Thursday 27th - A major milestone achieved

After yesterday's shunt to complete the final formation of Rake 2, our shutdown period was officially over. Not so many attending today, but a major milestone was achieved by the end of the day.

Over the past couple of days the police and army have been conducting an excercise using Rake 3. Alan, Geoff and Paul take a few moments to watch the activity.

With Stu driving the 03, the eight coach Rake 1 passes by on its return to Toddington. Rake 2 followed afterwards.

Rake 3 will be set up in its final configuration in preparation for Race week, after which RMB 1876 will be made ready to come into the Works for maintenance and repainting. 1876 was on our side of the yard and so not involved with the police/army excercise. Paul walked through the coach looking at various aspects requiring immediate repair by the Indoor Gang - Alan, Geoff and Roger.

It was just Bryan working in SO 4798 today, preparing more internal window frame. The milling machine is being used to produce counter bores in which to insert the special nuts. When the screws are in turn inserted the piece of frame is tightened against the window. These all get retightened when fully in place which stops leaks.

I didn't catch Derek working on the Monster van. This was the only other activity not involving RBr 1675 which had quite a concentration today.

With the underframe dust removal completed, it was now the turn of the roof. We can reach almost all the roof from our large scaffold tower, especially when extra metal piping can be added to the existing lengths when vacuuming. Phil begins the job at the north end.

Bob Mack's excellent painting is once more revealed. Far better to get this done inside than leave it for the wind and rain to remove.

Alan, Geoff and Roger did some final work on the corridor connection doors. 1675 will spend its time in the middle of the train, so both doors will remain permanently open. Despite this both must be able to be closed and locked correctly. I later returned to painting the door edge.

The south end door originally did not close properly, but previous adjustments made by Robert and Chris ensured that it is now fully functional. Paint repairs are in progress, and now Roger completes the job making some final adjustments to the closing and then refits the door catch to enable it to be locked open.

The team also completed the fitting of some missing sections of skirting. 

Meanwhile main painting continues with Martin working on the Malvern side from the south end, adding the first coat of GW Cream. Some of the windows on this side have already been given an initial top coat, presumably done as a fill-in job when nothing else was available.

Bob started from the north end. However, with a tin being emptied following removal of a skin, it was definitely desirable to dig out the supply of old tights!

Bob started at the north end and the first coat of cream was completed.

Today the two Richards and a visiting contractor conducted the commissioning of the batteries and battery inverter in 1675. I am very pleased to report that the testing was successful. All the electrics are working as designed and as such a major milestone has been achieved.