Saturday 23rd - Just two days to go

Well here we are again with Christmas almost upon us. This year has flown by with so much going on.

It was the last day of our Santa Specials and what better than to see 2807 on the first train of the day. 2023 has been a great year for the engine with the return to steam after the major overhaul.

Back to the "whiter-than-white" glow of the Tank Wagon, with Maurice taping up before adding more top coat white. As for running out of white undercoat with respect to giving the Malvern side a second coat, we decided to add extra top coats instead which meant that Maurice could carry on and get the job done.

Moving over to SK 25488, Robert mounts a new back panel to the Cotswold side north end door. I later gave this another coat of varnish.

At the south end, some more paint snagging was done and this door panel also given another coat of varnish. More varnish was added inside, especially the base of the south vestibule panel that Bob has worked on during Thursday.

Reflections galore! The inner side of the south end connection door was given a polish with Briwax before being remounted.

On to the Workshop and RBr 1675 where Ainsley and Bob were attacking more of the old paint.

As previously stated, the removal of this will be a combination of angle grinder and hot air gun. A long job but well worth the effort if we are to make a better job of the repainting.

Stu was doing more vacuum cylinder maintenance, here adding a new sleeve to a piston.

More sorting out being done by Kevin.

In the Barn FK 13326 progress with the rebuild of both ends has very good, and this now includes the long outstanding repair to the above-window hole on the Malvern side which was done by Alan. The gutter can now be reinstated. Job well done - thanks Alan.

Up on the Jacks, FK 13337 "Gillian" is in the process of having a steam pipe repair.

Initially the bad section of pipe will have been cut off. John now carefully winds on the die to provide the necessary thread on the projecting length of good pipe.

Tony takes over - a die is often difficult to get started before it begins to bite into the pipe metal. Once the die is on a spanner will be used to provide the necessary torque to enable the thread to be created.

A bit more oil will help. Once the thread has been created the replacement length of pipe can be attached.

Hello, where is Ian going with the 03?

Much of our shutdown maintenance will be focussed on the two main rakes, but there will be things to do with the 3rd Rake as well.

While in the yard, a shot of the completed cover over the pit. Chris and Steven did a good job here.

The 03 pulls out the first three coaches from the 3rd Rake, which were then propelled over to the headshunt on our side of the yard. Plenty of interest was shown by our Santa visitors.

Kevin not only looks after all our storage requirements, but also takes on other jobs which seemingly pass us by. One is to clean the Mess Room windows. Thanks Kevin - a good job!

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

So a varied day of activities even though we were a smaller group. For many in the Works the holiday has already started and when they return it will be 2024. 2023 has certainly been quite a year and Alex will be publishing the annual round up of our activities.

We will be back in the Works to finish off the year on Thursday 28th and Saturday 30th.

Thank you Malcolm (in Canada) for your very kind well wishes in the last posting. In turn may we wish both yourself and all our blog readers a very peaceful and enjoyable Christmas.