Saturday 28th - Bubble car

That's more like it. After the relatively quiet Thursday, we had a good number in today with 24 attending.

[Photo : Alex]  It was a busy day with various bits of shunting to be done, which included the weed spraying wagon and BR Vanfit 755964 which has been repainted in BR Bauxite at Toddington by the  Wednesday wagon group. The van has been brought down to have a new roof canvas fitted.

Ian and Alex in discussion. Getting that 03 number sorted out will eventually be done - it's in the very lengthy list of things to do.

It was also Jenny's birthday. I tried to capture one of her lovely smiles, but she hid behind the new mop that Paul W. had bought her. She did however bring in some lovely treats for us to enjoy during the day.  Happy Birthday Jenny !

Simon ask me to help him lift the very large piece of heavy duty plyboard on to the trestles in the Woodwork shop. This is going to be a new worktop for the Upholstery workshop.

Maurice has also been doing some woodworking lately. The rebates ......... 

........... and sawn planks are necessary to complete the walls of the Mink D van, the remaining top spaces requiring the modifications.

The Bubblecar slowly approaches and stops in the station. It looked well filled.

We had the first of this year's Behind the Scenes tours. This was the Carriage & Wagon version. Dave H. and I share the tour guiding, with me taking on this one. We always start with Upholstery and hand over to Laura who gives an excellent description of their work. Upholstery is always of high interest and often quite a surprise to our tour members. Tours are usually about an hour to fit in with the trains. It's never enough time, but the tour members always seem to enjoy their day and we get some very nice feedback. The next one in April is the all-railway version which includes the loco and diesel sheds, a signalbox, and of course us. The cost includes all travel on the line, a talk about the Railway, lunch and tea.

While Laura was looking after the tour members, a chance to capture Peter, Jane and Carol busy making the curtains for SO 4798. These will blend in very well with the Snapdragon moquette, red carpet and lovely wood interior.

Returning later in the day Simon was finishing off the new worktop. He had attached a wood surround and was carefully planing it to create a nice curved edge.

Peter and Jane had finished for the day, leaving Carol and Laura busy with more curtain preparation.

Phil and Paul watch the Bubblecar returning north. The tour members were onboard presumably returning to Toddington for lunch.

On now to progress with SO 4798. Jeff took on the window undercoating on the Cotswold side.

Graham continued the overfilling on the Malvern side, bringing the surface back up where dips in the bodyside showed.

Further along on this side, George sanded more secondary filler. It's all hand sanding now.

Bob flattened the filler I had put on the north end earlier on. I had also cleaned up under the roof edge and alongside the top of the connection, and then coated the area with Red Oxide. This had now dried and Bob was able to fill the large gap between the metal panelling and the hardwood supports.

The next job, a coat of undercoat Light Grey. We would normally put on the Dark Grey, but with the amount of tidying up so far required, it was thought better to rely on the standard base coat which would better show up where further filling was needed.

Saying all that, Graham found areas on the undercoated Cotswold side where he thought more filler should be applied.

It was a different world inside for Ian who was carefully inserting the eyescrews ready for hanging the curtains.

In the Workshop James was cleaning up the bottom section of another door from BSK 35308.

With the old filler removed he was able to see exactly where to cut off the corroded metal.

Next job - cut out the required section of new sheet metal with the plasma cutter.

Returning later, James has tacked on the new piece. 

Jenny stops by for a chat with James, who by now is in the process of folding the metal over the door base.

The next job is to complete the weld.

The new bottom section has been clamped in place.

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With shunting over Alex has a chance to signwrite the new direction board for Toddington.

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Both Robert and I had expressed a desire to have a ride in the Bubblecar and hoped to have the opportunity while this current timetable was running.

I joined Jenny and Robert on Platform 2 not long before it arrived. This was the last run of the day to Broadway, terminating at Toddington.

It was driven by Steve and Jenny's husband Andy was second man. Jenny was catching the train so as to end up at Toddington where their car was parked.

It was a treat to ride on it again. I couldn't remember when I last did this, just that it was a long time ago.

It didn't sway as much as it used to.

All the re-covered seats in Bournemouth Blue done by our Upholstery team.

The pigeon basket at Toddington. Not real ones of course!

Having got off at Toddington, we watched it go by with waves from Andy and Steve. By now it had gone really chilly so we were glad to wait in the Diesel Dept mess hut until Andy was able to join us. Andy and Jenny then kindly drove Robert and I back to the Works, where we joined the others having the final cup of tea.

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[Photo : Alex]  We were all trying to remember when we repainted the Bubble car and reupholstered the seating in Bournemouth Blue. Was it 3 years ago or even longer? A quick browse through the Blog archives soon provided the answer.  The photo of the almost completed car was published in the posting for 28th June 2022. So it's 4 years!