Meet The Teams - The Blogging Team

When Alex set up the new Carriage & Wagon blog in early September 2020, he not only gave it a very fresh look, but planned to cover as much of our work as possible and so set up a team to cover our working week. 

Occasionally days are swapped and even missed when attendances vary, but in the main the coverage is as follows: -

Monday - Roger - Cleaning

Tuesday - Dave - The Works

Wednesday - Nick - The Works

Thursday - Dave - The Works

Friday - Graham - Maintenance

Saturday - Alex - The Works

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Alex 

Blog Master and a member of the Painting and Preparation team

I've been interested in steam era railways as long as I can remember, with early memories of trips on the SVR with my Grandparents, along with playing lock-keeper at Compton Lock at the bottom of their garden during summer holidays!

When I started my Duke of Edinburgh award I needed some volunteering, and that seemed like the perfect excuse to get involved in the GWSR. Initially I dragged Dad along too to satisfy the rules at the time, I've been here ever since 2013 and have got more and more involved as over the following years. In addition to the painting and prep stuff, I introduced sign-writing into the department having watched a few youtube videos and thinking I might be able to have a go. As time has gone by I've had requests from other departments and have even started making my own suggestions to make small improvements around the railway. In 2020 when Peter had to step down I started this new blog for the department and set up all the various extra pages, the wagons list being a particular labour of love! In addition I've also been a TTI since 2015 and guard since 2021, and I'm also that department's roster clerk. On top of that I also do a few bits on the steam gala committee, so not much really...

In the "real world" I'm studying an Meng in Civil Engineering at UWE Bristol. When I'm not busy with that or at the railway (a rare occasion indeed) I'm making slow progress on my pre-grouping North Staffordshire Railway layout set at Stone in the Edwardian era. Lining out and signwriting in OO scale definitely requires a magnifying glass!

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Nick 

Blog contributor and in charge of the Metalwork team 

My first recollection of rail travel would be about 1954-5, at that time living very close to Yardley Wood (Birmingham) Station. Mother would take us into ‘Brum’ shopping on the train into Moor Street Station, where the traverser fascinated me.

When making a living beckoned, I was lucky enough to be in a large vehicle garage with a fleet of over 300 vehicles. It was here I became acquainted with Bedford trucks, ERF prime movers, Gardner and Cummins diesel engines, David Brown and Fuller transmissions. Sadly the company was closed down in 1977.

 

With two very young children, I had to get work and as a result I spent 37 years working on a fleet of refuse vehicles, tankers, tippers and a variety of plant and smaller vehicles including industrial grounds maintenance machinery. Due to a German system we used, it was necessary to become a coded welder to repair broken lifting hooks.

 

Fast Forward to retirement,and coming to live in Broadway. A volunteer fair on the GWSR was happening, so I went for a look and was asked did I have any skills? So here I am after six years working with a great team on ‘The Friendly’ Railway.

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Graham 

Blog contributor and a member of the Friday Maintenance team

My interest in railways started when I was very small and my grandparents dangled me over the fence at the back of their house to watch the trains going in and out of Coventry, so I could see some steam before it all disappeared. I remember seeing the odd black five, Britannia, and 9F amongst the class 25, 37, and 31 diesels. I also remember the change as rail blue came in, and I could never understand why the coaches weren't maroon when we went on holidays to the south coast.

 

I joined the Railway in 2013 in the shop as that was where there were shortages at the time. In that role I am now the shop roster clerk and "book buyer" but I'm waiting to find out what that actually means.

 

I got involved with C&W Maintenance on Fridays about 24 months ago, when an appeal went out and I had all Fridays free, but full time working again is making that harder. As such I am struggling to blog much about it beyond initial posts. It is very repetitive. Better call me a very part time C&W blogger!

 

I also help with irregular 76077 work parties at Toddy or Loughborough, so I am also an occasional member of the Steam Department, and with regular 71000 work parties at Tyesley, or did until Covid made a mess of things - hopefully to be resumed.

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Roger 

Blog contributor and a member of the Monday Cleaning Team

My earliest train memories are visiting an aunt in Brighton from home near Nottingham. At that time the route to London was via Old Dalby, not a name to forget! It’s now a test track. But the real surprise (this is very early fifties) was seeing the electric Brighton Belle. Another planet!

Trainspotting included a visit to a Derby Open Day in 1959, where D1 to D10 were on show, from complete to a kit of parts. Diesels were the shiny new future….

Work was in sales in various forms. During my time on the road I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Kennet & Avon restoration and view the progress. That led to canal boating for 20 years. 

We came across the GWSR by accident in 2005, canals now being a few years behind us. That led to a work party at Broadway Station in 2007, which led to me joining Lineside Clearance later that year. One thing led to another – so being a technical disaster (I was banned from the school metalwork shop as being unsafe) I have included RCS, Commercial department, Trust Director, Cross Board Director (briefly!), Trust webmaster and Volunteer newsletter editor in the past. Carriage Cleaning my wife and I joined in 2010 and this is our main on-site activity now, the other roles having had to give in to advancing years! One chair-bound role I took up recently was Document Controller.

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 Dave 

Assistant Blog Master and in charge of the Painting and Preparation team

I have loved railways from a very young age having spent my first 8 years living in Egham, Surrey with the Waterloo - Reading (South) line at the bottom of the garden. We often travelled to Cheltenham to see my maternal Grandparents, always by train, and even to Cornwall on the Cornish Riviera Express to my other Grandparents in St Agnes. I remember looking out of the window and seeing two engines pulling us - very likely this was on the Devon banks. Getting off at Truro, we caught the branch train to St Agnes where my Auntie met us with her car. Moving to Cheltenham in about 1956, the school I attended was not far from the Honeybourne Line and going to the Alstone Baths for swimming lessons, it was not uncommon to see a goods train crossing the long embankment and bridges, collectively known as High Street Bank. 

It wasn't until summer 1961 that my grammar school friends introduced me to train spotting. Most of them had started in the late 50s well before some of the classes had disappeared and I so wished I had done the same. Over the next 3 years I was completely immersed in it, with regular visits to a friend who lived by Lansdown Station, as well as joining many other trainspotters at Lansdown Junction, Cloddymore Bridge near my home, and the lengthy cutting at Hatherley. There were occasional day trips to Gloucester and Bristol Temple Meads, while in 1962 two friends and myself had a trip to visit the London stations, and memories of Duchess Pacifics roaring through Willesden Junction will forever be with me. In summer 1963 I had an excellent two week camping holiday in North Wales where we were able to buy runabout tickets for the period, and did we use them! I was also able to enjoy a good number of shed trips with the Glos Railfans Club and organised by my school. These were a wonder in themselves, but they showed all too clearly the sad rundown of steam and on looking back it is no wonder that it took a dedicated mind to want to go on working in such conditions.

In early 1965 it all came to an end with girlfriends and O Levels taking precedence, and over the following few years I hardly travelled on the railways and so missed the end of steam. With my home not far from the railway, I remember waking one night in January 1966 to hear a steam train and thinking then that I hadn't heard one for a long time. It must have been one of the very last ones to pass through Cheltenham.

In 1970 while in the storeroom at home, I re-discovered the two boxes of my railway stuff - the magazines, books, photos, tickets, my precious ABCs recording everything I had seen, and even some of my actual lists of numbers from the shed trips. I soon became completely hooked again and I have never looked back. Now, 50 years later, much of my bungalow is like a combined art gallery and library with railway paintings everywhere, book cases crammed with mainly railway books, and a cupboard full of railway videos and dvds.

Although I visited the GWSR right from the earliest days when it was Cadbury No. 1, one coach, and half a mile of track, it wasn't until around about 2005 that I became a member. Then with partial retirement looming I became a volunteer in November 2007. What brought me to C&W is the lovely setting of Winchcombe station and yard, with the glorious view of the Cotswold Hills escarpment. I was also told beforehand that C&W is a nice friendly place to be a volunteer and how right they were.

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Thursday 19th - A visitor and a visit

 It was a productive day today, although on my first walk through the works to take some pictures you wouldn't have thought so, sometimes even I wonder if we ever leave our seats between trains!

But we did soon enough get to work. Paul and Dennis had the unenviable job of cleaning toilets in what I guess is now the third rake:

So on the whole I think regular breaks to watch trains are well deserved there!

Dave was having a tidy-up day in the workshop as we realised we'd gotten out of the habit of sweeping/vacuuming with all the various lockdowns, and it was getting inch thick in places:

Although after all the dust was gone, what did he do except go and make a whole load more...

With more bits of trim from 24006. In the coach itself, Robert was in a dismantling mood so more bits came off:

While Bob was doing a spot of ceiling painting in the first 4 compartments:

Back in the workshop, I think Phil is on gasket production again here, but later on he was assisting Paul and Dennis with toilet seats in the third rake:

Kevin was keeping us all on the straight and narrow keeping everything in order, here in the power tool cupboard:

Up on the mezzanine Richard was wiring up a junction box for the back of one of the carriage battery boxes:

I'm not entirely sure exactly where it was destined, but here's what the back of those battery boxes looks like, I didn't know there was all that stuck on the back!

Paul and Richard were in yesterday and the GWR Mink A is progressing well, with the boards on the Malvern side mostly done, and the ends slowly rising from the frames too:

Also from Wednesday, Derek had spent the day cutting the tricky shape in wood to match the curve of the carriage on the left, not easy but he did a good job, that bit is what a lot of other bits are reliant upon so got to get it right:

The second of the woodwork machinery training courses was running today as well, so the rest of our team are now passed as able to use all our equipment again for another 3(?) years:

Progress on 34929 was again focused on doors from the painting and prep perspective; Bob and Jeff both took up the sandpaper:

While I got the paint out, initially top-coating the Cotswold side double doors, then undercoating the malvern side ones once Jeff had finished and painted the edges:

Robert also stayed on after the training course was finished to do some more work on capping strips, here he's got the file out to make a few adjustments:

We were delighted to welcome Ron back for a visit, until he moved to Sussex a regular member of the indoor gang and also a guards inspector:

He was very impressed with all the changes since he left, and it was great to have a catch up.

Finally I thought I'd sneak in a few pics from my short holiday to South Devon where, it will surprise absolutely no one, I found a railway or two to visit...

First up was the South Devon Railway, where we had GWR pannier 1369 in charge:

It's the epitome of a GWR branchline, hugging the river Dart for much of its route:

I was quite taken with the moquette in the Mk1 we travelled in, I think it's actually a GWR design but looked rather smart nonetheless:

Sadly they were still operating under Covid working so there was no chance to get on or off at their intermediate station, Staverton, and it was just the one engine in steam rather than the more usual 2 for the time of year. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to come again!

The second visit was to the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway. We had 5526, on loan from the SDR, on the journey to Kingswear, and she put in an excellent performance over their steep gradients:

On the way back we had the big S160 2253 'Omaha', in a rather fetching red livery, here posing by the impressive overall roof at Kingswear:

On the way bakc we passed 5526 at Churston, again they were operating under Covid working so intermediate station stops were not allowed which was a shame, as it looked like a nice station:

It was also nice to see BR Std 4mt 75014 'Braveheart' in light steam when we got back to Paignton, whether it was having a steam test or is ready and waiting as a thunderbird in case of failure I don't know:

Tuesday 17th - Busy inside and out

Just a small group of the regular Tuesday attendees in today, but boosted by three members of the Dirty Gang in relation to the external activities.

Beginning today with Keith undercoating the new cupboard for our Mansafe wire harnesses. The cupboard will reside in the Paintshop and will be a better place to store the harnesses that simply hung on a hook in our changing room.

Some good progress with BSK 34929 today. Maurice worked on the Malvern side north end door, initially completing any outstanding sanding.

With that completed, he taped up the edges of the wood back sections for protection.

The demarcation tape on the coach corner was then put on, allowing Maurice to begin the undercoating in Madder. The completed job saw the corner, door, and right hand capping strip undercoated and a lovely sight after being in grey for a long time.

On the Cotswold side Richard was doing the same job on the double doors. By the end of the day, all the grey here had also been covered with Madder undercoat.

The recent bit of welding done at the base of the north end corridor connection was attended to by Keith. Initially some paint repairs to the wooden frame on the right hand side were dealt with, and then the new metal at the base of the two crash pillars was coated in red oxide. This will be black glossed on Thursday. 

While the shunting was going on outside, John took the opportunity to work on the newly refurbished DA valve under the Cotswold side of the coach, tightening up the nuts and bolts, some of which are difficult to get at. Referring back to last Saturday's posting, the vacuum cylinder receiving the new gator was the serviced one reinstated here - the new green gator is very obvious.

Towards the end of the day, with all the shunting over, John, Ian and Tony retested the brake system with the vacuum pump. 

The shunting went on for a lot of the day and was done to cater for several aspects. As well as rearranging the location of various vehicles, some of these were brought into the Barn so as to enable the swapping of the bogies. Two of the coaches that have been sold will be static in their new homes and thus can have bogies that would not be suitable for running.

The first of the two bogies from under the BG are wheeled out by Ian and John.

More rearranging with BG 81039 and TSO 5042 now the right side of the Irish boiler coach, which has also been sold. Tony was shunter for the day with Neil, our Operations manager, driving the 03.

 The bogies on the Works through road are now pulled away by the 03.

The latter stages of the day's activities with the rebuilding of the PWay train. Initially the warflat wagon and two of the PWay gang's vans were pulled out of the relevant siding. It was rather nice to see a mini-goods train on the move again.
 

The vehicles were then propelled into the outer siding to collect the PWay mess coach, looking very nice in its new livery. The whole group was then pushed back into the siding used for their train. The warflat wagon was then returned to its original siding. 

RMB 1808, which for quite some time has obscured the view of the PWay mess coach (BG 81049) when we looked across the main line to that side of the yard, has now ended up on the Cotswold side of the yard at the bottom end. The sounds of shunting went on for much of the day, so the above group of photos cover just a part of what was done.

Back to the Works and into Upholstery to find Dave battling with the old scrap moquette on this seat cushion from TSO 5042. The pliers used as such make a good job of moquette removal, leaving just the old staples sticking upright and thus very easy to pull out afterwards.

Retuirning later, Dave is now in the process of trimming and securing new canvas over the cushion.

Back in the Paintshop Alan is giving the latest batch of beading from TK 24006 a final sanding to clean off any remaining marks as much as possible. He then went on to give the whole lot an initial coat of varnish.

Going over to TK 24006, Dave was in the process of adding red oxide to the metal seat rests.

Dave, the joint-owner of 24006, obtained a sample of the original moquette that was possibly used in the coach when it was built in 1951.  The moquette, known as Boomerang (look closely at the shapes in the pattern), was exhibited in a mock-up compartment at the Festival of Britain. It proved to be very popular with the public. The mock-ups which have survived have been subsequently displayed at the NRM.      

The above photograph was taken at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway who have a coach with this moquette and very nice it looks too.