Weds 10th / Thur 11th - Deliveries

Wednesday

Gerry has come up trumps again with another fine set of photos of the day's activities. Of course as he is taking all the photos every Wednesday he doesn't get featured. Gerry - next time you are in on a Thursday I will make sure you are in the photos - Dave C.

We begin with Ainsley working on the removal of the north vestibule floor in RMB 1876. Both the south and central vestibule floors have been replaced, so no surprise that the north one needs replacing too.

On now to the replacement Cotswold side door on BSK 35308. Trevor drills the holes necessary for fitting the hinges.

Later in the day the part prepared door is wheeled out to the Barn.

With Rod looking on, Trevor fits the bodyside hinges.

The door now mounted.

Stu, our Works manager, gives it all a close inspection.

With SO 4798 progressing well, Upholstery are back on the seating for this coach. Laura and Chris are preparing more side panels.

This one is being done by Ceri and Laura.

The pile of prepared side panels steadily grows. The Snapdragon moquette will look superb when the seating has been fully fitted.

Simon is making more fittings for the toilet compartments in 1876.

Also at the north end of 1876 Ken continues the fitting out of the corridor connection and its associated parts.

Finally more progress with the weed spraying wagon. Not sure what Bob is doing but looks like some sort of pipe connection for one of the tanks.

Nick preparing the base for the mixing tank (this was shown on top of the base in a previous Wednesday post).

Nick is welding on securing brackets to hold the tank in place.

I think these are for the removable side pieces. The letters made out in weld correspond to those put on the wagon sides and presumably will ensure the side pieces end up in correct positions.

Bob primes the remaining side pieces.

Rex priming the completed tank base. The main yellow and grey paints for the wagon have been ordered.

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Thursday

A good attendance today after a quieter Thursday last week and the weather was ideal, which was very fortunate with what would be happening during the morning.

First some photos of the two Richards sorting out the position of the equipment and cabling needed to power the new chiller cabinet that will sit in this space.

Richard II with the drawing of the layout displayed on his phone.

Richard I setting up the connection from the servery floor (where holes have been drilled through) to the battery box.

Lining out continues on the Cotswold side of the coach with Martin and Jeff adding the black band to the top and bottom lines respectively.

Ian continues the loosening up of the north vestibule floor.

Creating a ghostly shadow at the north end of SO 4798, Bob top coats the ceiling in the first of the two north end compartments.

We are just finishing our morning tea break when somebody points out that a very large lorry has appeared and is carefully negotiating the side road. 

It turns out to be Railway Support Services delivering the two bogies that we bought from 

Rushden Historic Transport Society, Northamptonshire.

John and Roger propelling the unloaded bogies towards the Barn to provide enough space so that the lorry can move back out.

During the day I gave a lengthy tour to Tim who will be joining the department as a member of the Painting Team. John tells him all about coach bogies and what we intend doing with these new arrivals.

The vacuum pump had been used to check the action of the braking system for FO 3132 "Mary".

Upholstery have recently been receiving fresh supplies. There's something light in that box!

Plenty of precut foam padding and a large roll of soft padding.

The enormous store of seating ready to go into SO 4798.

Tuesday 9th - A good day to be inside

 Definitely a day we were all grateful for our heated workshop facilities with storm Bram raging outside.

Chris and Robert started off the day rebuilding door 1 on the RMB, some adjustments were required to the repaired door liner once the door panels were re-fitted, but all working now.

Later on moving to the window frame in the toilet compartment.

I steadily worked my way along the Cotswold side doing the gold lines, the usual piles of tape at the end.

Inside the servery area, Richard carried on where Dave left off on Saturday with the silver grey painting.

Followed on by Phil doing a bit a bit more work to the floor I think.

Then time for a vac up on the Malvern side.

The Malvern side of 4798 has been rather neglected on the prep side with lots still to do, so today felt like a good day to make a start on catchup, David and Martin got going with the filler and pad sanders.

The Mink D continues to progress well, Paul did a bit more frame painting.

And Maurice primed the other side of the current batch of planks.

Finishing the day finishing off cleaning and painting the vac cylinder we took off on Saturday.

A picture that missed out on Saturday's blog from Paul, Jenny was in FO Mary doing a sterling job continuing the deep clean.

Finally it was great to have a visit from Stu who popped in for morning tea break to say hello to everyone, and also to browse the C&W messroom magazine library!