Thursday 23rd - A very full day with an afternoon treat

The last day in the Works before the Gala. Well not quite - our Works Manager Stu and the Maintenance gang will be in on Friday. There was plenty going on, and of course all the preparations for when we open to our visitors over the three days of the Gala.

Usually my first check on a Thursday is Upholstery to see the previous day's progress and take some photos in case they weren't recorded for Wednesday's blog post. To my delight they had got everything ready for the Gala weekend, with cushions, bags, and spectacle cases lined up for sale, as well as an example of an opened up seat cushion and re-covered chair.

Their permanent display of the moquettes in use in our coaches, coach seating plans and other upholstery related information.

Being busy with Gala prep I took no more photos until late morning when I captured 2807 heading north. As stated in Tuesday's post, it's good to see 2807 running after recent problems that may have prevented the loco appearing in the Gala. The loco is planned to be one of those hauling the goods train on all three days.

Mentioning good trains, let's begin with a fun photo of Maurice, hammer in each hand, causing major wreckage of the MICA van. In reality of course the van is a lot worse than originally thought and we are in for quite a job getting this one sorted out! It will be worth ithe effort to see it running in the goods train again, hopefully during the Autumn Spectacular at the end of October.

From destruction to construction with Rex finishing off the new lithium battery box for RBr 1675.

I meant to ask Gerry what he was priming here.

However, this time I do know as Gerry cuts out lengts of metal from which to create brackets for the steam heat pipework in 1675's saloon.

Martin and Phil continued the filling and tidying up of the door edges and frames on the Malvern side of 1675.

Bob second top coated almost all of the cream panels on the Malvern side of FK 13326, before moving round to do the north end panel on the opposite side.

First a light rub down with 240 paper.

During the afternoon I had a look inside BCK 21272, which we have on long term loan. As shown in Tuesday's post, externally it's in very well painted Crimson & Cream livery. The interior is really lovely with carpeted corridor, .........

........ very nice First Class compartments, ...............

........ and the Second Class also looking very nice.

Besides all the running and other checks, we will be doing some repainting in the Guard's corridor and luggage compartment. Other than a clean and some minor repairs (as shown in yesterday's posting), the passenger area looks to be fine.

Roger, our Head of H&S, does the weekly check of our scaffold towers.

The Gala displays in the Paintshop. Still a few bits to do both inside and outside, a job first thing on Saturday. Then about 9.30 the "We are open" platform sandwich boards and large banners will be put out to welcome our visitors.

I think we might just be somewhat busy this weekend.

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An afternoon treat

During the morning Alex announced that the Grange would be coming back down to pick up Rake 4 and the three wagons to be added to the goods train. So about 1330 we all piled out to the station and eagerly waited for it to appear. We didn't have to wait long and we had our first chance to have a really good look at the loco, which looks immaculate.