Thursday 15th - Another very busy Thursday

It was all happening again with this now very busy day in the life of the Works, despite there being a number of our regulars away. The big shunt was continuing but with the end in sight. 

Many thanks to Gerry and Paul for the extra photos.

Paul looks on as our three electricians have a brief meeting at the end of the early morning cuppa and biscuits. I imagine it's about RBr 1675.

 Another consultation between Phil and Richard I inside 1675.

The various electrical conduits are gradually being mounted in the kitchen area.

In the seating area Dave was gradually adding the wall insulation.

On the Cotswold side of the coach Jeff was doing a great job filling the rivets holding the window frames and the edges of the doorway capping strips.

I was back on the scaffold tower at the south end adding more filler under the roof end where the new end panels had been welded on. By the end of the day, all this had been sanded smooth and the whole area, bar the black backplates, coated in green primer.

[Photo : Paul]   Paul captured Jeff and myself during the afternoon.

 Gerry prepares the glass for the final window to be fitted to 1675.

It's been quite a journey, but this is another major job soon to be ticked off.

Today was the final day of the big shunt to rearrange the rakes. This completes Phase 1 of a long term strategy to have all three rakes of (near) identical consist. 

The primary benefits of having this will be the ability to:-

• reduce the Winter Maintenance Schedule as we will be able to rotate/swap rakes out of service for planned maintenance and reactive repairs without having an impact on the advance ticket sales/seat reservations 
• spread wear and tear more evenly across all three rakes  

Phase 2 will be restoring another open coach (TSO 4867) and converting an open coach to First Class (SO 4798). Busy days ahead!

"Ere, where's our train gone?!".  Paul and Dennis decide to enjoy the pleasant day instead.

Earlier in the day Nick came in for a meeting. Prior to this a quick job finishing off the under-roof section of the new end panel.

Eve also came in and worked on another Mk 2 seat back.

Guess this is the remaining batch of Mk 2 seat components to be re-covered.

The current batch in the process of re-covering. A large completed batch ready for collection is stacked on the trolley outside the Upholstery workshop.

Having completed his work on the bogies underneath FK 13337 "Gillian", John tests the vacuum system.

[Photo : Paul]  After taking the photo of John with FK 13337, I must have caught my phone screen awkwardly, which caused all sorts of problems and as such I missed the crucial bit of Alan and Dave refitting the seat base in one of 16221's first class compartments. Thankfully Paul stepped in and captured the moment.

With my phone still in a mess and driving me mad, I was still able to photo Alan refitting the far side panel. And the phone? It took a while, but I eventually sorted it all out.

[Photo : Gerry]  My first job of the day was to undercoat the repair work on the Cotswold side south door and frame on CK 16221 "Abigail/Charlotte". If all is well on Saturday, this will be top coated.

A later job done by Alan was a repair to the south doorframe on the Malvern side of 16221.

The doors on the GW/SR van are in a worse state than originally thought. Further investigation by Maurice is revealing more and more damp wood and the pile on the floor from one of the Malvern side doors is pretty substantial.

The back of the left door on the Cotswold side was prodded for soft spots. When one was found a jab with the screwdriver revealed the underlying damp wood.  It took just a few minutes to produce the above on the lower half of the door.

Well, I think that's a fair summing up ! 😁