Apologies for no Wednesday or Thursday posts this week. However it did give us the opportunity to publish the long overdue Meet The Teams "Some Specific Engineering". A link to this will be put in to the Meet The Teams part of the Blog's Main Menu.
Today was our first Shutdown weekend and with 25 attending the Mess Room was almost full during our morning and lunchtime breaks.
After Wednesday, Thursday, and now Saturday, a very good effort has already been made to reduce the long list of essential jobs listed on Ian's Winter Shutdown spreadsheet. The pile of Job Completion forms in the office is already quite substantial and await Eve's attention for updating the spreadsheet on the office computer.
I wasn't able to capture the work going on outside in the rakes, but some of the internal Shutdown list activities were recorded.
At least three battery boxes need replacing, while others need repairs. Chris and Robert strip down this cover in preparation for creating a new one.
Later in the day with replacement covers on the Paintshop trestles in various stages of painting.
Ben and Ainsley are repairing droplights. Ben applies epoxy glue ready to reattach the base which Ainsley is cleaning up.
Ainsley is removing old glue and dirt from the base of another droplight.
On the Barn jack road FK 13329 has been replaced by TSO 4986. This coach needs work on the south bogie, has a loose footboard, two window problems, and needs a new battery box cover - probably the cover sections currently being painted on the trestles are the replacement.
Even at the end of the day after the coach was brought into the Barn, the frost remains semi-frozen on the body sides. It really has been a very cold (-7C was mentioned).
Laura went round asking for help with some carrying as another load of seat sections have been driven up from the Forest of Dean Railway.
It didn't take long to get it all into Upholstery with the number offering to help. It's quite a pile and there will be more to come. This represents the 4th contract from the FODR. We must be doing something right!
At the end of the day, while cutting up more scrap sheets for the Paintshop rag box (Upholstery is a nice clean place for this job), I photographed this large bench seat being re-covered. A Shutdown repair? I couldn't see it listed on the spreadsheet.
Dennis updates the log book after another successful weekly fire alarm test.
The Barn was really cold, but both James and George spent the day there, both working on SO 4798. James was back doing his rebuild of the Cotswold side south end corner, while George gave an overall sand to the north end and along the Mavern side. We seem to be well on the way with the latter job, so that hopefully most of this will have been done before the coach goes into the Workshop.
John continued his recreation of the MICA label boxes, checking the fit against the van's solebar.
Maurice took on the job of cleaning up the heating pipe covers from FO 3127. So far it looks like they will need to be painted with Hammerite as we can't, at least with the ones done so far, get them to look as good as those that we did in RBr 1675.
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Now on to FK 13326 where we made some excellent progress. This includes some lining out and varnishing work in the south vestibule done by Rod on Wednesday, and a really good effort done on Thursday by Phil and Jeff, who sent me a detailed email:
Evening Dave,
Just a line to say that just myself and Phil were in today busy working on the FK. Phil applied the white gloss to the vestibule ceilings. I finished off all the outstanding black lining out on the 3 remaining doors. However some yellow lining out has been missed on the middle door ( Cotswold side ) in both the reveals and the edge of the door, so needs doing. Also needing blacking are most of the door striker plates, also one door buffer near the door at the Cotswold north end. I ran out of time as Ian was wanting to lock up for the day. Also some grab handles need blacking.
Cheers,
Jeff
The vestibule ceilings being painted was a real bonus because they were a priority with respect to the laying of the coir matting beginning next Tuesday.
Moving on to today's efforts where the main bodyside varnishing got underway.
Initially Alex pad sanded the side using very fine paper (320 grade).
Maurice, Bob and myself then carefully wiped the side with thinners and clean rags.
Earlier on Maurice had gone through the coach removing the old FIRST and No Smoking signs from the inside of the external windows. Some of the former were quite worn away.
Jenny is gradually working her way through the compartments, giving each a really deep clean.
I really like the compartments in 13326. Nice varnished veneer, some lovely Cotswold paintings, and I think a really smart moquette, though when mentioning the latter it seems I'm the only one who does like the Dark Charcoal Check.
We're off! With Bob at the south end and Alex at the north end, our two best varnishers apply the first coat to the Cotswold side.
I love watching Bob paint and varnish. His style is very relaxed and laid back, but his results are always top notch.
It's looking good!
Prior to beginning varnishing Alex had moved over to the Malvern side to give that a light sand. Maurice follows up with the thinners and rags.
Alex has done the black border on his Malvern side number.
My own major job was to get the two vestibules completed ready for Tuesday. Initially the tape had to be removed following the ceiling painting (that was a job in itself as it had been on a long time). Next the new pelmet boards needed dyeing and then varnishing. Other new veneer had been put in where needed and that also needed the same treatment.
The whiteboard has been updated ready for this coming week. Item 2 can be crossed out. Item 3 has been started on the Malvern side
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