Today was a very special one with the Memorial Service for Bob Mackintosh, always known as Bob Mack, and one of the original volunteers on the Railway and in his latter years regularly helping in C&W.
The service booklet was beautifully produced and completely based on the Railway.
Toddington Church was packed to the point where quite a few of us were sat in the chancel. Sadly because of the acoustics and echoing we could hear almost none of the readings, but it was still good to be there.
Roger took the above with some great photos displayed.
The Railway Recollections read by Richard Johnson, Head of C & W for 18 years and then, until recently, our PLC Chairman, vividly detailed what a huge part Bob played in the early days of the Railway, taking on so much responsibility in its organisation and running. Richard had in effect known Bob for 44 years, almost literally from the beginning, so his anecdotes were many and varied, many of them humerous. For a lot of us joining in the 2000s, Bob was still heavily involved as a regular Duty Officer, Guard, Signalman, the PLC Finance Manager, lineside clearing, and with C&W one of our regular roofers. Both RBr 1675 in the Paintshop and SO 4798 in the Workshop have roofs that are already fully painted thanks to Bob, and in fact the first roof we will have to tackle without his excellent work will be RMB 1876 when that eventually comes into the Works.
The reception was held in the Cotswold Halt cafe at Toddington Station, with the room almost packed out with so many attending. An excellent buffet had been laid out with hot and cold drinks available.
Overall it was a lovely memorial for Bob and our thoughts go out to Gillian, Alistair and Jane.
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Many thanks for all the recent comments and kind thoughts that have been passed on in the blog with respect to our efforts.
In answer to the Cornishman magazine anomaly recently highlighted:
When writing the Carriage & Wagon report for The Cornishman it is not uncommon to have to anticipate events or as we like to say "write for the future". Our report in the Spring edition of the magazine was written in mid-December, so with the saloon in 1675 basically completed, it was not unrealistic to assume that by mid-February the tables would have been installed, with the chairs rapidly following. However this was not to be and the saloon currently remains empty. The likely cause for the delay will be the many repairs needing to be done to our coaches during the shutdown period. With shutdown almost ended and services restarting this coming weekend, we will be able to fully return to the refurbishment programme.
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Now on Tuesday's efforts. Grateful thanks to Paul E. for the extra photos taken while I was attending Bob Mack's memorial service and reception.
Richard completed the painting and varnishing of the repairs previously made in the corridor and south vestibule in FK 13329 by Simon and Alan.
Part of one of the new veneer panels and surround, stained and now given a coat of varnish.
The repair to the water-damaged panel in the south vestibule. 13329 has been added to Rake 1 as the 8th coach for the four days of the Cheltenham Race meeting.
[Photo : Paul E.] In the Workshop Bryan drills holes in the final compartment windowframe on the Malvern side of SO 4798. Ainsley also worked on the coach, doing some more general sanding of the Cotswold side.
While Richard pours back some unused paint, Keith primes a number of large bolts which are either for the MICA van or Open C wagon.
[Photo : Paul E.] The bolts dried quickly enough to be further painted.
[Photo : Paul E.] Painting the underframe of the MICA van was done by both Maurice and Paul..
[Photo : Paul E.]
[Photo : Paul E.]
[Photo : Paul E.] Just outside the Paintshop on the Works siding, Maurice is working on one of the axleboxes on the Open C wagon.
When RBr 1675 arrived in the Paintshop it was covered in dust, which meant a major clean of the body sides had to be done before we could completed the remaining bits of undercoating. The underframe, headstocks and corridor connections are as bad and as such we needed to get these similarly vac'd and wiped over, especially with the top coating which has now been started. Ian took on the job and literally circumnavigated the coach, leaving just the underframe elements that were dirty - decisons will be made as to how much of these are to be cleaned and even painted.
[Photo : Paul E.] The final major dedusting job will be the roof.
The bogies must have been gritblasted for them to have been painted up this much. There will be work to do on them when the coach goes into the Barn and on to the jacks.
Ainsley also went around 1675 adding little tape bonnets to the tops of the door hinges to prevent them being painted. We, the painters, haven't done enough of this in the past, hence the justified grumbles by both the Door and Friday Maintenance teams when it comes to greasing the hinges..
