Saturday 4th - A lovely late Spring day

Firstly apologies for no Thursday post as I was unable to come in. So to make up for it a hopefully interesting and varied post for Saturday.  Regular readers will know that Alex normally does this day, but he was enjoying a visit to the Churnet Valley Railway. Hope it all went well.

Beginning with FK 13326. Simon levels off the supports for the new south vestibule floor.

With the floor now fitted, he checks the fit of one of the end panels of veneer sheet. This vestibule is really coming together.

The north end corridor connection is now in place.

Something I started a few weeks ago was the cleaning up of the connection chequerplates for 13326. They will soon be required for refitting, so let's get them finished. Nice to work outside in the sun!

It was nice to see Martin back in. Living in Oxted, Surrey he is only able to attend occasionally. Having lightly sanded the cover for 1675's generator box, he is adding dark grey undercoat.

Robert was back on the problematical Cotswold side emergency door.

During the coming week the new flooring is being laid in the kitchen and pantry. The saloon and bar area has also been cleared, presumably to provide space for cutting the flooring.. The heating pipes are gradually being reinstated.

With just Phil occasionally coming inside, it provided an opportunity to do more work on the Cotswold side of the corridor. As such Martin was able to complete the general sanding down and add a coat of etch primer on the new sheet metal panel which fills in the redundant doorway into the kitchen/pantry.

Phil tests the electrical connections at the south end of the coach.

On to SO 4798 where, with the window removed, John has now cut out the corroded section underneath. A new correctly shaped section of sheet metal will be created and welded in. All the windows on 4798 will need to be done.

Alan continues his repair work at the north end, where new base sections of the connection support pillars have been welded in, painted with MIO, and the new sheet metal put on to complete the job.

In Upholstery the trials with these headrests have been successful. Laura begins stripping the old moquette off this one which, as I watched, turned out to be a bit of a battle and was reluctant to be removed.

The chosen moquette for these is the Red Chain Link and very good it looks too. Behind it a second one is ready for re-covering.

John looks to be having a battle stripping this one.

In the Woodshop Chris is reassembling the window frame for one of the Toddington shunter doors.

In the Barn the doors of the ply van are now being reassembled. Clive, having laid out the screws in their approximate positions, uses a tape measure to ensure the row will be straight.

Next pre-drill the holes.

Paul meanwhile is cleaning up some of the bolts. We may as well reuse what we can.

With this door nicely finished Maurice adds a final top coat.

Paul and Dennis taking a well earned break while spending the day preparing Rake 3 for the Steam Gala in a few weeks time.

More checks of the north end of TSO 5023, now looking somewhat faded.

It really was a delightful day to be outside. Warm. Sunny, no cold wind ..........

....... and certainly one to enjoy lunch on Platform 2 with Robert and Chris.

The northbound train pulled in and almost opposite where we were sitting two very well known faces appeared in the doorway. Nick and Eve were enjoying a day on the line, and why not. As often happens, we spend loads of time at the Works but very little time actually enjoying the trains and the results of all our hard work.

Time to enjoy the sun and watch P & O pass by with the Cheltenham train. It was nice to see Tina driving too - looks like she is now a fully qualified driver - excellent!

The end of a long and busy day with Stu, Alan, Maurice and Robert watching the Peak come by on its final run to Toddington.