Tuesday 30th - Hey, look who's back!

An interesting day day to say the least, which included another successful Carriage Edition tour of the Works for 13 members of the public. We also had a very welcome surprise visit during our morning tea break.

Beginning today with a photo from Saturday evening and the Fish and Chip train. One of our unsung heroes, Jeff has been in charge of these for the past 7 years. A lot of organising goes into them, everybody from our Admin staff to the stewards on the train. On the night it's Jeff who checks everyone in and is in charge of the smooth running of the evening, which it certainly was.  Well done Jeff! You look very dapper with that bow tie and waistcoat.

The train guard by the way was Alex.

Jeff, of course, is C&W's Finance Officer and a member of the Painting and Prep Team.

With RBr 1675 generally unavailable for any main painting at the moment, the concentration for the team was FK 13326. Stu kicked off and top coated the Malvern side top brown section, and then did all the cream panels.

Richard and Roger top coated windows on the Cotswold side.

Stu did his usual speedy painting, and then transferred to join Richard and Roger.

Stu surveys his work on the Malvern side.

At the south end Ian lightly sanded the righthand side of the connection.

He then moved back to the lefthand side to add a fresh coat of green primer.

Later in the day Robert assesses the curved section at the Malvern side south door. A new door liner will be cut from the wood.

Chris, Ian and Keith take quick break to watch the trains and wave to the passengers.

Keith had a selection of items waiting for him on the trestles, including two more spare sliders to go into the window area store.

The fire bucket receives its first red top coat.

Dave was enjoying the open air. It was a pleasant day without the cold wind.

Ian was working in the vacuum cylinder area.

The only bit of painting on RBr 1675 was being done by Alan, who finished undercoating the sole bar and then added red oxide to the generator cover.

During this week contractors have been lining the walls of the kitchen and pantry with Whiteroc hygenic covering and where needed stainless steel sheeting.

Dave and I climbed on board to see the progress being made.

The ply van is coming on well. Maurice was adding Flexacryl to the sides of the roof. The top will be done from one of the tall scaffold towers.

On the Cotswold side Paul, with Maurice helping, was bolting on the new panels.

Our 1100 tea break presented us with a lovely surprise when Richard suddenly appeared with a great cheer from all of us. Long time blog readers will know that Richard used to be in charge of the Wagon Team. Richard now lives on the Dorset coast.

[Photo : Paul]  The old Wagon Team back together. Happy memories!