Weds 12th / Thurs 13th - Horribly hot

Well done to the Wednesdays for continuing as they did. On Thursday with the temperature eventually hitting 36C (my car while parked registered 37C), there were just 7 of us in, dropping to just 3 by mid afternoon.

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Wednesday

Thank you Gerry for the photos.

Beginning with Jim measuring up for the door corner joints on the Mink D van.

All remaining photos are of the activities on TSO 4867.

Ken and Simon discussing the fitting of wood battens for fixing radiator covers.

Simon is removing material with respect to the widening of the south end doorways in preparation for wheelchair access.

Bob and Bryan preparing one of the Cotswold side windows ready for removal.

Now outside on the scaffold, the extent of the corrosion under the windowframe corner can be clearly seen. The screw locations in the windowframe have been cleared of paint and filler.

The centre window has been removed, with the far one being prepared. Note the paint cleared away under the nearby window to check for suspected corrosion.

[I will take some photos of the bad areas on Saturday - Dave C]

Ken begins working on the north end connection.

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Thursday

Sorry, no photos were taken. As previously stated there were just seven of us in, and by mid afternoon just 3..

With the day's trains cancelled because of the excessive heat, the opportunity was taken to bring RBr 1675 down from Toddington to have a new system installed to enable more reliable use of the card machine. While in the yard Roger, Alan and Jeff did a number of small jobs on board.

Derek did some further work on the repairs to the Shark Ballast plough.

Roger and I, with our PASMA hats on, dismantled the remaining large tower in the Barn and transported it to the Workshop, where it was rebuilt next to the Mink D van ready for Saturday's reroofing. The tower originally in place is now being used for window removal on TSO 4867.

The reason I had come in (all the other members of the Painting team were staying away and I don't blame them) was to see a demonstration of some better sanding equipment. In effect this ended up being resheduled to next Thursday. However I did have a grand bin emptying session throughout the Works and a general tidy up in the Paintshop. After that a bit of sanding and filling, done somewhat halfheartedly to say the least! Even the Paintshop, which can remain cooler because of the insulation, was becoming unpleasant. The Barn was like a greenhouse.

We left not long after 3.

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And finally: -

Some more goodies on Wednesday's eclipse from the astronomer Wayne Young.

Taken through Wayne's large telescope, the image shows the texture of the surface of the sun,  sunspots, and if studied carefully the terrain on the Moon along the silhouetted edge.

The above is a graph of the temperature on Minchinhampton Common taken during the eclipse showing both sun and shade readings.

Finally a time lapse video made through the large telescope of the whole eclipse.

Thank you Wayne for allowing all this to be published.