Tuesday 20th - A fond farewell

It's always sad when you have to say goodbye to someone who has been a great friend and supporter of Carriage & Wagon for the past twelve years. Maurice Miles, alias Mo or Mog, joined in 2014 and became a member of the Painting Team. Then when Richard Stone established the Wagon Team he joined that and has been with them ever since. Maurice has now retired but will be receiving his Retired Volunteers Pass (RVP) which gives him free travel on the Railway and allows him to visit the Works and keep in touch with us.

The following photos are just a few of the many taken of him and with his closest friends at the Works.

 My first photo of Maurice (12th March 2015). Those overalls and high viz look soooo clean!

Helping on the C & W stand at the first of the two special weekends welcoming potential new volunteers (21st March 2015)

With Richard and Scouse and the Toad brakevan refurb in 2022.

The Mogo rebuild with Richard, Stu, and Scouse in 2023..

The Mogo rebuild with Alex, Scouse, Andy and Phil.

Nip up the Station for a quick ice cream.

Been up the station again then? With Scouse and Keith.

The MICA rebuild 2024/25

A quiet lunch with Rose (24th July 2026)

The morning tea break with Rose and Scouse (1st August 2026)

[Photo : Paul E - taken today]  Rose, Phil, Paul (Scouse) and Keith in the RBr. The intention was to meet up with Maurice at Cheltenham RC for a complete round trip and a bacon bap. Sadly the very wet day no doubt prevented Maurice from cycling to the station. However there's still time to get another run in before the end of October, and of course there is the final spell of running after Christmas, when it can be a bacon bap followed by a mince pie or two! Now, just what was making Rose and Phil laugh so much?!

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Now on to the day's activities, which I'm afraid is nearly all SK 25451 again as nearly everyone in was a member of the Painting team.

Well, we can't moan about the rain. It is said that we need a lot of days like this just to get water levels back to normal. Looking at the forecast over the next week or so, there are plenty of wet days predicted.

Robert was mainly up at the station looking after another of the visiting school classes enjoying a WWII Evacuation Experience day despite the rain. These are run in conjuction with Cheltenham Museum and are a complete sell out every year.

So it just Chris in the woodshop producing another set of inner window frames (shown below) for TSO 4867. All the shavings ended up in the Paintshop's sawdust bin.

Derek was doing what repairs he could inside the Shark van. Sorry, no photos, but below what we hope it will eventually look like again (22 October 2015). 

Now it's the 25451 show again.

All the flatting down of the undercoat on the sides of SK 25451 is being done by hand, mainly because the painting has been done so well. Phil and Stu begin at the south end of the Cotswold side.

The lower section on the north half of the coach had already been done, but Roger and I did some further flatting to improve it even more.

The underside of the roof at coach ends can easily be missed and then when painted, large flakes of old loose paint can come away. Ian gives the area a good scraping followed by a good brushing with wire brush, and finally a sanding with 80 paper.

This was then followed by a coat of Red Oxide.

Phil moved to the Malvern side to complete the undercoating on the centre door and the remaining window.

Having completed his area for flatting, Roger moved on to cleaning up the north bogie. As was done for SO 4798, the outer faces of the bogies will end up coated with Black MIO.

David painted both connection doors and then moved round to flatting the bottom section on the Malvern side.

With any areas of unsanded filler sanded down, Ian completed all the remaining undercoating at the south end.

A thoroughly wet day does produce some fantastic steam effects, so please excuse my total indulgence with two of the Black 5 restarts from Winchcombe on the northbound runs.

 The above was an early afternoon run, below was the last train of the day.

Many of us will be sorry to see this engine go. An email advertising an extra Fire & Drive day aboard 45110 was issued on Wednesday and I was terribly tempted having done two a long time ago with "Foremarke Hall".