Saturday 16th - New wagon please!

 Starting off on Friday, when I popped in to swap wagons round with Stuart. With Tool van No.92 complete, we were chomping at the bit to get the second tank wagon in.

I didn't get a chance to take many photos as it's best to concentrate on one thing when you're shunting, but we did stop to take a couple of photos of 92 before we temporarily moved it into the back siding out of the way.

And the sunny side. All the sanding of the old paintwork well worth it in the end, a good final result.

And the next in, the second DD3 GWR tank wagon 43930. It was grit-blasted and spray-primed in the summer, but we've been messing around with tool vans since then. A little surface rust had developed in the meantime, but that shouldn't take too long to address.

Also of note was that earlier in the morning the P'way train had moved siding, it's now positioned in the P'way yard (what a novel idea!) and helps hide the inevitable untidiness behind. The other potential positive is it frees up siding space to have the demo goods train formed up on a more permanent basis...

So on to Saturday and Maurice was soon off the starting blocks taking off the surface rust.

By the end of the day a fair bit had been patch primed and a bit more of the solebar had been undercoated, a job I had started on it outside in the summer.

Just as a reminder this is the aimed for livery, white with red lettering and a dark red band. It would have carried some sort of lubricating oil for the loco department in all probability.

The RBr returned to its place in the workshop after the shunt, still plenty do do on this. Robert was using a sheet of paper to check for binding spots on the emergency door on the Cotswold side.

Phil was fitting the electrical bits on the end.

And Chris was looking at foot boards.

Inside Dave and Pam were sanding some of the kitchen panelling in preparation for contractors coming in to install some new proprietary panels.

Ian and Stuart in discussion over the next phase in here.

Just Alan on FK 13326 today, grinding...

...And welding on the South end, where one of the floor bearers has had to be replaced. Luckily Alan worked out a way of safely doing this without either having to rip the toilet out or risk setting everything on fire.

More shunting today, FK 13329 came off the jack road having had its steam leaks repaired.

And in came FK 13337 which is having a temporary bogie swap. The dirty gang unhook the brake rigging underneath before lifting the coach up.

Soon after and the bogies were gone.

A bit more shuffling later.

On FK 13329 now outside, Paul and Dennis investigated some faulty plumbing.

Santa trains are always a good opportunity to 'borrow' a steam loco to do some steam heat tests. We've made some good improvements on rake 1, but not had much of a chance to assess the state of play in rake 3. 5526 did the honours and hooked up.

Yup, there's one! John and Andy worked their way along and identified what needs sorting.

Back inside, I spent the morning lettering and numbering the NYMR SK, very nearly there with this one now.

The DFR contract continues, with another batch of Mk2 seating sent off and swapped for more yet to do. The team soon got stuck straight in.

Old cover off, new cover on.

Kevin continues to keep us all in order, where would we be without him!

Last pic for today, just before I left at about 6.45 2807 rolled in to stable train 2, lit by Christmas lights.