Thursday 14th - That was quite a day!

There being no Wednesday post this week, it's straight into Thursday's activities.

Nearly everyone piled out of the Works to watch the first of today's two race trains behind P&O.

Fifteen minutes later the second train was behind Dinmore Manor but unfortunately I missed it.

Chris proudly shows the nameplate that he made at home which will go on the new bar counter in the refurbished Cotswold Halt restaurant at Toddington.

On to Indoor Gang activities with Geoff and Roger preparing a droplight base into which the glass will be glued.

The coach concerned is FK 13326 originally from the First Rake. While Roger holds the door, Alan and Geoff secure the repaired droplight temporarily with a piece of wood.

Almost opposite on the next siding Dave continues the cosmetic tidying up of this storage BG.

Swinging the camera round to capture TSO 4867 (ex Quainton Road) which is now going to be the next major restoration and, as with SO 4798, I believe is also going to be converted to 1st Class for Rake 3.

Back to his H&S role, Roger signs and dates the scaftag after checking another scaffold tower.

Another excellent modification made by our Works Manager Stu is to the vacuum pump for testing the carriage braking system.

Having installed this cut off, as well as checking the rise and fall of the vacuum cylinder, by holding the vacuum he can also check the integrity of the full length of piping.

A quick catch up with our excellent Upholstery Team. The refurbishing of the diesel driving compartment seats is well underway.

What here ?!!!! 🤣

Another of SO 4798's seat backs.

Derek prepares three new lengths of planking for repairs to another of the doors on Monster Van 600.

Moving on to the progress with RBr 1675, in the pantry Richards I and II inspect the new inverter, removing the temporary feet that had been attached. Richard II is helping on the second race train and has come back to the Works during the layover while both trains are back at Toddington. They will return to Cheltenham about 1600.

In the kitchen and pantry areas Bob finished off the ceiling priming and then followed on with more undercoating. Meanwhile I primed the ceiling in the small closet on the far side of the servery.

The almost complete box for the new lithium batteries that has been built by Rex, which will be fitted underneath the Cotswold side of 1675. The wood box has been inserted to show how the batteries will fit inside. An exellent job.

Definitely on the home straight now with the windows on 1675. With the penultimate window carefully clamped in position, Gerry drills the holes into the body side ready for the rivets.

With the window frame back on the bench, the sealing strips are applied.

The window has been clamped back in. Gerry now fits the rubber seals round the glass in the adjacent toilet compartment window.

Now on to what I have been looking forward to all week. Greying up the whole of the Cotswold side of 1675. 

Phil and I have adopted a convenient way to carry the large steps when moving them any distance. It might look comical, but it is so much easier, especially when having to negotiate narrow spaces.

Such a change for Maurice after seemingly endless hours painting wagons. He soon had the south section completed and had moved on to the kitchen area.

Phil meanwhile started at the central door and worked north.

On the Malvern side Jeff was well into some secondary filling under the windows ........

.......... and where needed on the bodyside. This was to be expected and is normally why we grey up with Light Grey undercoat. 1675 has been different with much of the preparation done at the deeper stage, which could well become more common as we have to replace more and more metal panelling on our ageing coaches.

Phil had now completed his initial section and had joined Maurice in the middle area.

While Phil surveys what they have done, Maurice paints the final section at the north end. This leaves just the emergency door on which the Door Team are still working.

On his side Jeff has sanded down all the extra filler and regreyed those areas.

Maurice surveys the almost complete Cotswold side. What greatly helped was the final bit of filling and sanding done by David on Wednesday, which meant that, other than a final wipe down, we could get cracking straightaway. We still have the very top section to clean up when the gutter has been removed, which should be fairly soon now that the window frame refitting is almost finished.

The Malvern side looking equally good. About a third remains at the south end to be greyed up and will be done when the window work is finished. The gutter on this side is ready to be put back.

It's now near 1600 as Dinmore Manor passes with Train 2. The trains return to Cheltenham in reverse order.

Just Maurice, Stu and myself left now at the Works and we will soon be leaving so as to avoid the race traffic later on. Maurice watches P&O with Train 1. In Platform 2 Rake 3 awaits tomorrow's activities when all three trains will be running again for Gold Cup Day.