Saturday 1st/Sunday 2nd - It's going to be tight

 It was a case of throwing people at 4986 today to progress this quick job as much as possible.

First order of the day was to weld up the two area where the rivets had given way - James did the honours and I soon plastered over it with the fibreglass filler.

On the Cotswold side Dave was up top cleaning the cream while Ainsley took up the sander for the lower rivet line...

...Along with Ben. Tony and I looked after the Malvern side.

By the end of the day I declared the end of filling and sanding - not perfect but much better than it was, and better than not doing anything as we probably would have done otherwise. As the crimson undercoat doesn't cover so well, I patch painted over the light filler with dark grey undercoat, hopefully the red undercoat will cope with the lower contrast between the sanded chocolate and the grey.

It was of course all go in the barn too with winter maintenance, 4614 having vacuum cylinders and DA valves seen to, while Alan attended to the roof repairs.

Ian cleaned up the next serviced vacuum cylinder ready for fitting, this had bene painted by the end of the day.

We'd once again run out of gaters for the vac cylinder piston rods so John was back on the production line for these.

With 4614 done, out and it went to be replaced by RMB 1876. This is due for a repaint but it's booked out for the race trains first. So for now just giving the brakes a once over and maybe do some of the roof repairs required before it enters the paintshop late March I imagine.

There was good progress on the Mica today too. Paul and Maurice fitted the last of the internal metal lining. It's a bit rough around the edges now but nice to retain this original feature.

Robert and Chris took care of the roof repairs identified last week then started fitting the top planks for the end vent.

Robert sent in a couple of pictures, firstly showing the roof repairs to the timbers, happily we have plenty of spare T&G this size.

And fitting the first plank for the end vent.

4 more planks to go on that end now, then just the 4 lower ones on each fixed panel once we've fitted the handrails, which we can only do once we've fitted the new canvas.

4798 continues to trundle along with reasonable progress, Simon and Alan continued the fitting out of the North vestibule.

While James was back on the South end metal work rebuild.

Laura and Richard were stuck into DFR coach headrests when I went to see what they were up to, mostly this is just a recovering contract but these headrests were a bit too far gone and needed a bit more doing. We know the feeling!

Last but not least, following a power cable out of the works and into the sidings led me to 24006 where Dave was sorting out the various bits of trim that had been cleaned up and varnished to make sure a) we had it all and b) how it all fitted together, for when this coach eventually gets its turn.

Sunday - Overtime

Having decided we had enough time to repaint 4986 into crimson before the start of the running season, we then decided we might not, but carried on regardless :-) So an extra day for Dave and I to see what we could get done.

Dave's mission was the cream panels and window frames on the Malvern side, which needed a thorough clean.

They came up pretty well. A coat of varnish should make them shine again too.

I broke out the undercoat for the crimson, Dave captured me doing the lower panel, having taped up and painted the top bands.

End of the day and this was the state of affairs, same the other side too, hopefully some topcoat crimson on during the week.