Saturday 11th - A new arrival and gala prep

 But first the usual activities.

Starting off upstairs where the team were in full flow, with seats for the SO being stripped down and a start on another contract job for the Dean Forest.

Here's the first seat, that headrest is quite the construction, well done John!

Outside it was a pleasant day for some gala prep shunting as P&O drifts past - for the steam gala 4 rakes of coaches are out, the third and fourth having 5 carriages apiece.

Onto the RBr then, and Robert was making progress with the Cotswold emergency door.

This bit still needed some adjustment.

Inside Marcus is doing a great job fitting the radiators.

After shunting was over, the dirty gang set up camp out the end of the barn with the radiator grill covers to give them a good thorough cleanup before repainting.

It was just Simon on the FK today but the South vestibule looks to be coming together nicely.

Kev was oing a great job keeping on top of stores as usual, going up in the world here!

James was on SO 4798, making good progress in replacing the steel skeleton around the windows where it had rusted away.

John was made a nifty tool for the fly press that formed the panel shape around the window where it goes from continuous tumblehome to flat for the window glass.

So the new arrival, just as we were ambling up to the station for our lunch the rumble of the Cl.37 on a rather light load.

BCK 21272 arrived at Toddington from West Somerset yesterday.

And very smart it looks too. It was refurbished just last year.

It was soon brought into the jack road for a once over as there are a few minor things we want to do on it before releasing it into traffic.

I couldn't get the lights on to take a decent picture of the interior but the upholstery inside is tip top.

I spent the first part of my day giving the roof of the plywood van a coat of paint, hopefully that should arrest some early signs of leakage.

And George finished off painting the underframe.

After Stuart and I measured the wheels and gave them the ok, starfish 100839 will be joining the gala freight train. There's not enough time for a repaint, and in any case I'm holding onto that project for now for another purpose. Anyway, apart from a couple of mechanical bits and pieces that need doing, it would be presentable enough for now if we scrubbed the moss and algae off it, so Paul, Maurice and I set to it in the sun.