Saturday 16th - Helping others

Another busy Saturday with a wide range of
activities and a good number attending, despite there being several regulars away. It was also back to normal running with P&O hauling Rake 1 and the DMU in action. Both the trains were relatively quiet.

Rake 3 was back in its siding and awaiting cleaning and maintenance after participating in two days of the Cheltenham races. Wonder if its use, having expanded to two days this year, will increase to three, or even all four days in future years?

While in the Barn, a chance to capture the Dirty Gang's activities while they serviced the bogies under the Elk.

Tony replenishes the oil on the north end bogie.

Under the south end Clive was removing some of the accumulated dirt and grime above the bogie.

While the Dirty Gang were helping PWay in the Barn, Alex was also helping them in the Paintshop. Four Robel vertical tampers were being named, two after former and much missed members of the Department.

Towards the end of the day the PWay gang replaced these with two more to be called Bill and Ben.

When I entered the Upholstery Workshop Jenny and Laura were experimenting with different ways of incorporating piping.

Jenny stitches the small piece with the black piping to see how this will look. Then it was back to the jobs in hand.

Our Upholstery Team are also helping others by rebuilding the seats for 76077, the Toddington Standard.  

In Thursday's post I mistakenly thought these were for one of our diesels as '2nd Man' had been written on one of the pieces of foam. I changed it to "Fireman".

Jenny begins adding the base cloth to each section.

I'm delighted that we are able to help with the restoration of 76077 and, having seen it at Sutton Oak shed back in April 1963, I am very much looking forward to seeing it running again.

While Jenny was busy with 76077's seats, Laura began stripping one of the seat backs for SO 4798.

And mentioning 4798, what better than seeing Bob harnessed to the safety wire and back to his favourite job of cleaning off the roof.

Tony finished off his day vacuuming one of 4798's windows where the inner framing has been removed.

At the south end of FK 13326 in the Workshop, Andy assists James with reinstating one of the tank filler pipes.

After another busy day at the milling machine John applies red oxide to another new batch of door receivers.

The GW/SR box van is ready to go, but while it is still confined to the Paintshop we may as well continue applying coats of the old oil/creocote mix to the new floor.

On now to progress with 1675. Ben lightly sands one of the oak window frame corner pieces ........

............ and then fits it in place.

Making immediate use of the new Sawhorse trestles was Simon, who was busy with the woodworking in the former toilet compartment at the Malvern side south end of 1675. It was too cramped in there to take any photos.

The final bit of exterior filling and sanding with 1675 is on the south third of the Malvern side. Tony carefully sands one of the larger areas. Maurice and I later continued with the effort here.

On the Cotswold side the only bit that hadn't been greyed up was the emergency door as further work will required with respect to its functioning. However we thought we may as well paint the outside. All the door sides and inner frames are being left until the Door Team gives us the ok.

While talking about the preparation and painting of 1675, many thanks for the very kind comments at the end of the two previous postings. They were much appreciated.

Briefly returning inside, Robert and Ben discuss the fittings on the Malvern side emergency door.

George did a grand job adding red oxide to the interior of both of 1675's calor gas boxes. There was also some exterior rust to remove on the left hand one, which he also treated.

Dave points out some of the cosmetic repairs he is doing to one of our CCTs as part of the ongoing visual improvements to our yard vehicles.

BG 80926 is certainly looking a lot better.

Well, it certainly does our morale good, if not our weight! When you ate breakfast at 6 a.m. and spent a busy morning chasing about the Works, you are somewhat hungry when that 11 a.m. tea bell sounds. Christine, Head of the Railway's Catering Services, very kindly appeared with some delicious cake remaining from yesterday's Race Trains, so we just enjoyed and cheerfully abandoned any hope of cutting back! 😆