Saturday 27th - Contrasting days

Quite a large number attending today with work going on throughout the Works and out in the yard. Unusually the exception was Upholstery which remained unattended all day. 

Beginning with SO 4790 where some good progress was made.

Martin continued the filling and sanding work on both sides of the coach.

While a coach is available you grab every opportunity to do repairs. John and James are repairing some of the pipework underneath. The thumbs up from James is a good sign that all is well, and this work also gives him a break from welding.

Bob cleans up more of the Cotswold side of the roof.

Hey, you ask, this is a quick repaint, what's going on?! The panelling at the end was badly buckled, and when investigating the gutter area above it was easy to see why. Alan is an expert welder and by the time I took the photo he had already repaired the roof section and was busy welding it on place.

Returning later, the buckled section was in the process of being removed.

Stu displays the corrosion on the back of the removed section.

It wasn't long before the area for repair had been cleaned up ready for Alan to weld in a new sheet.

Out now to BCK 21272 in the yard where Dave is in the luggage area and masking up in preparation for repainting the bottom section.

Pam was well into applying cream top coat in the guards compartment, continuing the job started by Phil on Thursday. This will be a time consuming job with all the complexity of this area.

George had done a great job cleaning up the metal window frames in the luggage area and guards corridor, and has now started on the frames in the passenger corridor.

Another timely job being done by Paul and Dennis was to recheck the toilet tanks.

Returning to Pam near the end of the day to find she had covered quite a bit with the cream paint. Still a lot to do, but this end of the coach is now looking so much better with all the grime cleaned away and replaced by new paint.

Ainsley refits the upper back panel on this door on FK 13326.

Ian uses Stu's wonderful tungsten carbide scraper to remove all the old paint and grime from this vacuum cylinder.

And here it is with the black MIO painting almost finished. Stu had been in conversation with Ian and started to rise as I took the photo.

Tom and Mark are making new sections of window frame, which I guess will be for SO 4798. Tom is using the mini rebating machine.

Two members of the Diesel Dept were having a look round the Works. I caught them with Tom and Mark.

With all the things going on elsewhere in the Works, as well as meeting up with an old work colleague and her partner, I managed to miss Robert and Chris completing the panelling in RBr 1675's corridor. However, here is the south end, all ready to paint. We have just added more tins of wood primer to our paint stock, which is just as well as we are certainly going to need it.

With guidance from Richard I, granddaughter Nicole is adding the pipework for the taps to the large skid in the kitchen.

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Now a complete change from all the activity at Winchcombe to the peace and tranquility of Kelmscott, West Oxfordshire the day before. 

Kelmscott Manor was the rented home of William Morris and his family in the late 1800s and on to 1938 when his daughter May Morris died. He did also have a home in London.

William Morris is of course very much associated with the Arts and Crafts movement and as such the Manor is home to many of the designs of wallpapers and textiles for which he is famous. The Manor is now owned by the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Views from the extensive attic. Photography inside is allowed, but having been here a number of times in the past I was content just to look around. It was quite dark in many of the rooms, presumably to prevent fading of the many exhibits.

After the self conducted tour and an excellent lunch, next on the agenda is a leisurely stroll round the garden, ...........

........ where you may come across Horatio, the Manor cat. Horatio arrived on a narrowboat on its way up the nearby Thames and during the stopover, discovered the Manor and decided to stay.

Finally, on leaving the Manor, a short walk  down the track to view the Thames.

Next stop Lechlade.

Walking back through Kelmscott is delightful. I love these stone slab walls, very much a feature of the eastern Cotswolds.