Saturday 30th - Goodbye 2023

The last working day of the year and busy one with more of us returning after the Christmas period.

While it might be our last working day of the season, our running days still numbered three with trains ending on New Years Day. The signalman holds the token ready as 2807 runs past with the positioning train to pick up the first passengers from Cheltenham.

Stu introduced us to an amazing heavy duty scraper with a tungsten carbide tip which he used to use at Tyesley for heavy underframe work on both locos and coaches. This made very short work of the thick layers of paint and filler on the side of RBr 1675. There are many types of tungsten carbide scrapers available but on his advice we need to avoid the smaller cheaper ones. The one he has is eye-wateringly expensive but it is better and will last longer.

Taking a break from door work Ainsley spent the day stripping the Cotswold side of 1675 using a combination of the scraper, angle grinder with sanding disk, and pad sander to finish off.

Inside 1675 David continued the rebuilding of the oak window frames.

Simon ponders the rebuilding of the back shelving for the counter area.

One of the side panels has been made and is being checked for size and where the cut outs need to be and if necessary modified.

 The end result is a double thickness end panel, firmly attached and very well made.

Dave returned to the job he was doing on Thursday, lifting the indicated floor panels in the corridor.

The backs of the panels and the supporting wood cross members were treated with Creocote.

 

It doesn't come out well in a photograph, but when walking past this on the side of 1675, the markings seem to stand out in a weird holographic effect. The illusion is so marked that you are tempted to try placing your hand "within" the effect. It's then that the illusion vanishes.

My job, when not running around taking blog photos or getting caught up in other things, was removing any paint spots and cleaning the Cotswold side windows on SK 25488. Where needed some minor paint snagging was done in the window slider areas. The shunt to replace 25488 with 1675 and bring FK 13326 into the Workshop from the Barn will now probably be on Saturday 6th January.

More new shelving in the Woodshop with Kevin neatly sorting out and labelling more boxes of screws. 

Robert preparing more hardwood that will be further cut for door liners.

 

 With Paul away until next week Dave kindly stands in with the tea making.

We had some good numbers on the trains today, and plenty of photographers too! With Foremarke Hall on the Maroon Rake bound for Toddington, 2807 passes on its second round trip with the Cheltenham train.

Hello, where's Stu taking the line of good vehicles that were stabled on the Works line? Ian was shunter on Platform 2.

The move was necessary to free up the siding so that the bogies could be rearranged in their required order for when the relevant coaches come in for servicing during the shutdown period.

 The bogies are very carefully chained together prior to the initial move.

A stroll down the yard later in the day to where the goods vehicles have been stabled. One of the two grey vans is planned to come into the Works, along with the MICA van, for repairs and repainting.

RMB 1808 was up on the jacks with a steam leak now fixed.

 John does a final check of the bogie position before finally lowering the coach body.

It was just Laura in Upholstery today, making cushion covers from one of the new batches of moquette acquired for both this and the new line in bags and spectacle cases.

The pile of cushions ready for collection by both our Shop staff and Admin team, the latter looking after our online sales which are doing very well. 

More cushions and stacked covers. 

As to how well we are doing, Laura told me the number of cushions so far sold since we started this last April. 

It's amazing!

How many? 

Look out for the number in Alex's round-up for 2023.

Two end of the day photos showing how much Ainsley had done on the side of 1675 and below the whiter-than-white glow of the Tank Wagon as Maurice continues to paint on the gloss white.

 

The blurred image of Foremarke Hall as it passes the Works and heads back to Toddington with the penultinate train of the day, the lights from the signalbox and Paintshop reflected along the boiler and tender. Unless anyone from C&W is on the trains on Sunday or Monday, this is the last train C&W staff will see this season (we were in the Mess Room when the diesel hauled final train of the day came by). Roll on March 2024!