Tuesday 26th - Behind Closed Doors

Today the Railway ran the first of eight "behind the scenes" tours, this one being the Behind Closed Doors : Carriage Edition. Both this and another four in the series are already Sold Out. Full details are listed on the GWSR website in the Events section.

It was a pleasure taking the group around the Works and nearby yard and describing the many aspects of our work. Everyone was enjoying the day which included travelling on the trains, a general talk about the Railway in the Tim Mitchell Building with tea and cake, and lunch in our refurbished Cotswold Halt Restaurant. The next tour, again the Carriage Edition, will be held on Saturday 13th April and is also Sold Out.

On now to todays efforts, beginning with Maurice and Ian working on 1675. Maurice was cleaning up the south end headstock and area below, and then applying red oxide. Ian was working on the Cotswold side sole bar and then progressing round to the other side assist Maurice.

Stu begins sanding down some remaining unsanded filler around the final two window frames on the Malvern side.

This was followed up by the final bit of greying up. With Ian working down below this point, Stu thoughtfully left the sanding on the right hand side of the nearby frame. This can be completed on either Wednesday or Thursday. The greyed up area further along the this side had several places that needed some top-up filling; these bits were patch painted when completed.

Ainsley and Robert discuss the fitting out of this particular doorway (that exits the servery on the Cotswold side) which had given problems.

A thin groove had been left extra to the normal door liner. As such Robert cut some thin slices of wood to insert, but only the section below the door lock could be fitted satisfactorily; the remaining upper section will be filled.

Alan sanded the two covers for the gas bottle boxes under 1675. One has been left with the Metalwork team for some minor repairs. The other is now by the painting trestles for a coat of red oxide.

With regular service trains running again during the week, it's good to take a break and watch them.

Dinmore Manor passes with Rake 2. We looked out for the orange jacketed participants for the Behind Closed Doors tour, spotted them and gave them a welcoming wave.

There was a wealth of items on the painting trestles to keep Keith busy all day. Often it's a case of priority as to the order in which they are painted. In this case the four plyboard panels  are for the Estates Team for some warning notices where wildflower seeds are to be scattered along sections of embankment. These are needed as soon as possible, so without hesitation Keith got cracking with the wood primer, which had later dried sufficiently for him to undercoat one of the sides of each panel.

The table legs are for 1675.

 

 

Parts of the large skid for 1675's pantry was given a coat of Executive Light Grey, as was the small shelf standing vertically which was a request from Robert. The corridor connection woods for Ken for the north end of FK 13326 had a final coat of Black gloss and are now ready for refitting.

It is possible that FK 13326 in the Workshop will be ready before RBr 1675, so the Painting and Prep team now need to resume work on this on a regular basis. Both Roger and Phil continued the secondary filling and sanding on the Malvern side that George had started on Saturday. The Cotswold side central section was undercoated last year when the coach was in the Barn.

Dave's cosmetic tidying up of CCT 94486 is certainly an improvement with the bottom section of the Malvern side now completed.

During the afternoon I gave a second tour of the Works for Steve from the East Somerset Railway. Here he is discussing an aspect of his work with Robert.

It's getting late so time to call it a day. Maurice surveys today's efforts on the Cotswold side and south end of 1675.