Tuesday 6th - All sorts of things

An interesting day with 16 attending and a good range of work in progress.

Firstly a catch-up with progress in Upholstery where late on Saturday Ian had stripped the old moquette from this batch of seating.

More headrests to strip. The third contract for the FODR is coming along well.

Keith had a host of trestle-related jobs waiting for him. Some had already been started as the items were needed in the coming days and this included two sections of window frame (for the Indoor Gang on Thursday) and the skirting board for 1675.

The various parts for the table mountings in 1675.

The new sections of internal window frame, that I had stained and given an initial coat of varnish, needed a second coat.

Some touch up painting for the two seats now that they had been rebuilt with the new planking. It would be good to give these one final overall coat of paint. One is the seat for Hayles Abbey Halt.

Alex's new sign for the Halt.

A new job for Chris is the repair of an old cupboard which came from Ross-on-Wye signalbox. It is destined for one of our signalboxes.

Some of the pelmets and other oak panels in 1675 have not come out well and as such are being remade by Robert or put through the thinner. All are now on the paintshop trestles having had an initial coat of varnish.

With construction in 1675's corridor now completed we can resume painting in this section. As such Roger primed the ceiling up to the servery area (the walls and window frames in there are in oak and need varnishing before any ceiling painting can begin).

On to the MICA van progress with more of the many planks required being primed by Paul.

Maurice was once again busy with more of the metalwork from the van and, having sanded it down, was now coating it in red oxide.

It was good to see James in today and continuing his work at the south end of 13326 in the Workshop. A small section of z bar is being cleaned up ....

...... before being welded in place.

Most of our group today enjoying the morning break. Apologies for the wide-angle distortion.

Now into the Barn and the excellent progress with 4790. Alex has been filling and sanding around the new sections of panelling at the south end of the coach.

The end of the day and now nicely greyed-up. That is a real improvement to the warped and internally corroded panelling originally there.

I am always fussy about properly cleaning up the door edges and frames when repainting a coach, removing as much as possible of the old paint. We want these doors closing easily, not sticking with too many layers of paint. Richard is doing a great job on this frame, applying some filler where required.

Stu working on the Cotswold side and now wiping the paintwork down after some secondary filling. Obviously the jack road is not the best place for what we are doing with 4790, but the shunt on Friday (needed for the annual safety wires inspection) should put the coach in the Paintshop.

Ian and Alex looking at this particular door, which while closing safely, needs tightening up.

After all that prep work, a well deserved break for Richard, Stu and Ian. A nice bit of fresh air .......

........ and enjoying 2807 passing with Rake 2. With the school holidays now well underway there were good numbers of passengers on all the trains.

The Malvern side of the Monster van is looking better by the day as Derek continues with the plank replacements. Even better when the weather is kind and certainly better than the wet start to the morning.

Over in BCK 21272 Pam continued her repainting of the guards compartment. However, first a quick wipe of the dust already settling on the new corridor paintwork.

Now back to the compartment where the corridor door window has been taped up and painting is well underway.

When 21272 was put in the Barn and we first climbed onboard we were very impressed with the interior. The compartments with the very regal looking moquette and curtains looked stunning. The carpetted corridor and brush matting in the vestibules looked really good too. And then after a few weeks 21272 was transferred outside. Now out of the poor light of the Barn it became obvious that some things in the vestibules and corridor were not so good and needed some tidying up. 

Besides the tarnished metal window frames, most of which have been cleaned up (as reported in previous postings), the internal wood surrounds, particularly the base sections were not in good condition. Similarly the bottom sections of the compartment windows and tops of the panels on compartment sliders. All needed cleaning and revarnishing.

Dave did a brilliant job and by the end of the day the whole corridor looked so much better.  Dave also worked on the insides of two of the vestibule doors with some coloured varnish - a big improvement.

There is still some cleaning to do on the metal window frames at the south end. Then the vestibule ceilings to repaint (painted sections only of course). What with all the repainting of the guards compartment, luggage area and associated corridor as well, the interior of 21272 now looks very much better.