Tuesday 29th - Getting hotter

Not quite into May and we are going through a heatwave. With the departure of RBr 1675 from the Paintshop, and RMB 1876 still requiring considerable metalwork repairs at both ends, the MICA van and Open C wagon could be resident in there for some time yet. This provides the opportunity to complete the repaint of the Model Railway TPO and do something about the very faded Discovery Coach, both in Platform 2 Bay.

Many thanks to Robert and Paul E. for the extra photos of the MICA van progress.

As with any outside painting and varnishing your enemies are the weather and flying insects. My initial work for today was to get more of the TPO varnished to protect the painting done last year. The objective was to get as much done as possible before the sun hit the bodyside. I started early enough to get the north end done. If I had started when I got in at 7.40 instead of drinking tea I could have done the south end as well!

Richard opted for the cooler Barn and removed the lettering and roundel from the Malvern side of 1876. This coach will be repainted from the very faded Maroon into Crimson & Cream.

Maurice top coats in GW Grey one of the corner pieces for the Open C wagon.

With other trestle jobs completed, time to get on with repainting the modified light shades from SO 4798.

In fact Keith had a field day with trestle jobs which also included varnishing the wood components for the wall lights, black glossing the future stock of patresses for coach end electrical connections, and undercoating the door stops for the Monster van.

Maurice, Keith, Chris and Paul watch the Cheltenham train slow down for the station.

After Jenny had suggested having an item of railway equipment in the cleared viewing space, S & T very kindly supplied a triple dolly signal that would never be used on the Railway. We were going to make some sort of stand for it, but S & T had already had the job planned and were now getting it done. Thank you chaps, that is a very kind gesture.

Pam and I were planning to continue the preparation work on the Discovery Coach, with more sanding followed by a start on the filling, using both standard Upol filler and Upol fibre paste where holes had been uncovered.

It was hot work with all the resulting sanding, but we managed to get the follow-on undercoating done where we had filled. With the excessive heat we kept the amount of painting to the minimum required.