Tuesday 16th - Variety is the word!

A quieter day with respect to attendance with ten of us in, but the sanders were buzzing well in the Paintshop with the RMB now in residence. Robert escaped most of that, in exchange for the excited voices of schoolchilden with another day of Evacuation Experience well underway.

We have had a reasonable go at the bodysides of RMB 1876 while it was in the Barn, but now it's in the Paintshop we can really concentrate on the job. Ainsley used the small sander to access the gutter panel about the windows.

David having reamed out the rivet line on this section of the Malvern side, now primes the area with red oxide.

Earlier in the day Ainsley had power brushed the whole of the rivet line on the Cotswold side

Back to David who is doing a good job of flatting this part of the Malvern side. Following what was achieved with TSO 5023, we will be doing some aspects of preparation and painting to a far greater degree.

Pam concentrated on door and doorframe edges, working on both of the south end doors. The Malvern side door had already had quite a bit of work done it, with loose wood highlighting the need for some doorframe replacement. Regular readers of the blog will know that I'm very keen to really clean up door edges and frames, and so reduce the risk of doors sticking.

At the north end I assisted Phil with this job, where the four screws were securing something in the toilet compartment. I meant to have a look inside but was distracted by a request to look at another job. I will make amends on Thursday.

Keith undercoats the two vertical connection supports for the north end of 1876. Those plates should be on TSO 5023.

With the promise of good weather I joined Richard in the paint repair work on the Queen Mary brake van. First job for me was to lift the foot mats and have a good sweep up following the door repairs.

While up on the van we spotted a little visitor, probably from the neighbouring housing estate and on a regular mousing run.

The rails were carefully crossed and then puss was into a balancing act along the rail. Our greetings received a brief glance and then ignored as no doubt "we were on a mission".

The crossing was carefully planned to avoid "Foremarke Hall" with Rake 2 on the run into the station.

Besides the paint repairs following the installation of the two new doors, the south end was no longer red and more like pink. Time for a rub down and a fresh coat of paint. The result was a distinct improvement.

One of the steps at the north end was also repaired and repainted. There is a bit more we can do to tidy up the van before it is returned to Toddington, if we get another decent spell of weather of course.

[Photo : Paul E.] Keith touches up some of the MICA vans paintwork where needed. It's amazing what becomes more obvious when a vehicle goes out into the daylight.

Another job I started (but didn't finish) was to paint the four (not two as originally thought) unpainted stanchions on the Macaw wagon. I managed to get two wire brushed, sanded and then primed.