Saturday 10th - A full house

With 28 attending we certainly had a full house today. 

Shutdown is now well up and running, so there was a lot of shunting going on to enable coaches in need of attention to be made more available.

John and Jeff in discussion as coaches from Rake 2 are propelled out on to the main line.

Still on the jacks is SO 4798 with the bogies pushed out. The steam heating pipework replacements have been completed and on Wednesday the coach will be moved onto the Barn through road. It will then be available again for the bodyside prep to continue. 4798 will eventually be returned to the Workshop. 

Alan did repairs to another of the doorways on BSK 35308. This coach seems to have had more than its fair share of this problem.

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At the south end of the Paintshop Paul undercoats more parts from the Mink D van.

Inevitably there will be planks .......

........  being cut by Robert and Chris, ........

........... and being primed and painted by Maurice and Paul.

[Photo : Paul E]  Maurice undercoats more parts from the brake mechanism.

In Upholstery Peter, with his knowledge of sewing machines, has proved to be a very useful member of the team. Here he is making another repair, a somewhat tricky one needing nimble fingers and a lot of patience. In the photo below, the tiny black dot just to the left of the lamp is an incredibly small screw!

New member Carol is happy machining another piece of moquette.

That Mess Room floor has just been washed. Paul begins making the afternoon tea.

And now inevitably it's on to progress with RMB 1876. This has to be one of the most complex refurbishments I have ever been involved with, with so many things all taking place at the same time and making work allocation for the Painting and Prep team very complicated to say the least. It can be a struggle at times, especially when an individual's skills have to be considered as well. In the ideal world, of course, all the rebuilding would be done first with the prep, painting and varnishing being done afterwards. In reality we are up against deadlines with the need to get coaches in, sorted, and back out as soon as feasible, so it has to be a very broad ranging activity. 1876 has to be ready for the new season, with the rebuild of SO 4798 into pseudo first class rapidly following on.

The following photos are of some of the work that took place on 1876 and are in time sequence over the course of the day. There was a lot more I wasn't able to capture.

Alex's main aim for the day was to get the first coat of varnish on the Cotswold side of 1876. Before that a rub over with scotch bright pads is essential to key the top coat.

On the Malvern side Robert, later joined by Chris, was rebuilding the central door back.

With Chris and Robert in the background, Phil was keying the top coat on this side with scotch bright pads. Following the keying the bodyside is carefully wiped over with tac cloths.

Richard had started his day undercoating the parts of the ceiling in the south compartment that David had been repairing on Tuesday. He then sanded down and cleaned up the edges and outer face of the south connection sliding door. 

The south vestibule still has some rebuilding to be done, but Bob was keen to get done what could be varnished. Existing varnished panels needed a good keying, while the new veneer just needed a light sand.

Alex was now well into varnishing the Cotswold side. He hoped to be able to get as far as the north door frame, and then do that door and the end section when Simon, who was using the door for access, had finished for the day.

With SO 4798 still not available I was concerned about what I could give George to do as available jobs on 1876 were by now very limited. He has done some good prep work on 4798, so it would be good when he could return to that. In the end I put him on the Malvern side of the north corridor connection which needed further attention.

Jeff was happy to do his favourite job on the Malvern side manufacturer's plate.

The Malvern side central door back now looks to be complete, just requiring a coat of varnish. The base has already had two coats.

A busy scene in the Workshop with Andy, John, James, and even Paul lending a hand. The object of attention was a new main pipe for the passcomm system. The existing one in the foreground no longer fitted.

With the large die in place, Andy uses an appropriately large spanner to turn it and cut the thread at the base of the pipe. The top thread had already been done.

In the Woodwork shop Simon is preparing a new access door for one of the new toilet compartment walls at the north end of 1876.

The partially cut out recess for the door catch.

The next job with the new passcomm pipe was to achieve the correct shape using the very powerful pipe bender. James uses the large spirit level to ensure the pipe remains parallel to the ground and

the bends are correctly in line.

John rapidly pumps the handle to force the bend.

With the various bits of sanding completed Bob is now well on with the ceiling top coating.

With Paul assisting John checked the pipe fitting. Does it need more adjusting?

Phil had now moved on to the south end doorway on the Malvern side, top coating the extra part of the frame that I had undercoated on Thursday.

Bob was by now varnishing the walls of the south vestibule.

Jeff was adding filler to the base of the new board in the servery, as requested by Richard II. He also added filler where required to the end wall - we had intended leaving this but in the end decided it would make a better job if done. I finished off the job by completing the sanding, and then undercoating the main board and patch painting the rest.

Back to the north end where James is setting up the top nut ready for the new pipe.

Now to fit the pipe.

All looks to be good with Andy tightening up the bottom nut.

Inside the connection passageway Simon is fitting the new access door.

Towards the end of the day with the barriers in place. Alex was able to complete the first coat of varnish on the Cotswold side. The second is planned for next Saturday. In the distance Paul completes his current job priming yet more planks.