Tuesday 7th - Catching up

With 10 attending most of us were doing just as the title says with the concentration on FK 13326 and the MICA van.

Robert has said he wants to get the MICA van finished as it has been a somewhat problematical vehicle to rebuild and taken a lot longer than expected. Here he is refitting a large support block at the north end.

Paul concentrates on filling the screw holes on both the rebuilt doors on the Cotswold side.

Maurice repaints the sole bars, headstocks and general underframe in GW Grey. 

On to 13326 where a number of loose ends needed completing. Richard concentrated on missing bits of lining out, which were mainly on doors and frames.

The cream section on the Cotswold side centre doorframe had been top coated, but it highlighted a number of blemishes. I applied some filler and then did a repaint and all now looks good. Next was a bit of gutter still in undercoat grey to be painted in GW Brown. Must remember to paint the communication cord flags at that end of the coach.

When Richard had completed as much of the remaining lining out as possible, he then moved on to some door stops and droplight bars. 

Ian concentrated on cleaning most of the remaining windows that needed tidying up.

With the coir matting due to laid in the vestibules next Tuesday (14th) we need to get all the work completed in them as soon as possible. I had previously undercoated the ceilings, but some filling was required to seal up any thin gaps in the beading. This was completed and the relevant areas given a top up in white undercoat. A number of other minor paint and varnish jobs were also completed.

Keith had the usual variety of trestle and hooks painting jobs. The former was to apply red top coat to the primed Not To Be Moved sign. The hook jobs comprised the heating pipe brackets made by Ken and the support plates from 1675's kitchen and pantry internal sliding doors. 

A new job was to have a trial clean up of the first of the heating pipe covers from FO 3127. The result was relatively good and if they all come out as well we will lacquer them, as was done with the covers from 1675.

The first batch - there are a lot more to come from the strip down inside 3127 currently being done by Dave H.

Following the making of a bag in this lovely moquette, Laura said they would be making some cushions and spectacle cases in it. Last Saturday I requested a cushion. Laura immediately took down the roll and worked out how the moquette pattern could be economically cut out. She then searched out a suitable backing material. What a lovely surprise this morning on walking through Upholstery to discover that she had gone on to make two cushions.  The excellent results speak for themselves. One of the cushions, and a spectacle case in the same moquette, have been acquired and paid for, and will make a lovely present.

During the morning it was nice to take a break and have a walk up the silent yard. It was a lovely day, albeit with a chilly wind. The trains have stopped now until March and both rakes have been brought down from Toddington and left in the station. Ian has put out a spreadsheet listing the many jobs to try and get done in the short shutdown season. We are going to be busy!