Tuesday 25th - A very satisfying day

It was a cold bright day and thankfully dry as we were expecting a large consignment of planks for the Mink D van.

Thanks to Paul for the extra photos.

It would be hard to get fed up with this view.

Someone called out to say a lorry had arrived outside our main door. Great! The planks are here. Alex was inside the container, with Maurice and Paul getting them off the lorry. After taking the photo, I became piggy in the middle and joined in.

Alex underneath the Mink D, disonnecting the brake mechanism, parts of which ended up being primed.

Maurice and Paul continued the old plank removal at the north end of the van, the usual combination of bolt cutting followed by bang-bang-bang.

[Photo : Paul E].  All the planking at the north end now removed, leaving the doors still to do.

[Photo : Paul E]  Maurice has a good sweep round and tidy up.

[Photo : Paul E]

Near the end of the day Alex restores the trestles and coats the back of the planks in undercoat Dark Grey.  Just to recap, these are planks left over from the MICA van rebuild.

Pam had a large number of items to paint and varnish, almost all of it the latter. The step is the replacement made by Robert for the Cotswold side centre door on RMB 1876. Almost all the remaining items being varnished are for SO 4798. Pam loves varnishing so was in her element with all this to do.

On board 4798 Roger varnishes the new veneer panels under each window.

The remaining window frame needing a second coat of varnish was done by me. After a light sand I  also added a fresh coat of varnish to two of the inter-window wall panels to see how they came out. As expected it was an improvement. If we have the chance it would be good to get more of the existing 

varnish refreshed to bring back the gleam.

With all her trestle work completed Pam moved into the Malvern side toilet compartment in 4798 and began varnishing the veneer. It will need two coats, and if we get the chance a third. The Cotswold side compartment has had two coats - a third would be even better. The ceilings in both need painting.

On to 1876 and starting with David sanding down a small area of the Cotswold side centre doorframe which caused the door to stick when attempting to reopen it. When sufficient was removed the area had some fresh undercoat.

We made great progress today second top coating the window frames on the Cotswold side. While Ainsley did the north end windows, Richard did the south end and then moved round to the Malvern side to do the last one remaining.

Alex worked on the remaining door and corner area at the north end of the Malvern side that was still in undercoat. More filler was actually required so he concentrated on that, before freshly undercoating the lower section. The cream section will be re-undercoated probably on Thursday.

[Photo : Paul E]

David moved inside 1876 and top coated the ceilings in both the south compartment and the servery. He then began undercoating the ceiling in the north compartment.

So, overall a very satisfying day and a feeling of a lot achieved. Time to do a summing up on the whiteboard so that we keep track of where we are with 1876, except that I mistakenly put 2nd top coating for the sides when it should be the 1st. Stupid boy! Still it was the end of a long busy day.

That's quite an array of stuff completed by Pam, which now includes the new back panel for the Cotswold side south door on 1876.

The hooks area with various bits for 4798, 1876, the Mink D van and the Open C wagon.