Thursday 25th - They are going back up

A quieter day with a number of staff away on holidays, especially now we are almost in May.

Starting with a series of photos of Stu servicing the recently repainted vacuum cylinder.

A quick vacuum of the interior to remove dust and grit. Then the rubber ring is added to provide the seal.

Stu secures the inserted piston.

A quick test using the vacuum cleaner. As the air is drawn out the piston rises.

Now the full test using the vacuum pump.

Now on to FK 13326 where Phil is cutting the holes in the south end for the electrical patress connections.

Ken is beginning the test fitting of the heavy wooden corridor connection back plates at this end of the coach. On the right the wiring is now poking through the cut hole ready for the patress and pigtail connection.

At the north end the wood corridor connection supports are now in place.Think the Painting Team will soon be getting a request to get this end fully painted.

[Photo : Gerry]  I spent a few hours during the afternoon carefully undercoating the inside edges of the windows where I had previously added fresh paintable sealant. Many thanks to Gerry for the photos.

[Photo : Gerry]

Over to Rake 3 and the south end vestibule of SK 25341. Alan has decided to replace the patched up door panel with a new one. A varnishing job to add to the list.

At the south end of SO 4790 Roger is adding some white top coat to the ceiling repairs he made last week. 

Maurice begins his day top coating the north end of the ply van.

This was followed by the door frames. Plenty of ply van jobs ticked off on that white board.

Derek's newly cut and primed boards, now undercoated and ready for fitting to the Monster Van.

Phil was back working on the internal On/Off push stud light panel.

The broken bit and where it fitted. Phil was drilling out the broken screw in the clamped item.

An early job for Phil and Richard I was to clear all the unwanted electrical items out of the kitchen and pantry area on RBr 1675.

The cleared area now ready for the contractor who will be applying the hygenic coating to the walls and floor.

Rex completes the frame for the box to hold the cooling fan which will blow cold air into the lithium battery box.

Rex indicates where it will be fitted on the side of the battery box.

The sheet metal frontage to the generator box, now ready for priming and painting.

They're going back up! The prewelded sections of gutter, complete with sealant backing, are being rivetted in place by Gerry. Rex, on the second tower, initially helped with the positioning.

The air rivetter in action. There are just four places where some follow-up welding will be needed to complete the Malvern side of the coach.

Gerry then moved round to the Cotswold side to begin getting the gutter sections in place. Once the gutters have been reinstated we can resume the undercoating on both sides of 1675. This just leaves the doors to be completed, then the Painting Team will have a completely free hand.

When the Metalwork Team replaced this cupboard with a metal one, it would probably have been put outside and ditched. Kevin had other ideas and with a little doctoring it fitted very nicely under one of the Paintshop tables. Having sat there for a few weeks I at last got around to making use of it as a deep store for some of our preparation materials; these had previously been stored at the bottom of one of our paint cupboards.

No apologies for repeating a scene I included on Tuesday, with the DMU in Platform 2 instead of Foremarke Hall.

Wednesday 24th - Film crew day

 A very busy day with a number of jobs moving on. A film crew from the University of Gloucester spent a day on the railway, they are doing a promotional film of the railway which will also count as an assignment for their University year 2.

They were very professional, and went to many operations on the railway. A brilliant experience for them and the makings of a great video of our railway.

They were keen to film a welding operation , so I volunteered and had to do as directed ..... a film star in the making?

Meanwhile in 1675, Trevor was making more adjustments to a door which is not being cooperative.

Still with 1675, Chris is cleaning up sections of guttering ready for welding and fitting back on the carriage.

Colin looking surprised working on internal paneling in the saloon.

Welding up many holes in sections of gutter.

A view looking down from the south end of 1675, Dave is busy undercoating the various parts of the doors from the Toddington shunter before re-fitting. If we have anything which needs painting  .... this is the place to leave them with a request note (very important!).

In 1675 saloon, the Upholstery team are measuring windows for curtains.

Ben is assisting the carpenters, trimming a piece of moulding.

Rod doing much of the same ......

Gerry is also cleaning guttering .....

Rex is well on the way with his fantastic build of the battery carrier for 1675.

Not sure what Phil's is doing, but it is to do with 1675 ...... many skills in use.

13326 did not escape attention, Ken is fitting wooden blocks for the corridor connector ......

Ken had previously drilled and tapped the studs for mounting the emergency brake rigging ..... we then braze these studs, on this occasion 7 fixings.

Simon is working on the framework in the North vestibule.

Finally, it is good to have John back with us .... here he is making repairs to a gas locker door .... he does like bench work.

Thanks to Gerry as always for the great photos.

Tuesday 23rd - Another nice day

Another fine and dry day. The cold wind has gone and lunchtime once again had some of our team enjoying the warm sunshine.

Following up a recent enquiry about Pam's long absence (she last attended during February), she has had a bad spell of ill health with a slow recovery. I keep in touch with her and usually phone her every week. Thankfully she now sounds very much back to normal and her old happy, cheerful self, and hopefully she will be returning sometime in May. As she often says, the Railway is her happy place, so it's a shame she has missed so much.

Please come back soon Pam, we need you.

Now on to today's activities.

A busy station scene with Ian and Keith waving to our passing passengers. Our trains had a lot more on them today which is a good sign.

Some of our regular Tuesday team were away today, including Richard who had his RCS hat on and was on the RMB standing in for someone who was unable to attend. Wish we could repaint 1876 which is now looking extremely shabby.

Door 10, the Cotswold side emergency door, on RBr 1675 has been continually problematic and so another strip down of the door frame is required. Robert and Chris work on the metal frame.

Later on Ainsley was busy working on the lock.

With that unwieldy grossly over-engineered trestle (sorry - I hate the thing!) pushed out of the way, Alan worked on the south half of the Malvern side sole bar, initially wire brushing and then applying a coat of red oxide. While being limited with further bodyside painting at the moment, it's good to get these other bits done.

Keith initially painted the cast step and gas bottle box cover, and then moved on to priming the various wood pieces produced by Chris for the Toddington shunter doors.

The electrical connection patresses are next, and once more those excellent plastic pyramids come into their own, enabling both sides of each patress to be undercoated.

Now a "seasoned commuter" regularly coming from Cheltenham by the train, Paul sands the north end of the ply van before applying top coat.

Moving outside to photograph Derek enjoying the good weather while doing more repairs to the Monster Van.

The next section to be repaired.

Walking over to Rake 3 where Dave is working on his coach BCK 21092, making some cosmetic repairs to the bases of the guards door and adjacent entrance to the two first class compartments.

Alan was in today instead of his normal Thursday working. He managed to free up this sticking door droplight on the Malvern side of SK 25341.

A well worthwhile job for me was applying sealant around some of the Malvern side windows on FK 13326. Fresh undercoat cream can now be applied with the paint going up to the glass and as such looking very much neater.

Ian cleaned up a lot of the south end of 13226. This will given a fresh coat of green primer and then dark grey undercoat in preparation for the eventual reinstatement of the corridor connection.

Following a walk up the yard to deposit a load of cardboard in the recycling bins, I decided to walk back through the station. Winchcombe is always a very attractive station and the newly replanted beds are already beginning to look nice.

With time ticking away I have now started the list of monitors on our lobby white board for when the Works is open to visitors during the three days of the Gala. Just a month to go now.

Walking through the station certainly beats walking through the yard!