Tuesday 1st - The bees are back!

Another hot wearying day, it will be good to have it a bit cooler. It didn't slow down the work though and with the buzzing of up to four sanders on the go, the Paintshop was at times somewhat lively to say the least.

On the Malvern side of TSO 5023 Ainsley was using the little multi-tool with triangular sander attachment to get into all the nooks and crevices.

Further along Richard was working on the top section, here changing sandpaper for a new piece.

We welcomed Ian to the team. Ian is already a very active member of the Winchcombe Station Maintenance Department (WSMD). 

He made an excellent start, giving the entire north end a complete sanding, the upper section being done from the large tower. Even the connection door was sanded.

Maurice began on the centre door on the Cotswold side, but later moved back to the MICA van when Paul arrived and needed help.

David, also on the Cotswold side, began on the north end door. A lot of the work now involves sanding down secondary filler, finishing off the sanding of door edges and frames (very important!), etc.

While all this was going on Keith still managed to add another coat of varnish to the second of the new door back panels, top coat the remaining sidelight covers from SO 4798, and top coat the connection vertical supports destined for RMB 1876.

Two Richards taking a well earned break. In the background Foremarke Hall waits with the Toddington Broadway train.

Richard watches 2807 drift in, looking very imposing in its black livery, with the Cheltenham train.

My efforts towards the end of Saturday and into today was to sort out the rusty area at the south end of 5023, where there was presumably a hole under the metal roof patch. A good clean up and coating of oxide, was followed by a good portion of fibre paste to fill the gap between the roof metal and the patch. Ordinary filler was then used to fill and rebuild, both underneath the gutter and on round to the underside of the roof end.  The whole was then sanded smooth, wiped free of dust with thinners and then coated in both light and dark grey undercoat.

David later moved on to cleaning up more of the Cotswold side window frames.

On the Malvern side Richard J. had joined Richard and Ainsley and tackled the secondary filler on the rivet line.

Keith primes the cleaned up data plates for the ends of 5023.

Maurice and Paul were preparing for fitting the heavy locking bar on the Cotswold side of the MICA van. The wooden replica is easier to use to ensure the correct location of the holes for the pivot and locking points.

Robert prepares another section of internal window frame for TSO 4867.

David has now completed the window frame cleaning up and moved on to undercoating.

I greyed up the south end corner.

It is likely that most of the filling and sanding required on both sides is nearing completion, and hopefully complete greying up can soon go ahead.

The wooden replica locking bar now in place on the MICA van.

***************

Finally a nice postcript from Jeff enjoying a hot week in France. 

The following five photos were taken at the heritage railway at Le Crotoy in the bay of the Somme.   It is a 5 mile run on a 1 metre gauge line with dual gauge trackwork incorporating standard gauge, running across a salt marsh at the edge of the bay where the sheep drink salty water !  Unfortunately we didn't travel as there were no steam trains about at the time we were there.  Some nice carriages here with an old and very old blend.