Tuesday 21st - Catching up and a North Norfolk Interlude

Apologies for the lack of postings since last Wednesday. Holidays and other things by the Blog team have meant there were no photos taken by us for Thursday, Saturday or Monday. So hopefully this really lengthy post will make up for the absence.

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Three photos were taken by Paul W. last Thursday of the Indoor Gang repairing the base of one of the doors of the BSK 35308 in Rake 4.

Alan, Geoff and Roger became metal bashers. Alan secures the cut section of sheet metal to the base of the door.

"Well, that's my bit done"

Geoff coats the new panel with red oxide.

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Now moving on to today (Tuesday).

Firstly, having been away for a week, a walk round the Works to catch up on progress.

There was a shunt last Thursday to extract the two vans from the Works. Both these and the Starfish ballast wagon will be taken up to Toddington this coming Thursday and inserted into the Gala freight train.

In the Paintshop the GW/SR van was replaced with a very sorry looking MICA van 79636, which is the next wagon rebuild.

FK 13326 was returned to the Workshop. There was a nice large space left at the south end of the shop which is ideal for the storage of unrequired towers, etc, for when the public visit the Works over the Gala weekend.

In the Barn the newly acquired BSK 21272, which is on long term loan, has been placed on the jack road and SO 4798 has been returned to the Barn through road,

In the pantry part of RBr 1675, the large skid had been completely kitted out and plumbed in. I later put a cover over this to keep the dust away.

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Now on to today's activities, beginning with the some Gala preparation.

Alex and Maurice service the axleboxes on the GWR Starfish ballast wagon 100839.

Later in the morning a start was made on stripping off the old planking from the MICA van.

Progress was quite rapid, though some of the planking was quite stubborn with its removal.

Paul ended up removing these nuts with an angle grinder.

By late afternoon Alex was becoming more and more convinced that this was going to be a much longer job than originally anticipated. A meeting with Tony and Robert to discuss the way forward.

Three photos showing what some of the Malvern side is like with the outer planking removed. It's pretty bad in places.

Alex later cleaning up one of the door hinges.

A close-up of the cleaned hinge with "G. W. R. Swindon" clearly showing.

In the Woodshop Chris is now working on the second of the two doors from the Toddington shunter.

Robert spent the morning and early afternoon as a member of the team that run the School Wartime Evacuation events. Returning to the Works in the early afternoon, he began preparing one of the door liners for the south end vestibule of FK 13326.

A trial fit, but some adjustment will inevitably be required.

Some good progress was made with RBr 1675. Richard undercoated the top brown panel along the whole of the Cotswold side.

Stu worked on the Malvern side of 1675, tidying up and filling the door and frame edges on the centre and two south end doors.

He concentrated on the bottom halves. They might look messy, but in fact are now nicely filled and very smooth.

Dave worked in the corridor on more window frame construction.

Tony worked in the Barn entrance, cleaning more of 1675's heater pipe grills for the saloon.

Keith did a number of painting jobs with items on the trestles, including these bits of coach roof cowls.

Bob helps me with the initial stage of Gala prep for the Works. The heavy yellow stands are stored in the Monster Van. Bob very kindly helped me to get them into the Works .........

********* and then constructed them all. After which almost all of them were taken to the Barn entrance where they will be ready for creating the viewing area.

Finally three of the locos that will appear in the Gala.

"Dinmore" chugs past with a southbound service train.

Then to everyone's delight, 2807 running on the other service train, Thankfully it looks like the recent problems have been sorted out and the loco will appear over the weekend.

Finally, those of us who stayed late had a real treat! 6880 "Betton Grange" did a trial run to Winchombe and then returned to Toddington.

What a joy to see. It must be 60 years since I saw a Grange. The engine had come straight from Tyseley so still very much in the testing phase. Let's all hope that there is nothing awry and she will run throughout the Gala.

So, overall, a really full and interesting day. Thursday is going to be a very busy day as we prepare the Works for what should be a very full and enjoyable gala.

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A North Norfolk Interlude

Finally, to finish off with something very different.

I was told by several fellow volunteers that I would find North Norfolk a delightful place to visit and they were so right. The week passed incredibly quickly, a testament as to how much I enjoyed it. With so much to see, of the three heritage railways, there was only time to visit the North Norfolk and as I was staying in Sheringham I was able to call at the station twice as well as having a day on the line.

The NNR is just over 5 miles in length, but what it lacks in length is more than made up for by its overall charm, lovely coaches, lovely stations, a superb museum at Holt, excellent bookshops, and very friendly staff. I would have cheerfully spent another day on it, but there was so much else to see.

Sheringham Station

Looking east to the road crossing and main line station.

The motive power was in the hands of Hunslet "Austerity" No. 22.

Walking to the end of the platform enables me to get a photo of the Crimson & Cream rake. It looks really good.

Sat in the TSO and enjoying the view out to sea with the smoke billowing past the train.

The Works yard at Weybourne with S&D 7F 53809 and green Class 37 D6732.

Weybourne Station.

A collection of boilers and smokeboxes in the yard.

Part of the excellent museum at Holt.

Very synonymous with Norfolk. The van looks bright now, but it must have been like a beacon when newly painted.

The DMU was also running and looked very smart. A glimpse of the First Class section with its Charcoal Cheque moquette, a particular favourite of mine. We have this moquette in FK 13326 (currently in the Workshop) but when it comes to liking it I seem to be alone!

Now a miscellany of coach photos taken at Sheringham, both on the day we travelled and when visiting the station.

A very smart BCK 21103 next to a very faded maroon TSO. Two of our maroon coaches in Rake 2 are in a similar external condition which we intend, when we have the opportunity, to remedy with some quick repaints.

A superb looking FO 3116. The seats were upholstered in the lovely Horsechestnut Leaf moquette and looked fantastic.

Horsechestnut Leaf moquette was noted in several coaches. There was also Boomerang and a plain blue.

On my final visit to the station the second rake had been strengthened with RBr 1969, which looked as if it was being set up for afternoon tea. I got permission to go on board and obtain some photos of the lovely looking interior.