Tuesday 12th - Going grey!

A very satisfying day all round with a lot achieved. As expected the lion's share of the work was with 1675.

The weather certainly wasn't inviting for all the racegoers, but thankfully the rain gradually eased during the day. All three rakes would be in use, the first time this has happened on a day other than the Friday of race week. Inside the Works it was a very different story with everyone keen to get started on the various projects.

On the Malvern side of 1675 Stu kicked off with the first greying up, a treat to see after all the time spent in preparing the body sides.

Of course we aren't completely finished with filler as there are still window frames and capping strips to be dealt with - edges, rivets and screw heads. Ian works on the south half of the Cotswold side.

At the north end Martin began adding dark grey undercoat to the corridor connection.

On to progress with the GW/SR van which is now in the final stages. Maurice adds top coat to the Cotswold side door lintel.

In the Barn Bob and Dave discuss the progress with the rebuild of the north end of SO 4798.

Roger, our H &S Supervisor, did the weekly check of our scaffold towers and where necessary tidied up the various paint markings to indicate all the parts for each particular tower.

Returning to 1675 Roger was painting the south end in undercoat dark grey.

Stu had by now almost finished the north half of the Malvern side as far as could be done. The gutter still has to be put back.

Keith had made a good start on a variety of things on the paint trestles and hooks.

A quick check on HOPS for the train times and then it was outside to see Dinmore Manor on the 3rd Rake. The train would transfer to Toddington for its racegoers once Rake 2 had passed.

And here comes the first of the three race specials - P & O with the Main Rake and full of happy waving racegoers.

Fifteen minutes later Foremarke Hall passes with the 2nd Rake. Signalman John holds the token ready for the exchange.

Dinmore Manor now leaves for Toddington with the 3rd Rake to pick up the final train load. It would be leaving Toddington at 1200. With the cylinder draincocks blowing the engine gradually disappeared in a large cloud of steam. 

It's good to see Bob in, with safety harness on and ladder securely ratchet-strapped, happily back doing his favourite job. He managed to clean up the whole of the Cotswold side of SO 4798's roof.

Inside 4798 Dave removes the sections of internal window frame. Looking at the rusting bodyside a number of windows will need to be removed ready for new sheet metal.

While exiting 4798 Dave alerted me to the "Hidden Gardens of Elk",  a fine collection of plants growing on the body of the Elk wagon up on the jacks and out of sight for anyone on the ground.

Alan undercoats the primed vacuum cylinder in the Workshop.

Other than odd bits of tidying up, Maurice does the final job on the GW/SR van and top coats the Cotswold side right hand door.

Some of Keith's paint trestle jobs. The smaller of the two skids, destined for 1675's kitchen, is given another top coat of Executive Light Grey. In the foreground is the primed tray for the top of the new TIG welder trolley.

Taken from the north end, the transformed Malvern side of 1675. Well done Stu!

Roger takes a break from painting the south end and chats to Martin, who is in the last stages of undercoating the north end connection.

Roger returns to his connection and completes the black painting inside.

With the insides of the calor gas boxes further cleaned up as much as possible and vacuumed, Alan continues the priming with red oxide

Ian is progressing with the windows on the Cotswold side, while in the background Stu has moved round and is undercoating the south end window frame. It would have been lovely to have got this area greyed up as well, but in all fairness by now he had had enough and called it a day. A priority job for Thursday.

With his work on the van completed, Maurice undercoats the inside of the north end connection.

A final shot of the south end, now really coming together. The tower will be brought down to enable the top to be done. 

Not photo'd was the continuing painting of the ceiling in the kitchen and pantry areas, where the strips and replacement section had been put up. It wasn't completed because by then Maurice had finished the connection and by leaving at 4.30 we could get back through Cheltenham before the last races and traffic mayhem when it all ended. A good day though and a lot of progress.