Saturday 30th - What's that yellow thing in the sky?

 After what has felt like endless rain, finally some nice weather for the Easter weekend.

P&O and Foremarke were both out, carrying lots of happy passengers. Loadings looked excellent.

First order of business with the nice weather was to get back onto the model railway coach. In fact the sun was shining so brightly that it quickly became apparent that it was too hot to paint - it would dry too quickly! So Maurice and I finished off the prep then left it 'til late in the day to finish the undercoating.

It was also a good day for a small shunt to go and fetch the plywood van from the other side of the yard. This was fully refurbed about 8 years ago, but marine ply wasn't used. On this side it has severely delaminated, so we're replacing the lot with a better grade. The other side and ends are ok apart from the doors, so will have a quick repaint. The plan is for it to be done and back in the goods train in time for the gala.

Chris continues to get all sorts of different jobs, having finished up at the coffeepot his next challenge is this rather rotten door from one of the shunters up at Toddington currently having a bit of TLC.

Back to the more usual, Stuart and Ken were sorting more vacuum cylinders to continue our rolling program.

I only managed to make it upstairs to see what upholstery were up to as they were packing up, but it looked like purse production was in full swing, along with a seat fully stripped down from 4798.

Their other job today was a cover for the other welder, in this rather loud upholstery!

Simon was getting to grips with the wood-working jobs at the North end of the FK, hopefully won't be long now before the corridor connection can be put back on.

Inside the RBr, as it was a bit quieter than usual Martin managed to make a start sanding down some of the original internal walls.

While Jeff continued on ceiling painting.

And Dave put another coat of paint on the skids.

Not a very long blog today I'm afraid as I didn't get round to everyone, and a few regulars away too, so instead a few pictures from a canal jolly the day before with various railway people both on GWSR and friends from the SVR.

The challenge was Tardebigge locks, the longest flight of locks in the UK.

It was a very pleasant day for it, we were very lucky with the weather compared to what some people had.

Top lock was reached in about 3 1/2 hours, including a tea break, which we thought was quite good.

Then time for a rest and a gentle cruise through north Worcestershire and into Birmingham.

Some very impressive feats of Georgian engineering along the way with 3 tunnels, the longest at 2726 yards at Wast Hill.

Final destination was Gas Street Basin in the centre of Birmingham, a very enjoyable change from playing trains :-)