Saturday 22nd - Another busy Saturday

Another busy Saturday with Winter maintenance still very much in progress, but plenty of variety elsewhere.

Starting with Upholstery amid their cries of, "Oh no, not us having our teabreak again!". Actually they work hard so it's nice to see Jenny, John and Laura enjoying some time off. 

In the background is the trial seat from RBr 1675, which I thought on Thursday had been finished. In fact it is just a trial fitting as the red chain-link moquette is now running out, so it's likely that the seats will be covered in another design, probably Bournemouth Blue. The team have said that the seat backs are going to be tricky.

Kevin, our hard working stores man, is busy attaching a pot full of markers to one of the Paintshop whiteboards. Markers are always disappearing so having a definite receptacle attached to each board will be a distinct benefit.

In the Woodwork shop Dave is busy making some safety gates for blocking off coach door entrances where the door has been removed. The open doorway on the Malvern side of CK 16221 has been blocked off with some lengths of timber nailed to the door frame, but these gates will be reusable and better.

 

Further along the shop Simon is in the final stages of building a cupboard for cleaning products that will be fitted within the disabled compartment in BSO 9000. This is another item on the long list of requirements following our late November Condition Survey of all our running coaches.The completed cupboard was later bought into the Paintshop for priming and then painting in Executive Light Grey, the colour used in 9000.

The Mink A van rebuild reached another stage with the initial coat of grey Flexacryl beginning to go on to the roof canvas.

Later in the day Paul adds the first top coat to the initial pair of new doors.

During the day Richard and Paul had also been busy completing the second set of doors, which are now ready for priming.

Over the past few weeks John S. has been busy making spacers for the brake block rigging. These have now been completed and placed in the relevant storage area in the Barn.

 Doing a very different job was Phil, busy making rubber seals for toilet cistern valves.

Problems in RMB 1808 in one of the station rakes. Steve busily saws a bad section of flooring. The repair has now been completed ready for some fresh floor paint on Tuesday.

Following on from the previous posting, it looks as though the underframe repairs have been completed as Nick had asked for RBr 1672 to be lowered back down onto its bogies.

 

The buzz of sanders was back again in the Workshop with a lot of effort going into cleaning up more items from CK 16221. Dave sands down the compartment blind covers.

Robert W. extracts nails from another length of beading prior to cleaning it up.

Later in the day, while Robert moved into 16221, owner Clive carried on with the sanding. All the sanded parts gradually made their way down to the Paintshop trestles for fresh coats of varnish.

Finally on to progress with TSO 5042. Bob was back on the roof painting Flexacryl around the vents where roof leakage can occur.

Then it was back to removing all the loose paint on the side of the roof - the Cotswold side is particularly bad.

Although there was plenty of varnishing to be done, the priority was to get the sides of 5042 sanded down and repaired, so for Pam it was a day spent on the Cotswold side windows, topping up what had already been done and then completing the rest.

 

As mentioned in recent posts, water stained and damage veneer is being replaced wherever possible, and this includes the door backs where bad in 5042. Robert is busy planing, while next to him a new door panel and beading is ready to be used.

Having given the panel base a final sanding, Ainsley applies some wood dye.

Then a trial fit on the Cotswold side centre door.

I spent the day continuing the filler repairs to the north half of the Cotswold side, as well as some pad sanding of the top brown panel and gutter. Still much of the latter to do, but with the lower panel repairs completed it was heartening to patch paint it all with brown undercoat. It will still have a full covering of undercoat of course when we do the rest of this side.

Judging by the dirt on the south end corridor sliding door, it's not hard to guess where 5042 was located in the rake!

Wednesday 19th/Thursday 20th - Feel the pressure

Wow, what a busy couple of days with the pressure mounting to get everything completed in time for the new season. The days and weeks seem to be rushing by.

Beginning with Wednesday, some photos of the ongoing work in the Barn and Upholstery Shop.

(Photo: Nick) A general view of the Barn with RBr 1672 up on the jacks and what looks to be a discussion about the work in hand.

(Photos: Nick) Two shots of Gerry showing the complexities when working underneath an RBr.

(Photo: Nick) Bryan cleaning up some of the metalwork ready for some fresh welding. 

Nick and the team were back in on Thursday as there is a lot to do.

(Photo: Nick) Also in the Barn, John V. continues his frame building for the new oil storage bund. Note the woolly hat - it's freezing in there in the Winter, even with the portable calor gas heaters.

(Photo: Nick) In complete contrast to the cold and noise of the Barn, the quiet and warmth of the Upholstery shop shows as John is on the way to completing the first of the 24 chairs from RBr 1675 in the very popular red chain-link moquette. As always happens these will be finished and in store well before 1675 has been refurbished.

(Photo: Nick) Jenny is working on one of the diesel cab seats. In the background it looks as though John has completed 1675's chair.

Moving on to Thursday, a photo of another of 1675's chairs sanded and re-varnished by David the day before.

It was many hands again on TSO 5042, still in the stages of preparation for its quick repaint, but the progress was very good. Jeff is sanding down the Cotswold side south corner and door area.

Tony was intending to get back to CK 16221, but with the need to get 5042 done, he sanded down the whole of the Malvern side from the centre door to the south end, even going back over the north end to catch any missed bits.

I concentrated on finishing off the filling on the Cotswold side rivet line and other areas requiring filler, especially the rebuild of the base of the north corner. 

Bob K. started on untouched windows, before moving on to the gutter panel and coach ends.

Bob M. initially cleaned up both sides of the roof at the north end before harnessing up for access to the roof top. The roof on the Cotswold side is particularly rough, a lot of it remnants from when BR put bitumen on coach roofs. It can be very difficult to remove.

Richards I and II spent the morning checking all our running coaches to see what was left for fitting LED lights. It was then a check to ensure coaches requiring battery charging were connected to an electrical supply. 5042 was in turn checked - batteries fine but need to seal up that hole in the Malvern side battery box. The lower door bottom edge looks pretty chewed up too, but there isn't time to make a new box, and then paint and fit it.                                                                       

On to CK 16221 with Dave H. continuing with the sanding down of the corridor and vestibule walls. He was later joined by Phil B.

Later in the day Bob S. was making new brackets for 16221's corridor heating covers.

Richard S.was working on the second set of new doors for the Mink A van, helped by David D. He later finished the undercoating on the first set of doors.

A quick breath of fresh air before lunch to capture the view over the station to the Works, south sidings and Cotswold escarpment. It was another beautiful day.

Being very busy with 5042 I wasn't able to get photos of Alan and Roger (Indoor Gang) or Paul, Dennis and Phil S. (3rd Rake Maintenance) working hard with the numerous jobs in both rakes. Apologies chaps.

 The reverse view to the road bridge and embankment repair work in the tunnel cutting.

Tuesday 18th - Back to the good old days

Today was very much back to the pre-34929 days with the mass pad sanders buzzing and the can of filler in frequent use. We were back to the quick repaint schedule with just 6 weeks to go before the new season starts, so we have to get a move on.

The coach is of course TSO 5042 on which work began on Saturday after the big shunt.

As is usual on a Tuesday, Stu and Maurice were not long arriving after I had opened up the Works, got the Workshop heater going, and most important, the kettle boiling for that early cuppa.

With that early cup of tea downed, Stu got going on a general sand down at the north end of the Cotswold side.

 While Maurice was soon harnessed up and removing loose paint at the south end of the roof.

 Richard H. arrived and soon got going on the Malvern side.

The two end vestibules have sliding doors to seal off the compartments, but the centre vestibule is open. An early job for me was to cover the compartment entrances with sheets to prevent sanding dust coating the reupholstered seating. The sliding doors have "Please keep closed" notices mounted on the glass panels.

The busy scene on the Cotswold side a little later on with Alex, Russ, Roger, and Stu working hard.

Roger later moved round to the Malvern side to join Richard and, in the background, Phil. By the end of the day the whole of this side down to and including the centre door had been completed.

 

Keith worked on the north end of 5042, initially removing the broken wooden keep for the buffer extender. The bolts were completely rusted in and new ones will be required - a quick request to the Metalwork gang.

Having had a good clean up of the buffer area, a coating of red oxide will provide a good base for the subsequent coatings. Alan had also now appeared and was sanding the edges of the door and inner edges of the door frame, a very important job as we need to keep the paint layer at a sensible level to ensure proper door opening and closure when the new paint is on.

Keith then moved round to prime the rivet line and other areas where bare metal was showing.

With the red oxide now dry Stu moved in with the filler.

Towards the end of the day at the south end of the Cotswold side, all the rivet line filler had been sanded smooth so Alex carefully patch painted it with brown undercoat. It will all of course be fully undercoated when the repair work has been completed, but it's good to see a clean looking panel again.

It was certainly quite a contrast on both sides and the north end after a good day's efforts. We have a long way to go yet, but it was a great start.

In the Workshop it was the turn of CK 16221 to have more effort on its restoration. Dave sands down the wood side of the north end corridor sliding door.

 Next it was back to the corridor for more sanding of the compartment outer walls.

 The contrast between the sanded and unsanded wall is quite stark.

Cleaned up components for securing battery box doors with a coating of oxide. 

Two of the newly built doors for the Mink A van have been primed.
 

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Before ending this posting a couple of things.

Firstly we were very heartened by the many kind compliments received when photos of BSK 34929 were posted on social media. Thank you from us all at C&W.

Referring back to "2021 Statistics For Carriage & Wagon" and the highest read postings since we started this blog in September 2020. At 1800 on 19th January, when this current post was published, "2021 Round Up" had achieved 889 visits, while "Shunting On Ice" had zoomed past that with 917 visits and was now the second most read posting. Would it still continue to climb? There's something to be said about choosing a good title!