Saturday 16th - In the dark

Arriving at my usual time I was in for a surprise. Chris is always the first in, but why was he parked outside the gate and not in the yard? Gate not working? Power failure?

When eventually gaining access it turned out to be more than just the gate. The whole site was without power. We were in for an interesting day.

What about our early Mess Room gathering and cuppa before we got the day underway?

[Photo : Alex]   James provided the initial solution.

Well, an expensive way to make a pot of tea, but it worked! That very heavy trestle, created to produce the MICA handrails, is proving ideal for this.

Thankfully it was less chilly than it had been recently. However that early cuppa was still very much appreciated.

It was nice and bright in the Paintshop and Pam was able to do a quick job on TSO 4772 that had been missed - painting the tops of the door droplights.

No power anywhere meant that the signalbox was out of action, which in turn meant that the shunt to extract 4772 was now out of the question and 3850 would not be brought down from Toddington today.

Laura, Helen and Sally were coping very well without lights, all the effort now going into re-upholstering the Dean Forest Railway seating (contract 3).

Today was the second of the two-day race meeting at Cheltenham when we were running race trains. Unlike the main March meeting, where all three of our rakes are in use, the November meeting uses just the one train. On the Saturday we squeeze a Fish-and-Chip Special into the middle of the day using the same rake. 

Foremarke Hall does the honours for the race goers as it passes on its way to the racecourse. 

It's the 1100 teabreak and the heat is on again. Paul checks the progress.

John looks happy as he makes his way up to the Mess Room.

This was almost back to normal. At the far end of the Mess Room Paul gives a cheery wave.

The problem of supplying hot water was later sorted out by the generosity of a lady who lives just outside the station yard. She provided endless jugs of hot water, which were brought up to the Mess Room by Rosie and Ian, two of the Friends of Winchcombe Station. To all three, a very hearty Thank You for your kindness - it was very much appreciated.

All the Bubblecar seat frames were transferred to one of the GUVs located on the other side of the running line. Painting these seat frames was often done in poor light and as such bits were missed with the red oxide primer showing through.

Pam tackled all the frames near the entrance to the van, hopefully covering all the red bits. The frames located further in the van will be moved into the light and checked out next week.

Thankfully the power cut didn't stop progress with the MICA van. While Robert and Chris were working on the internal panelling, John and Phil were re-boring the necessary holes for fitting another of the vertical handrails. Thank goodness for battery operated drills!

The second handrail partially trial-fitted. The top will need to be bent horizontally.

The first handrail with the shaping now complete and fitted in place.

The efforts over the past weeks with 4772 have got through masses of rag. So a quick visit to the nice clean Upholstery shop to cut another bin load. With all the tables in use, the wide windowsill made a good substitute. In return for the use of the shop I emptied both of their bins.