Thursday 4th - Colourful

 Yet another very wet journey in with plenty of "lakes" and "rivers" to drive through ................

................... so it was a treat when the day eventually turned dry and sunny. When Ian, Maurice and I left at the end of the day, the wipers were back in action.

[Photo : Paul W.]  We arrived to find the Rake 1 had been brought down fromToddington and left in the station. This enabled Paul and Dennis to give the whole rake a much needed sweep through - it hadn't been done for two weeks. The tables were cleaned by Dennis.

 [Photo : Paul W.]  That's a lot better!

[Photo : Paul W.]  Meanwhile Alan and Roger were doing repairs in TSO 4763

They were also active in TSO 5023, which is currently on the Barn jack road, doing repairs in the north vestibule. 

Across on the through road Bob was once again doing a great job cleaning up the Malvern side of the roof of SO 4798.

Enjoying the better weather, at the Barn entrance Ian cleans up a dismantled vacuum cylinder.

At the other end of the Barn Maurice begins his day with some dismantling on the ply wagon, carefully knocking out the bolts to release this water worn panel.

He later did some sanding on the Malvern side of the van, where most of the panels are to be retained as they are in a much better condition.

Later in the day he was back on the Cotswold side, sanding down one of the doors.

Phil was repairing an internal On/Off push-stud light panel. The original broken bit and its replacemend are to the right of Phil's hand.

Having made a start on Tuesday with some initial undercoating on the Cotswold side of 1675, I very much wanted to see more done. When he arrived Phil was a given a choice of jobs, but immediately chose to continue this one. The central section was set up with the bottom line tape - once again Rod's excellent line position tool was in use. Phil then got cracking.

Returning later to find him now over halfway along with the undercoat brown. That looks so much better.

Bob arrived and did the north end. This was as much as we could currently do with the various restrictions, but what a difference and very heartening to see.

On the Malvern side several chalk marks had been put on to indicate where more filler was needed. One of the reasons for putting on a base cost of light grey is to show where more effort is required. Not quite sure why this rather rocky-looking area got greyed over - looks like some of the old paint hadn't been removed.

Several other areas on this side needed more attention, so Jeff got cracking with the filler and then subsequent sanding down, finishing off with 240 paper to give an ultra smooth finish.

The Painting Team have a mammoth job to do inside with painting and varnishing, which will be tackled as the various bits become available. We have made a good start in the south end of the corridor and Bob continues with the sanding and filling.

In the saloon Dave has almost completed the bolting down of the floor edge pieces.

Richard I was checking the lighting electrical connections at both ends of 1675.

Rex, with help from Gerry when needed, was doing further preparations for fitting the newly constructed lithium battery frame.

Gerry drills holes in preparation for the refitting of the Malvern side gutter.

Here he is preparing to remove the Cotswold side gutter - the "staying on or coming off" question has been answered. This is why the immediate under-gutter area has not been greyed up but just left in green primer.

Although frustrating because we want to get on with the undercoating, judging by the state of the bodywork underneath the gutter, the decison to remove it was well justified.