Saturday 29th - Progress, a tour and a new project

 Another busy Saturday with lots going on, too much for me to capture so apologies to those I missed.

Starting with the RBr, with the ceiling strips fitted last weekend, Phil was able to start fitting the lighting on the Malvern side in the saloon, which continues into the public side of the serving counter.

Down below the Richards were in for an extra day to progress the electrics in the battery box.

The servery was still available for painting so Pam carried on with that.

I didn't manage to get a photo of the continuing radiator and grill fitting, but I did get Marcus and Simon cutting some timber for the job on the circular saw.

In other woodworking, Robert was continuing on panelling down the corridor. This piece was particularly troublesome getting it to match the curvature of the ceiling.

Chris went round first thing flatting back the panel pins flush all round the saloon on the oak panelling he and Robert installed the other week.

Chris also brought in this superb mining scene diorama, like many of us a bit of modelling kept Chris sane during lockdown and this was his result!

The door team today consisted of Ben and Ainsley. They spent the morning looking at some of the doors on the third rake outside, I think greasing hinges and suchlike.

In the afternoon Ben turned his attention to sanding one of the door pillars in the FK in the workshop.

SO 4798 saw plenty of action today around the window frames. Alan started early as ever with a bit more welding and grinding.

Andy was on the Cotswold side grinding away old paint and filler along the bottoms of each window to see what work needed to be done.

Tony did the Malvern side, as Stuart and Alan stop by to take a look at the results.

Hmm, yeah... most were on this sort of level.

On the adjacent road Dave (L) and Tony continued the painting in the brake end of the BCK. This job is now nearing completion, and with the electrics now done and repairs to the curtains sorted it won't be long before this goes out.

On the wagon side progress has slowed on the Mica until we can capture a welder. Hopefully soon. In the meantime John started to get his head round what we'd need to fabricate some new handrails. Steel bar will be on order shortly but a bending jig will be the order of the day, so John dug out this old one used to form DMU corridor connections as a starter for ten.

Seeing as the wagon team are a bit stuck for work and the weather is good, once Stuart and I had reattached TSO 5042 onto the back of rake 2 on its first run down, having solved the braking issues yesterday and Thursday, we moved the Open C a bit closer to get started.

Job the first is the strip all the old wood out, Paul and Maurice got stuck straight in, Steve briefly got involved too.

Progress by the end of the day, a little bit lighter now!

As I mentioned in the comments on Thursday's blog, this wagon will be joining the main running set once complete. Schedule of works is strip it down, grit blast it, a few metal work repairs, new corner plates fabricated, replace missing brake gear parts from spare chassis, add through-pipe for vacuum, paint, cut and bolt in new planks. Easy! :)

In other news we were very pleased to welcome a delegation from Keighley & Worth Valley Railway C&W to show them everything we get up to. Always good to welcome and chat to other C&W departments to compare notes. Ian and Dave did the honours on the tour, thanks to the latter for the photo.

Finally to mark Armed services today, 2807, itself a veteran of 2 world wars having played a pivotal role in the 'Jellico specials' in the First World War, was in service today wearing this rather large poppy.

Thursday 28th - A breezy cooler day

 Another very varied day and a breezy one with the heat of the past two days thankfully reducing.

[Photo : Alex]  Beginning on a very cheery note, Ian presents Dennis with his 15 Year certificate as a volunteer on the Railway. Congratulations Dennis!

It's a nice day, so straight outside to capture our team who look after Rakes 3 and 4. Paul and Dennis have a lot to do to get the rakes ready for the Diesel Gala in two weeks time. Paul waits .........

............... while Bob Mac sorts out the power for the rake.

Bob repairs some of the roof paintwork on SO 4790.

Now to look for the Indoor Gang. I was told they were in the Rake 4 coaches fixing loose heater grills.

Well I have found some tools.

And here's a mass of various sized screws, but no sign of the team. They appeared when I was on my way back to the Works.

I later captured Roger and Alan in the Workshop cutting lengths of angle iron to be used for making new brackets for the radiator grills.

 

[Photos: Roger]  Roger kindly saved me another walk up the yard and took photos of Geoff and Alan fixing a number of covers.

 

In the afternoon I photo'd Roger repairing a small section of underseat grill.

With vacuum pump connected, Stu and Alex check out the workings of the vacuum cylinders under TSO 5042.

With the linkage from the vacuum cylinder disconnected, Stu checks out the DA valve.

The improvements to the luggage compartment and guards corridor in BCK 21272 continue with Dave undercoating more of the grill ...........................

................... and Bob undercoating the ceiling. Still have the top coating to do, but it's all looking very much better now.The guards compartment could also do with freshening up.

Now a look at the laying of the marmoleum done in RBr 1675 on Wednesday. The saloon and part of the serving area below look a lot better.

Bob and son Pete are back and cutting out the thick paper templates, prior to cutting the relevant areas of marmoleum to shape.

The end of the day showing the corridor and south exit.

Jeff once again took over the painting in the servery and closet, continuing the first top coat of Executive Light grey.

The pipework will be boxed in.

The next job, second coating the electric cupboard door. David had applied the first top coat to this side on Wednesday.

Some further filler was required in two places on the top Malvern side panel. David had part remedied this the day before. Bob completed any further filling and sanding, and then undercoated the entire panel.

The second of the two calor gas boxes needed some modification at the front. With this done the door was subsequently repainted, and now Bob attaches the rubber seal.

Richards I and II have completed the extra electrical work on BCK 21272. Richard II now uses the smartphone app to change the name of the Victron Bluetooth battery charger to the coach type and number. This will help when accessing the charger to acquire all the required information.

[Photo : Alex]  After a shunt on the Malvern side of the yard, the former-GWR Open C wagon was extracted and will be the next wagon to restore after the MICA van. The first job will be to have it grit blasted.

Foremarke Hall rumbles past and into the station for the token exchange. There were some good numbers on the trains today.

Tuesday 25th - And now very hot!

With temperatures up to 28C it was a somewhat soporific day in the Works, but it was business as usual despite the heat.

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Returning briefly to the moquette enquiry last week, some very helpful information was received from Tim Robbins, Director of Torrington Heritage Transport Fabrics Ltd, from whom we buy our moquette.

I had stated: "Yes, there were moquettes for different classes, but I wouldn't have thought ones specific to compartments or open coaches. Does anyone know?"

Tim replied: " I was interested to see the exchange between "Tim J" and Dave Clark about moquettes in Fridays blog. The answer to Dave's question is yes - moquettes were designated for specific purposes. "Snapdragon" was also produced with a blue background, and both were used by the GWR for 3rd class compartments, one for smoking and the other for non-smoking. Similarly, "Trojan" was originally used in 2nd class saloons, with "Candy Stripe" in 2nd class compartments (red in smoking, and green in non smoking). More details are available on the Catalogue pages of our website www.heritagerailfabric.co.uk"

Thank you Tim for your very interesting information. BCK 21092 in Rake 3 has the lovely blue Horsechestnut Leaf moquette in the two First Class compartments, with the Second Class compartments in Bournemouth Blue, but that was simply because the First Class seating needed re-covering and we loved the recently acquired Horsechestnut Leaf.

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Now on to today's activities.

Bob and Pete Webb, our regular flooring contractors, arrived today to prepare RBr 1675 for laying marmoleum in the saloon and corridor. Bob initially primes the floor.

The primer soon dried as it was already very warm and Pete was able to lay the screed.

The final job was to lay the levelling compound along the metal cross members where the screed had sunk. The result was a perfectly flat surface ready for laying the marmoleum.

With the servery available Pam was the only one able to work in 1675. All the undercoating had been completed, so she was able to begin top coating with the Executive Light Grey.

We could still work on the outside, so Roger top coated the first of the Malvern side windows and made a start on the second.

Prior to Bob and Pete starting, I removed the door to the electrics cupboard to allow better access. This required only a light sanding as it's existing paint had been the Exec Lt Grey and so Keith was able to go straight to top coating.

As usual the paint trestles had a number of jobs available. Keith began applying a second top coat to the seat planks for Hayles Halt.

Another seat requiring new planks is at Broadway. Chris uses an excellent tool for producing a round edge. 

The new planks completed, but who is going to paint them? Presumably the Broadway group. As we are Carriage & Wagon we don't stock the Light and Dark Stone used for the GW themed stations.

Bob takes a break and joins Alex, Keith, Dave and myself to watch 2807 pass with the Broadway train. 7903 has already left with the Cheltenham train.

The station board destined for Cheltenham Racecourse Station and time to add the next part. Alex, having rubbed French Chalk on the back of the secured template, now carefully traces the lettering.

With the template removed the chalk outlines for each letter remain and are now ready for painting.

Later in the day Alex has moved on to paint the separate departure times board. The top of his morning's painting can just be seen above the board.

Ian had emailed me to say there were 5 very large boxes and a small package to collect from Churchward House, which had been delivered the day before, and a trolley would be needed. No kidding! Bob kindly helped and we managed to get these back to the Works without them falling off. They were very light, so presumably had precut foam or something like that for Upholstery.

Ainsley had a successful day changing the hinge pins on the coaches in Rake 3. He carefully re-taps and cleans the pins he has brought back.

On now to the MICA van and more good progress. Alex removes the old bolts from the north end. No surprise that they take a bit of persuasion and tend to come free somewhat rusted and incomplete.

Robert meanwhile is preparing new corner supports .............

......... and trial fits the latest one.

For Paul and Maurice it was back to underframe and headstock painting, applying Dark Grey undercoat.

Inevitably you end up flat out on the floor and extra lighting is definitely needed.

More top coat White for the current set of planks on the trestles. Alex did a quick count of all the planks required to clad the van - I can't remember what he said, but the quantity was considerable!

Bob undercoats part of the roof of SO 4798.

More good progress with the clean up and repainting in the luggage compartment and adjacent corridor in BCK 21272. While Dave undercoats more of the large grill, I applied more sealant along the ceiling beading where required and completed the general cleaning of the grill and corridor paintwork.

Looking out of 21272's corridor connection and capturing the last train crossover of the day with the Class 20 and 2807.