Tuesday 14th - Happy to help

Over the years our Woodwork shop has done a lot for other parts of the Railway and once again we have been asked for help.

Chris and Robert had a busy day creating all the planking needed for two new seats at Toddington to replace two that were beyond repair.

The cedar planks, having been put through the Wadkin saw to provides the required widths, were then sent through the planer-thicknesser to make them completely smooth.

They were then rounded off according to type and made ready for collection.

While in the Woodwork shop, a photo showing Simon's progress with the new kitchen unit for the GW Inspection saloon.

James' recently repaired door from BSK 35308 ready for reconstruction. 

With respect to the comment in the Saturday post, 35308 will be the brake coach for what could be a mini rake of up to four blue and grey coaches. This is only what I have heard. I don't know whether any decisions have yet been made as to which other coaches will be involved. As with 35308 all the initial repair work will have to fit in with our existing priorities.

A rather bleak outlook after the sunny weekend. The ballast train sits in the headshunt.

Dave continues his tidying up work on FO 3127.

Even with three of our Tuesday regulars away, we still had a good number in today.

[Photo : Paul E]  Rose appeared showing her green finger skills once again. Actually the flower didn't didn't have a nice smell, but attractive nevertheless and the pot now sits on our Mess Room windowsill. Thank you Rose ☺

She has made a lovely display below Bob Mac's memorial plaque. It's over a year now since we lost Bob.

As previously mentioned, the top planks for the Mink D van are quite a challenge to make fit. Chris provides some advice and help with the latest plank when being matched with the old one.

The work is now well underway.

[Photo : Paul E]  Maurice is catching up with the nuts and bolts painting.

For the Painting and Prep team it was another major effort on SO 4798. David begins undercoating the south end.

Phil made a start on cream undercoating the north end of the Malvern side.

With respect to completing the second coating of the Cotswold side of the roof, it turns out that it hadn't been finished as I originally thought. Ainsley soon remedied this and then took the scaffold round to the Malvern side to begin the second coat on that.

Phil now well into his undercoating. It's a treat when the colour begins to go on.

Keith lightly sands and then adds a second undercoat to the repaired cover for the Cotswold side battery box.

Derek has found some planks of suitable thickness to replace the badly worn top and bottom ones on the Malvern side battery box cover.

The Dark Grey undercoat continues to expand and now covers part of the connection interior. It's all beginning to look so much better.

Ainsley is also progressing well along the Malvern side of the roof.

Keith coats the Cotswold side sole bar on Gloss Black.

Almost done and looking so much better.

Job done! On Thursday the scaffold will be brought round to the end to finish off the roof and upper pipework, and above the connection.

Earlier in the day I sealed above the new section of gutter with fibre paste and underneath with paintable sealant. The line and vertical demarcation tapes were then put on to enable me to undercoat the gutter section on this part of the coach and David to complete his undercoating on the end.

Nice to see the Bubblecar out again. It does look a treat and very pleasant to travel in, as reported in the post for Saturday 28th March.

It should have be "Betton Grange" on Train 1 today but it failed and was replaced by 37215.