Tuesday 30th - A short posting

It was another busy day in the Paintshop and Woodwork/Doors shop with just Dave H. working outside in SO 4787 fitting the seating taken from SO 4798. As well as missing Dave, I also missed Chris who was again working on the new counter for the Flag and Whistle Restaurant.

Many thanks to Alex for two of the photos.  

 [Photo : Alex]  The repair to the roof of the GW/SR van was well underway with Maurice and Alex sticking down a new length of canvas along the centre where the leak had been.

Later Maurice was finishing up the sanding of the Malvern side of the van, before proceeding with the undercoating in dark grey.

Derek creating some new floor parts for the north corner of the Monster Van.

Sanding continued on both sides of RBr 1675, with Richard and Roger.

 [Photo : Alex] A shot of both myself and Richard on the Cotswold side where we have almost finished the basic sanding down, with just a small area on the south half needing a bit more work.

Keith having initially primed and later undercoated a new back door panel for one of our yard coaches, and then top coated the second set of supports for the white tank wagon, moved into 1675 to work on the new counter shelves. Initially they were given a good vac and then the interiors coated with wood primer.

 

Ainsley cleans up half a door hinge as part of his work on FK 13326.

A nice surprise to see in the Upholstery Shop were the two seats for re-covering from the "Toddington Standard" 76077. Having first seen the engine in 1963 at its home shed of Sutton Oak (St Helens), it will be great to see it eventually running on our line.

Saturday 27th - Lots done again

Another day, another good few winter maintenance jobs ticked off. 

First thing and unusually both rakes had been left in the yard/running line rather than in the platforms, as yesterday rake 1 had its annual buckeye exam. So there had to be a bit of shimmying to do the first job...

Which was to move the CK back over to the jack road...

And lift it up to put its bogies back underneath, now with newly turned tyres on the wheels.

Someone asked about bogie adjustment last week, here's one form of adjustment.

A pneumatic clamp squeezes up the leaf spring, then you adjust the nut on the spring hanger bolt.

While it was up in the air again a spot of new lagging around the steam heat system where it was repaired a couple of weeks ago.

The chocolate & cream set was still in pieces from yesterday, so that needed putting back together. Easy does it...

Clonk! Now crawl around and connect all the hoses and cables up.

The RBr's north end Buckeye failed its exam (obviously didn't study hard enough...) so that needed swapping out.

I managed to miss the moment the white tank escaped from the workshop and had to go looking for it temporarily stabled in a back siding. Still the second set of end timber infills to fit, but aside from that it was largely finished and we needed the space so out it went.

The room was needed so Ken could lay out the North end corridor connection bits to start doing the prep for fitting.

All the corridor end woods are well on the way on the painting trestles, Jeff did the honours today, also priming the second pair of wood end infills for the tank wagon.

Inside the serving area of the RBr with the shelving unit done Simon moves onto ceiling joists.

Dave went round marking a few small areas that still need spot welding.

After a few years away, I finally persuaded Dad to come back and join the team, we joined together almost exactly 11 years ago. After the customary Dave tour to refamiliarise himself, he got straight into it working on flatting back the South end.

Meanwhile at the North end Dave put the first bit of livery undercoat on towards the end of the day.

It was a very busy and productive day in the woodwork shop, with lots of large sheets of ply needing lifting and cutting. First up was battery box bits

All taking shape quite nicely.

Then measuring up for the floor of the GW/SR van.

Chris and Alan were here and there with bits for the refitting of the cafe at Toddington.

On the next workbench Ben was cutting and shaping a replacement door panel for one of the running coaches.

The production line in upholstery continues apace with DFR Mk2 seats at various stages.

The next set ready for recovering. The team are over half way now on this contract.

As I seem to do all too frequently, I completely forgot to take a photo of what I was doing, some more sanding and painting on the SR van, so I'll slip in some pictures of our Wednesday evening working instead where we were on the same project.

Mark went round with the primer on patches of bare metal.

Rich (and Dan behind the door) cracked open the undercoat.

While Greg (yes he is in there) and I finished off the underframe with a good coating of black bitumastic paint.

Thursday 25th - It's Thursday, so another biggy

There was certainly a wealth of activity, now very much a feature of Thursdays at C&W, and considering not everyone was in, still a lengthy signing-in list.

Phil and Richard I check the latest acquisitions for the electrics in RBr 1675. The photo would make a great captions competition!

Rex called me round to the Malvern side to show me the new generator now located on the, as yet unattached, base of its cradle. Today's job would be attaching the four vertical supports.

 

Initial check measurments were taken.

Tidying up one of the supports.

 One of the inner vertical supports being attached.

Just to the left of the generator Richard I is sorting out the cables to be attached. Richard II and Phil were mainly working inside the coach, but sorry chaps, no photo as I never got around to going in.

 On the Cotswold side Gerry is adding the last touch to the first of the kitchen windows.

The completed window with nice new rubber seals. Painting Team please note - NO paint on these please!

Gerry fits the main pane on the second kitchen window.

It was just Phil working on the bodyside today, applying more paint stripper.

Maurice was also on his own with the continuing work on the GW/SR box van, initially adding dark grey undercoat to the angle iron, one of two presumably from the van.

Later on adding more undercoat on the south end.

This goods label was on top of the green cupboard by the van - was it found inside? At the base it says "100,000 1/44 S". The number of labels printed and the month/year? 

The Paintshop trestles are literally groaning under the amount of things needing to be painted. Since Tuesday, the compartment door tracks have appeared (from TK 24006?), a replacement door step for one of the running coaches in the station, and one of the door bolts from the GW/SR van. With so much needed sooner rather than later, I spent the day gradually working my way through it all, which included some new underframe supports for toilet chutes hanging on the nearby row of hooks.

The trestles at the end of the day with most of the above top coated as far as possible. On Satuday it will a combination of initial top coating on reverse sides, second top coats where needed, and finishing off other things that weren't finished. Two more supports for the white tank wagon were made by Steven and appeared alongside the trestles for priming and painting. The new counter shelves in RBr 1675 also need painting.

And there was more to come with Tony cleaning up some spare window sliders ..........

.............. with the request for two in cream and two in maroon.

In the Workshop John was creating the various metal pieces for new vacuum cylinder sleeves, which had been made by the Upholstery Team.

On the tool bench, to the left of where John is working, are more compartment door tracks awaiting initial cleaning up.

Steven was busy attaching the top coated supports at the south end of the white GW tank wagon.

 

Another busy morning tea break with still more staff to appear when there can be a convenient break in the shunting currently underway.

Our Toddington Cleaning Gang were in again with John explaining why there are only three this week. SK 25743 was given a thorough clean, inside and out.

Despite his age, when it comes to painting and varnishing he's still the best. Happy Birthday Bob!

The Maroon Rake is returned to Platform 1, having been pushed towards the tunnel to enable the Chocolate & Cream (Main) Rake to be moved down the main line towards Chicken Curve and at the same time keep the 03 available. 

The Main Rake with coaches separated to enable the annual buckeye inspection the next day (and as it turned out, for a change, a day of glorious weather!).

Ian brings the 03 into the Barn to extract NYMR SK 25488.

Not long prior to the move John was reattaching the brake rodding under 25488 following the bogie servicing.

The two refurbished bogies, that were returned from tyre turning on Tuesday, are ready for putting under CK 16221 (not SK 25488 as I incorrectly reported in Tuesday's post).

At the south end of CK 16221 Ainsley had a problem with reinstating the door guides on Tuesday and as such deferred any more effort on them until he could speak to Stu, our Works Manager. I believe the problem was resolved.

Now a sight very few of us will have seen, the interior of a corridor connection slider. The panel was taken off to enable the repair of the base support for the tracking mechanism.

The rotten ends of the base section of the door have been carefully cut away and new sections made. Roger carefully screws the tracking piece on to the new left hand section.

The new right hand section fabricated by Alan ......................

.................... and ready to be glued in. The tracking piece will then be attached.

Roger had also replaced the north vestibule ceiling in BSKD 34929 following the repair to the toilet tank pipework. The two new bits of ceiling strip on the Paintshop trestles will be put up when they have been painted.

 Ainsley carefully labels the recently acquired boxes of taps for use by the Door Team.

Referring back to last Thursday's posting, and the loose tenon (domino) joining machine (bottom left), Alan carefully inserts a domino as he constructs some of the frame for the new counter for the Flag and Whistle Restaurant at Toddington. To recap, this machine enables the equivalent of mortise and tenon joints to be made, but much more rapidly. 

Meanwhile the enormous and very heavy counter top arrived during the morning. Chris carefully cuts this to the required length. 

Dave continues to refurbish the inside of SO 4787 with the recently reupholstered seating components from SO 4798. Both coaches are coupled together on the Works siding to make the transfer easier.

Most of the seating in 4787 is now complete. The next stage will be putting back the tables.

The interior of TSO 4798 with very little of its seating backs, cushions, and side panels left to be transferred to 4787. 4787's former mauve seating is stacked throughout.

Finally a look at the results in Upholstery after another week.

The completed section of re-covered Mk 2 seat components continues to grow ...................

.................. while on the side bench the piles of completed seat cushions have been replaced by more stripped inners awaiting re-covering.