Tuesday 15th - And now for something completely different

The old Month Python saying certainly was very apt for some of today's activities. 

The only continual activity in the Paintshop today was being done by Richard, who did a little more paint snagging on the Malvern side of 1675 and then added the second coat of varnish to all the windows on the Cotswold side. 

The new stand for the boot scrapers was completed by myself with a coat of GW Brown on the top part. This is now ready for collection on Wednesday.

Lots of activity with the Open C wagon where the top coated planks are going on. One of the new corner sections fabricated by the Wednesday metalwork team was also trial fitted - this will also look good when permanently attached and fully painted.

The view of the wagon from the south end.

More planks are going on. Following careful boring, the bolts are inserted and Paul attaches and tightens the nuts.

You can almost begin to see the large G W on the side as it all comes together.

[Photo :  Paul E]  Testing one of the cross braces - everything labelled up.

[Photo : Paul E.]  Maurice top coating the south end headstock and attachments.

On a very different theme, Robert is measuring up part of the flooring supports for the south vestibule of SO 4798. The grooves will be rebates on which the floor sits. It turns out that the piece of wood he selected was of almost the required length.

James cleaning up more of his recent welding at the south end of 4798.

The rebuilt corner now coated with green primer.

Now to something very different. With the gradual clearing of the old Building Services workshop, we have acquired a number of very useful additional or replacement items for our workshops. A recent example of this was the long metal frame from which the lovely new woodwork bench was created, as reported in last week's postings.

Another item has been a multi-drawer shelf unit which, from Kevin's many temporary labels, looks as though it will be used (or at least part used) for the mass of screw and nail packages currently stored on a shelf on the opposite wall. While being very useful, it was a really scruffy addition to the woodshop and, following a heartfelt request from Robert, we decided to do something about it. 

The unit might be multi-shelf, but multi-drawer?! When stripped out the number of drawers was astounding, as can be seen by the mountain behind Keith and Pam, and there were yet more to bring out of the woodshop! Basically this would be a quick job with each drawer - sanding off any rust, cleaning out the insides in particular the base (Pam's Wurth industrial cleaner was good for this), and then coating just the front and inside base with green primer. 

Meanwhile Dave tackled the shelf unit. Again a quick sand of any rust, and then green primer just on the sides and front.

Meanwhile I set to and cleaned as much as possible of the pillar drill with a combination of white spirit, wire wool and very fine grade sandpaper. The next job was the metal stand which was then coated in green primer.

The last batch of rusty, mucky drawars for cleaning up and painting.

Pam with her trusty can of Wurth cleaner. The pile of drying drawers behind is gradually being reduced as I return the dry ones to the workshop. 

The redundant heavy workbench in this location was a real bonus for this job, but obviously it will have to be moved to allow Upholstery the use of their hoist.

It all looks so much better now and it certainly was something completely different. We could probably have done a lot more with the shelf unit, but the whole exercise had to be a quick job. In the Paintshop we have a huge amount of cleaning, painting and varnishing to do on the light units from 4798, as well as several other larger items to clean up and paint. And then of course there is dear old 1675 to finish.

We began the day with the arrival of Pam and an almost new fridge which she has very kindly donated. This will replace the one we are currently using in the Mess Room which has had a very good innings. Thank you from us all Pam!