Thursday 21st - Where are my sunglasses?!

Getting close to Christmas, yet we still had a good number attending, though I didn't manage to photograph everyone. Think it will be a bit different on Saturday, and certainly when we open on just two days next week.

There were many comments (the post title being one of them) about the brightness of the fresh white gloss that was going on GW Tank Wagon 43930. Maurice did as much as he could - the Cotswold side and sole bar - but was limited because we have run out of undercoat white, so the Malvern side had to be left. We are putting on two undercoats to give a good depth of paint, hence running out of undercoat!

Martin sanded down the back panel on the Malvern side north end door of SK 25488 ....

.................. and then added a fresh coat of varnish. While this one just needed tidying up, the back panel of the opposite door will need to be replaced as the veneer is coming away.

Some of the draft excluder in the four doorways has been replaced with new, but if still in reasonable condition it has been painted in matt black, a distinct improvement as can be seen in the above photo.

In the south vestibule the laminate was flaking badly at the base of one of the large panels. Bob trimmed off the flakes, lightly sanded the area .....................

........................ and then applied several coats of an appropriately coloured wood dye. This will then have a couple of coats of varnish.

Richard cleaned up the Malvern side windows, removing any paint splashes and checking that the sliders were working ok.

We have a lot of old paint to remove off the sides of RBr 1675. We have previously used angle grinders with wire brush fittings which certainly do the job, as well as some paint stripping disks, which also do a good job, but they don't last very long so may be best used for finishing off. Now that we have returned to this lengthy task we are trying heat guns, although the very bottom layer of paint is proving stubbon. However Martin followed up Jeff's efforts on Wednesday with a pad sander, and as long as the sandpaper was changed regularly, it finished this area very nicely. Meanwhile Bob and I worked on the Cotswold side with heat guns and between us cleared a good area of paint, which as far as possible will be finished off with sanders. I think in the end it will be a compromise and all these methods will be used depending on the stubborness of the old paint layers.

On first entering the Workshop I was soon very aware of the great tangle of wire hanging out of one of the windows. All these are of course in the process of being connected.

The mystery was soon solved. Ian was in the process of painting creocote on the wood spars attached to the top hat crossmembers, which provide the supports on which the floor panels are attached.