Tuesday 14th - Inevitably 1876

 ..... plus some other things of course.

The happy gathering making the most of the last couple of weeks of regular running before the November break and then the Santa season begins.

Richard, Paul E, Paul W, Jenny, Andy, Keith and Maurice wait for the first train of the day to Cheltenham. On my way back to the Works I passed Phil who was late and happy to miss the photo. Some just did Cheltenham and back, the others the whole round trip taking in Broadway as well.

Robert looks down the platform at the large school party enjoying a WW2 evacuation experience. The school party he was looking after were late turning up. Concerned phone calls were being made, but thankfully they arrived in time for the introduction and safety briefing before the train appeared.

On my way back I captured 3850 with the first train of the day and David enjoying its passing.

A quick catch up on the Upholstery front. Laura and the team are making good progress with stripping the DMU seats from the NYMR.

Now on to RMB 1876. At the north end David sands down some of the green primer to both flatten it and remove any horizontal brush marks.

With the Cotswold side now nicely greyed up, Roger takes care of any secondary filling that is required.

Richard greys up one of the remaining unpainted windows.

Keith, now back from the trip to Cheltenham, undercoats the upper connection supports for the north end of 1876. We'll get these black glossed on Thursday so that Ken can mount them in place on Saturday.

With the door frames and edges largely sorted out on the Cotswold side, we moved over to the Malvern side. Some work has already been done, but two of the frames will need some rebuilding by the Woodwork team. However Pam is making good progress with the centre frame, ensuring all the filler is sanded right down. The door edges still show some top coat so these will need more sanding.

Robert and Chris have been creating new door backing where required. The latest ones on the paint trestles were given another coat of varnish by Keith, while a new half section was dyed ready for varnishing.

Roger is now busy sanding down all the areas he has filled. There was quite a substantial amount so I later took over the job at the south end.

On the Malvern side there is still an area of the old paintwork left to sand down so David took on the job.

Enjoying the fresh air are Paul and Maurice, also back from their trip to Cheltenham. A lot more paint stripping and sanding was done on the Mink D van, unfortunately revealing yet more planking that will probably require replacing.

Keith gave my new gala advisory board another coat of GW Brown. Probably won't get this finished before the Autumn Showcsse gala in just over a week's time, but it will look good when completed.

The "Coffee Pot" gang during the afternoon tea break. There are more here than in the Mess Room!

Another catch up, this time with Rose's efforts with establishing the FOWS greenhouse.

It's now looking very professional and I love the Gertrude Jekyll touch. Maybe time for one of the 5 minute viewer's videos for Gardeners World?