Saturday 27th - Quiet but productive

 Another quiet day with several familiar faces missing. Despite that, good progress was made on a number of fronts.

Starting off on the RBr, Ben continued doing battle with the troublesome emergency door on the Cotswold side.

In better news Marcus and Dave started fitting the radiators in the saloon today.

One in, hopefully remaining panelling can start happening now.

James had a bit more welding to do on the South end of the FK, I think this is nearly done now.

At the other end Bob was painting the end panel of the roof that had been left previously as pipes were still being fitted.

Another coach, another end, Alan was welding in some patches on the SO.

Over on the jack road job 1 for the dirty gang was to finish putting the drawgear back together on 24949. Ian with the spanner and Clive checking all in place.

Tony and Clive wrestle bits into position.

Once that was done it was time to fetch the next coach due in the barn, RMB 1808 from the third set.

24949 was lowered onto its bogies and the two coaches swapped round. Clive connecting up the last of the brake gear on 24949 after it came out.

Elsewhere Chris was doing a grand job on the woodwork for the shunter door.

While Laura and Helen, and John who was leaving just as I came up to take a look, were on SO seat stripping today.

I started off doing half a pad exam (2 boxes done today) on the plywood van. Not easy to grab photos whilst doing, especially by yourself as covered in oil, but James captured me cleaning up the axlebox bolts on the wire wheel - As he put it "To prove you don't just walk around taking photos all day" Huh!

George was on the other side cleaning up and painting the underframe.

Mid-morning Paul and Maurice arrived from Cheltenham on the train and we got to the main task, fitting the new fixed plywood panels.

One needed a little adjustment as the wagon frame wasn't perfectly square, Simon duly obliged with the electric planer.

By the time I left for guard duties early afternoon we had all 4 panels fitted with a few bolts, so I left Paul and Maurice to finish off drilling and bolting.

A change of clothes, drive up and train back to Winchcombe, and the dirty gang having finished their main tasks for the day moved on to a spot of wagon shunting for us.

Into the depths of the back siding to drag out the next couple of projects...

We pulled into P1, the brake coach opposite the coffeepot as usual "Oi, what's all this, I only left you to carry on work 20 minutes ago!"

"Oh bugger, he's caught us red handed" Can't get the staff...

On the way back I snapped the two desired wagons now on our side. Starfish on the left will have a quick clean and an FTR exam for use in the goods train for the gala. A repaint is on the cards for later in the year, but hopefully for a new gang of which more soon... The white Mica is having a partial rebuild, all the external planking is being renewed and will be next in the works.

On the way past Todd I also grabbed a pic of the newly re-laid siding 2 and new stop block, ready to accept the two tool vans and creosote tanks we have done up.

Second round trip was the evening Fish & Chip train, always a pleasant turn.

The days are getting longer, it was only just dark when we got back to Todd for the last time.

Thursday 25th - They are going back up

A quieter day with a number of staff away on holidays, especially now we are almost in May.

Starting with a series of photos of Stu servicing the recently repainted vacuum cylinder.

A quick vacuum of the interior to remove dust and grit. Then the rubber ring is added to provide the seal.

Stu secures the inserted piston.

A quick test using the vacuum cleaner. As the air is drawn out the piston rises.

Now the full test using the vacuum pump.

Now on to FK 13326 where Phil is cutting the holes in the south end for the electrical patress connections.

Ken is beginning the test fitting of the heavy wooden corridor connection back plates at this end of the coach. On the right the wiring is now poking through the cut hole ready for the patress and pigtail connection.

At the north end the wood corridor connection supports are now in place.Think the Painting Team will soon be getting a request to get this end fully painted.

[Photo : Gerry]  I spent a few hours during the afternoon carefully undercoating the inside edges of the windows where I had previously added fresh paintable sealant. Many thanks to Gerry for the photos.

[Photo : Gerry]

Over to Rake 3 and the south end vestibule of SK 25341. Alan has decided to replace the patched up door panel with a new one. A varnishing job to add to the list.

At the south end of SO 4790 Roger is adding some white top coat to the ceiling repairs he made last week. 

Maurice begins his day top coating the north end of the ply van.

This was followed by the door frames. Plenty of ply van jobs ticked off on that white board.

Derek's newly cut and primed boards, now undercoated and ready for fitting to the Monster Van.

Phil was back working on the internal On/Off push stud light panel.

The broken bit and where it fitted. Phil was drilling out the broken screw in the clamped item.

An early job for Phil and Richard I was to clear all the unwanted electrical items out of the kitchen and pantry area on RBr 1675.

The cleared area now ready for the contractor who will be applying the hygenic coating to the walls and floor.

Rex completes the frame for the box to hold the cooling fan which will blow cold air into the lithium battery box.

Rex indicates where it will be fitted on the side of the battery box.

The sheet metal frontage to the generator box, now ready for priming and painting.

They're going back up! The prewelded sections of gutter, complete with sealant backing, are being rivetted in place by Gerry. Rex, on the second tower, initially helped with the positioning.

The air rivetter in action. There are just four places where some follow-up welding will be needed to complete the Malvern side of the coach.

Gerry then moved round to the Cotswold side to begin getting the gutter sections in place. Once the gutters have been reinstated we can resume the undercoating on both sides of 1675. This just leaves the doors to be completed, then the Painting Team will have a completely free hand.

When the Metalwork Team replaced this cupboard with a metal one, it would probably have been put outside and ditched. Kevin had other ideas and with a little doctoring it fitted very nicely under one of the Paintshop tables. Having sat there for a few weeks I at last got around to making use of it as a deep store for some of our preparation materials; these had previously been stored at the bottom of one of our paint cupboards.

No apologies for repeating a scene I included on Tuesday, with the DMU in Platform 2 instead of Foremarke Hall.