweep and clear up. The Workshop was given a serious tidy up and sweep and vac through last week, so we need to keep it this way.

 

 Robert was preparing new thresholds for the Malvern side of 1675.

 One of the thresholds being trial fitted in one of the double doorways.

Late in the day as Ainsley works in one of the Malvern side doorways.

Derek is doing a great job sorting out the bad sections of planking on Monster Van 600. Another new section is being slid into place.

Monday 27th - Home and Away Reports

 The Away Team consisted of 4 and the Home Team of 11. Hmm....

So let's start with the busy Away Team. Photos from Rich, many thanks.

The first thing they found was 7 windows left open, including a door window plus the one in the brake carriage. I had heard that the Santa trains were busy but it is unfortunate that so many windows were left open. This is most unusual.

There is no outside washing, but there was plenty to do inside. Mince pie crumbs,

Lots of mopping,

Nigel and Lynn clearing up

After all that a quick nap is called for before going home..

Greg and Lynn,

And Rich,

But with 11 of us at Toddington we could share out the work. David, Tim and Peter washed the Cotswold side of rake 1 whilst Jane, John, Kath, Nick, Roger C, Steve, Val and self dealt with the inside.

We also had lots of mince pies ground into the carpets.

And this handy bag with half drunk water bottle was found pushed right under a seat, out of sight.

Saturday 25th - Getting cold, keeping warm

 A very frosty start to the day, appropriately wintery for the first day of Santa operations. Despite the cold we still emerge to watch the trains go by... 

Not the ideal turn to be on 2807 with that open cab.

The other loco on duty was visiting prairie 5526. Although it was probably warmer in the cab for crews, it nearly wasn't for passengers, as somehow it had managed to make it to Winchcombe with a faulty steam heat bag. So it was down to us to change it. Robert caught the gang looking to see what it was all about.

While Paul caught them in action. All sorted, and passengers were kept warm and happy.

Not so warm, but still happy playing with pipes was John underneath the FK, another series of joints sorted out today.

Several of us warmed up by loading the latest batch of completed seats for the Dean Forest, these were the last of the Mk1 seats plus the first few Mk2 bits.

Up in the gods today, Maurice and I fitted the end beading and then trimmed the canvas for its final look. Just needs painting now.

Greg joined us in a change from our usual Wednesday evening to have a go at the ceiling inside. rather than try and scrape all the paint off, which no one fancied, he had a thin smooth filler to skim over the top.

Late in the day I had a go at the first bit of interior painting.

The RBr is running through people at a rate, even Kevin got involved today having sorted out the stores, to have a go at getting the end corridor door working. I did see it sliding back and forth towards the end of the day so mission accomplished?

The kitchen is now mostly panelled with plywood.

Robert was working on door thresholds today, carefully cutting out the details.

And fitted in place - of course a bit of the flooring had to come up again temporarily!

Elsewhere Rod was in for a change to his usual day to continue on capping strip fitting.

Dave ended up spending most of the day just taking the masking tape off the NYMR SK, unfortunately it really didn't like being left on and refused to come of in anything more than small sections at a time.

Pam was pleased to be back, initially painting some seat frames that had turned up, later doing a bit more top coating on the Cotswold side of the SK.

I mooched outside just as it was getting dark to see what was going on and have a look myself at our visiting loco.

Unfortunately partially due to some poor coal it had clinkered up quite badly so ended up swapping onto the earlier finish train when the two crossed.

And one more GWR prairie, this time from today hence the slightly late blog posting, a day at Warley where they usually have a full size item of rolling stock, this time 5164 on it's way back from barrow Hill for overhaul. The wallet was lightened somewhat and some superb modelling was admired.

Thursday 23rd - It's going to be a busy Winter shutdown

More on the title later.

**************

Firstly, to answer an enquiry from Tuesday's posting.

Gordon Smith November 22, 2023 at 9:55 PM

I haven't seen Pam in these blogs for a while, is she ok and just having some time out?

Unfortunately Pam caught some sort of bug (not Covid) and as such has been off since the Autumn Gala, almost 4 weeks. However I'm very pleased to say that she is now much better and should be returning this weekend. 

John S., who does much of our metal fettling, was also away for a spell with what sounded like the same symptoms. He returned much better a short time ago.

Thank you for your concern. 

************** 

Now on to the day's activities, well most of them at least as I was busy working on 25488.

We were very pleased to welcome a visit from Sam, Head of C&W, NYMR, who amongst a number of aspects wanted to talk to our electricians Richards I and II about some of their innovations. What could be more approriate than to capture Ian (our Head), Sam, and Stu (our Works Manager) in front of NYMR SK 25488.

Moving on to 25488. I was slightly wrong in Tuesday's post to say that the Malvern side top coating was complete. On the white board Alex had written that the window frames still needed a second coat. Phil set to and when I left in the afternoon was well on the way to completing the job. So, assuming that this is the case, we should be able to get the line tapes off and begin lining out.

Jeff doing one of the jobs he loves at the south end of 25488.

And then there is the manufacturer's plate on the Cotswold side. The one on the Malvern side is in an odd position, in effect hidden behind the central door step, so no point in painting that!

Maurice continued the internal priming inside Tool Van 92 where bare wood was showing.

Another job well on the way to completion.

More things to paint on the trestle table. The new bits of the outer roof frame for the Tool Van have been undercoated and are ready for fitting. In the background Jeff paints in yellow a very useful tool used by the Dirty Gang - it is literally just a bar of metal.

Inside the south vestibule in FK 13326 Gerry cuts out more corroded metal above the doorway. As previously reported the repairs to this coach have been extended now we have found the floor under the toilet area needs replacing.

A interesting job for Rex as he tidies up another cut section of metal.

A number of these have been made. The curved pipe section will be welded to the flat plate, which in turn will be attached to the new generator for 1675. These little items will in effect act as handles and enable the unit to be lifted in and out of it's container under the coach a lot more easily.

1675's water level indicator, recently overhauled and painted in Hammerite, that will be fitted inside the kitchen area. The red light will glow when the water level is low.

Phil and Richard I discussing the electrics in the battery box area under 1675.

Cables running everywhere - I commented in a previous post that this is a very complex vehicle. It might look a mess, but they are doing a good job.

Ian's very long list of jobs to be done during our Winter shutdown period, which basically is just two months. It sounds a long time, but when you start adding up the number of individual days that various members of our staff are in, it's starts becoming scary.

A sample from the first sheet. The yellow section comprises jobs left over from last year. We are going to be very busy in early 2024.