Monday 16th - Carriage Cleaning (as normal for Monday!)

 And as usual the first sighting is of David, Paul, Tim and Peter washing the Malvern side of rake1.

A doggy hair mess in rake 2.

We are having good numbers these days and even with some out on hols or bionic parts replacement we had 14. The others were Greg, Jane, Kath, Lynn (on toilet duty while John M is on hols), Nick, Rich, Roger C, Steve (washing the vertical heater covers, amongst other things), and Val.

Kath's electronics told her she walked 2.5 miles while carriage cleaning today.

You will have seen in other blogs pictures of Jane cleaning. She doesn't dress like this for cleaning..

One of her other "hats" is a professional Toastmaster. She gets to very posh places doing this!

Saturday 14th - Last day before all change

Apologies if there's a dip in photo quality this week, I rather optimistically decided I was capable of fitting a new SIM card reader to my otherwise perfectly functioning phone (surely it can't be any harder than hard-wiring a DCC chip into a kit-built oo gauge locomotive!?). Suffice to say, it was - it did not go well, and I now have a very expensive coaster.... Anyway, on with Saturday!

Window cleaning was in full swing on 4790 with James joining in for a change with Jenny too.

Dave went round doing all sorts of little jobs, here putting some stain on some badly scratched veneer on the double doors, there were also door boots to paint crimson and various other bits of touching up before we can do 2 coats of varnish.

Phil was also reinstating the lighting through cable at the end.

Next along in the works, Robert and Chris were working on the South end of the Mica. After sorting out the planks to finish off the top vent ready for painting, they moved onto the fixed planks lower down. This turned out to be rather challenging, as there is a significant bow to the framework here to bend the planks round, but they got there in the end with a bit of technical adjustment.

With the doors on the Malvern side mostly figured out, there was no reason to keep the old doors on the Cotswold side any more, so Maurice and Paul got stuck into taking them apart.

Maurice then gave both locking bars a coat of paint. Obviously they are both slightly different!

No more handrail bending today as John was only in for part of the day, but instead he started looking at the bits of metal for the bolt holes at the bottom, cutting them to size.

Also on wagon metal working, Andy made the mistake of not looking busy enough so I gave him the bits of Open C curb rail cut off last week to extract the sheet hooks from.

Also outdoors today, Paul and Dennis gave the Santa coach a scrub up

Looking much shinier now, well done chaps, and thanks Paul for the photos.

Dave captured Dave doing the floor painting in the BCK out in the yard which tidies this area up greatly. 

Pam was back in upholstery working on the guards compartment seats for the BCK.

Also in upholstery was Laura and, at the back, new volunteer Sally, Pat's partner. I think they were on DFR work today looking at the moquette out, certainly in the morning another batch of freshly upholstered seats was collected for Norchard.

Pat himself was back in the RBr on some more ceiling painting. Not the most fun job, but certainly a big visual difference. 

Later on it was into the corridor for a bit of painting there, a bit less uncomfortable on the neck, but still a tight space.

Dave was also to be found in here doing a bit of staining of bits of trim.

In the servery area Simon  was doing a bit of shaping to these strips of wood in he shelves that should stop bottles and things rattling themselves off.

Simon was also in the FK for a bit doing a bit more interior stuff in the North end vestibule. Hopefully this will be ready to come into the paintshop for finishing off about the same time we finish 4790 in a few weeks.

It was just Dave in 4798 today, here he was cleaning up some of the window trim ready for re-varnishing and refitting. We're trying to re-use as much wood as possible in this coach as much of it is in good condition (despite the state of the metal work!) and it's got a lovely aged warm colour to it which we'd like to keep.

Lastly, thanks for the warm wishes for this coming week, I write this from my hotel room in Milton Keynes where I'm staying for the week for a big team induction before joining the Cardiff and Bristol teams in Network Rail as a civil engineer. Whiteboards have been written in the works for the week, it's going to take some adjustment going back to 1 day a week in C&W!

Thursday 12th - Quite a day!

 Another really good day for progress, in particular for SO 4790.

The Paintshop whiteboard at the start of the day. This would soon be changing.

Alex had been in on Wednesday to progress the repaint as much as possible. And quite a bit had been achieved, including second top coating the north end doors and corners. More lining out had been done, and best of all adding the coach number on both sides - when that happens you feel that you are really getting there.

Also on Wednesday Pat had repainted all the skirting in the three vestibules, which immediately transformed them. Just some revarnishing to do where necessary and we may even have time to repaint the ceilings.

Starting off today were Jeff and Alex taping up ready for adding the black band to the remaining incomplete lines, Jeff on the Cotswold side, Alex on the other side.

Paul got cracking on more window scraping.

Moving rapidly along with the tape on both sides of the band99.

Taping up complete for this band and the Black gloss goes on.

The lining out in this area on the Malvern side south end is complete.

It can be tricky removing tape. The best way to do it is in short lengths, snipped with scissors. We sometimes used to walk along pulling off the entire length. It sounds fun until those occasions when the tape snaps and flies back flicking wet paint onto the side of the coach.

With lining out completed, bar the north end doors and corners, Jeff began painting the door stops, handles and droplight bars in Black gloss. 

The Cotswold side centre area now looking very good.

[Photo : Paul]  There are still many other aspects to consider, one being the corridor connection sliders. Initially the north end one didn't seem too bad and, as the door will spend all the time open, it didn't seem worth a repaint. However on closer inspection ......... 

Paul captures me giving this a first top coat.

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Now, following on from Tuesday's post, a bit more on the Gold paint being used for lining out and the coach numbers.

The colour as previously explained was used with the lining out done with the Carmine (Crimson) and Cream liveried coaches. It's more muted than the more familiar bright yellow.

A pot used on Tuesday really displays the colour.

Close ups of the lining out and coach number. This is also used on BCK 21272 which has the same livery.

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A lucky hurried shot of 3850 heading into the station. As always we wave to our passengers, many of whom happily wave back.

We need to get back to BCK 21272 and complete our painting and varnishing in there. However Dave continues taking a break from that and resumes the varnishing of the remaining compartment doors from TK 24006, beginning with a light sand of the initial coat of varnish.

The second coat goes on ........

....... and includes some removed panels.

Richards I and II, (and Phil), were busy in 1675's pantry.

Also in 1675 was Pat undercoating the ceilings in the servery and saloon (Malvern side)

Inside SO 4798 Dave (and Bryan) were working on the base level internal window framing.

Just Maurice doing MICA van jobs today, here undercoating the locking bars ..........

......... and later cleaning up the Cotswold side metal frame before coating in Red Oxide.

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And finally.

Before packing up for the day a last look from the south end of the Cotswold side. More to do on the black panels!

Alex updates the white board, removing completed jobs and adjusting what is left on.

This is a momentous occasion for Alex because it will be his last midweek attendance I guess for quite some time. Next week he begins full time working with Network Rail. He will based in Bristol and Cardiff, but commuting from home. So it will be Saturdays only from now on, with maybe some Wednesday evenings with the Toddington group depending on how things pan out. 

We all wish him well in his new life on the Big Railway.

The sun begins to go down and the shadows lengthen at the end of another good day at the Works. What a contrast to Tuesday evening after all that rain.