Monday 2th - Double "A" Team

 Regular readers will know carriage cleaning is a very routine operation. Very occasionally a minor change. This week it was totally different and caught us all out by surprise.

We knew the weed killing train was due, so one rake in platform 2 to be expected. First surprise - it was rake 2.

Later the weed train came through, which I missed with the camera. Second surprise - it was the contractors mini gear, not our new wagon.

But still routine enough so I took a photo through the bridge and of the garden, 'cause it all looked nice.

Round to P2. The trains had been drawn down so that carriage "A" could have the Cotswold side washed. There I found Peter, David, Tim and Chris at work. 

Then I saw the problem.

It was also on the cream, but clearly on the crimson you can see it was black on the left. After an hour and a half on this side alone we called it a day for this side of the train. The result was not satisfactory so we will have to give it some thought. I used a scouring pad on the windows which did work. With the short platforms washing this side is always a problem, and for various reasons it affects rake 2 more than carriage "A" on rake 1. When I could check my notes later I found this was last washed on 27th October last year - 26 weeks ago! No wonder it was dirty. Rumours abound that platform lengthening is going to happen sometime - would certainly help with this problem. 

Third - and biggest - surprise was rake 1 returned to P1!

So our day to concentrate on rake 2 didn't happen. It was all hands to rake 1. After an Afternoon Tea yesterday in rake 1, with crumbly scones, it needed a lot of TLC.

As you can see this was at the end of tea-break, so rake 2 was left (it had been cleaned inside, but washing was abandoned) so that rake 1 could be serviced. I scoured the windows in "A" whilst Chris, Peter and Tim gave it a wash. This last had a wash on 8th December. But since it is a faded maroon coach due for withdrawal when FO 4968 is ready, you couldn't really tell if it was dirty or not!

The rest of this side of rake 1 was then washed. Tim happy to soldier on as others drifted away.

The rest of the team today was Greg, Jane, John M, John S, Kath, Lynn, Nigel, Roger C, Steve and Val.

A very different week!