Thursday 29th - Just a short post today
After all the excitement of the weekend, another quiet day. The trains had restarted on Wednesday so it was nice to catch them going by today.
Geoff and Alan from our Indoor Gang were a bit short of work today, so instead enjoyed a round trip on the line. Roger, the third member of the team, already had plans for his day so stayed at the Works.
With the work on the north end bogies of RBr 1675 completed, it was now the turn of the south end, with the Malvern side being dealt with first, with Ian, John and Stu doing the job. The centre springs have been removed and the area where they were seated needle gunned to clean it up. I believe new base plates are fitted if necessary.
When I returned everything was being replaced. The whole side will be tensioned to give the correct ride height.
My first job today was to finish cleaning up the corridor connection U frame and give it a coat of black micaceous iron oxide (MIO). The connection is from the south end of SO 4798.
The day became quite warm but we were still able to make some very good progress with the Discovery Coach. Having completed this side of the roof in a base coat of light grey MIO (a silver grey and lighter than what we really want), Phil began giving it a second coat with the preferred darker shade. That's better!
Meanwhile Jeff and Bob undercoated quite a large area of the central cream section, and then continued with the bottom panelling. The coach is now beginning to look very much better.
Saturday's weather looks to be good, hopefully not too warm, so we should make more good progress. Unfortunately Tuesday and Thursday next week are forecasted to be wet, but it may change.
As well as being in the Indoor Gang, Roger is also our Works H & S member and with his PASMA hat on is doing the weekly inspection of our scaffold towers.
Phil was servicing the electrical connections at the ends of SO 4798 and RMB 1876. He also removed the data plates. Rust treatment, some filler and a repaint will be required under each.
Dave was on the Cotswold side of TSO 4867 doing a bit of basic tlc. This will no doubt be undercoated for both protection and appearance.
Nearly mid afternoon. Time to have a sit and watch "P & O" come by with the Cheltenham train. 2807 was on the other train.
You've all earned a 'sit and watch the trains go by'. You all work very hard on the coaching and goods stock, which is very much apreciated by us, the onlookers. If only I didn't live so far away in Cornwall AND my 'good lady' was not in a nursing home, then i would be there to help and/or put some money in the coffers by riding on the trains. cest la vie. I really enjoy reading these pages instead and looking at the excellent pictures.
ReplyDeleteRegards, Paul.
Amusing to see someone with a pony-tail sitting there! Reminds me of myself as an undergrad - many decades ago now! (My hair wasn't white yet, of course, but it was starting to change over.)
ReplyDeleteNice to see you're still watching Noel! :-)
DeleteWell, I went through a big upheaval in my life over the last several years, as I came down with myalgic encephalomyelitis ('chronic fatigue syndrome', one of the two disorders lumped together as 'long COVID' - hope this isn't TMI), and lost track of life at the GWSR for a while. I'm getting used to having CFS, and rearranging my life to deal with it; reading what's going on at the GWSR is a really nice distraction. All caught up now!
DeleteI've been glad to see you've been hard at work on your sign-writing! The C+W gang is really cranking things out; the GWSR has come so far since the early days (although I wasn't watching at the start - it was the Broadway rebuilding that really drew me in), with the embankment failures and all.