Tuesday 6th - Discovery and Mica

Many thanks to Paul for the extra photos of the MICA van.

Another dry warm day meant we could be outside again. Just as well with so much to do on the Discovery Coach. Tackling the repaint of this coach is quite a challenge what with the ramps and handrails making access awkward, our visitors, being used by school children for 2 hours every Tue, Weds and Thurs, and of course the weather.

Following some good progress on Saturday, it was just Richard and myself working on it today. Richard sorted out the badly flaking doorway at the north end, here mixing some fibre paste for a deep recess in the frame.

Overall he did a good job, and the frame is now ready for undercoating. A quick vac round with the Henry soon had all the sanding dust cleared up.

I continued where Phil had left off on Saturday and got another five roof panels cleaned up and repainted. This is just the platform side of course. At times the metal roof was too hot to lean on with a bare hand, but the painting was able to be done satisfactorily. I also did some more filling on the body side but in small batches only with the heat making the filler go off very quickly. The weather is a problem in many ways, not just when it's wet.

Away from the station in the peace and quiet, Dave tops up the coat of red oxide on TK 24006 which he co-owns. I hope one day we can begin restoring this 1951 coach.

Keith had a variety of painting jobs, which included second coating the centre ceiling light rims from SO 4798 and finishing the new battery box covers in black MIO.

The Not To Be Moved sign receives Alex's attention. One side completed, the other on Saturday?

This also included some Gala preparation - this sandwich board presumably for Toddington. Our big steam gala is just over two weeks away, and big it is with quite a number of engines running, probably the most we have ever had.

A good run on the MICA van now, with initially some general sanding of the primed sides by both Maurice and Paul to remove any roughness.

Chris meanwhile is preparing and fitting the top rails at both ends of the van.

The completed job being primed by Keith.

[Photo : Paul E]

[Photo : Paul E]

With sanding completed Paul and Maurice are now undercoating.

[Photo : Paul E]  Alex is overpainting the underside of the steps - hmmm, it is probably authentic but I preferred the whole step in black.

[Photo : Paul E]

The mystery of the missing planks was never resolved - were they actually made? Nothing has been found so Robert prepares to replace them after he and Paul brought in some more lengths from the container.

These were duly cut to size and quickly primed by Alex.

As I am due to disappear for a week, it's time to stock up the rag bin. Upholstery, being nice and clean, is a great place for cutting up the donated sheets, pillow cases, towels, tea towels, napkins, pyjamas, shirts, etc, etc. Although the bin is in the Paintshop as primarily for our use, the rags inevitably end up all over the Works.

The three disk dolly signal now firmly bolted to its base in our viewing area by the signalbox. Many thanks to S&T for both providing the signal and setting it in place. Hope you like it Jenny , it was your brilliant idea to have a railway feature here and this is better than we could have hoped for.