Tuesday 21st - A " nice to have" job done at last
It was a typical Tuesday with a typical Tuesday attendance, but at times with the noise going on it felt like many more were in. A very enjoyable day though with a lot achieved.
Beginning with the Mogo, the doors had been removed on Saturday after their trial fitting and primed. Today it was undercoating in dark grey with Maurice doing a great job. On Thursday it is planned to top coat the outer faces and edges in GW Grey ready for refitting on Saturday.
Returning later to find one of the frames now with the cut ply ready to be attached. Robert makes some final checks before proceeding.
On to the Mogo itself with Maurice now undercoating more of the main frame.
[Photo : Paul E.] The wide variety of fittings, cleaned up and gradually being primed with red oxide or green primer, and then undercoated.
[Photo : Paul E.] Progress with more and more gradually being undercoated.
Derek continues the preparation of yet another edge section for the floor in RBr 1675.
David is well into making the second new battery box for 1675.
Much of the noise was in the Paintshop as the lengthy sanding down of FK 13326 continues, with Richard above and Dave below, the latter working on one of the areas where the paint had peeled away following the intensely cold weather in January. Bob was also busy cleaning up the sides of the roof with a paint chipper.
Alex had tasked Pam with quite a different job today, applying the internal transfers to CK 16221. And being Pam, there were no shortcuts. Everything was measured and applied as accurately as possible.
Another task set by Ian, our HOD, is to ensure the guards compartments in the four brake coaches have four scotches, freshly painted and with the relevant coach number applied. When I checked the coaches it was no surprise to find that most scotches had "walked". 34929 being the last one refurbished still had three, but our Woodwork team created 16 new ones anyway (the spares can be added to the pile in the Barn). Pam had primed them on Saturday and now Keith was able to apply the white undercoat, which dried relatively quickly so that by the end of the day all were in yellow top coat and ready for numbering.
During the afternoon I completed two more outstanding jobs. A ceiling repair in the south vestibule of SK 25451 was top coated and the table from TSO 4763 that had been repaired by Robert was put back in the south compartment.The Indoor Gang had done a great job last Thursday and reinstated all the other loose tables and seat cushions in 4763, so this coach is now ready for service and will probably be rejoining the Maroon set again.
And now an outstanding job in the "nice to have" bracket that we have been very much looking forward to getting done. When Ian arrived and asked what there was to do, I was going to suggest he joined in with the sanding on 13329. Then the new entrance hall signs suddenly sprang to mind and, as I was also free, we had the opportunity at last to get these put up.
I had already obtained a quantity of large picture brackets, so Ian set to, carefully measured the centre points on each of the four sides and secured the brackets. A number of attachments were already in place on the entrance hall walls where we wanted to put up the new signs. Most of these were removed and new homes have been identified for them - another job for another day. We managed to get four of the six signs installed before Ian had to leave early with other commitments. I had also forgotten we had six, not five signs, so have ordered more brackets. The final two signs will be put up next Tuesday.
I thought they might be a bit overpowering as they are large and going into a relatively small area, but this turns out not to be the case and we all thought that the results so far look pretty good. Pity about the fire alarm wire ascending just there, but there was no way we were going to interfere with that!
The Woodwork team who made the signs and Pam with her signwriting can feel very proud of their efforts. And not forgetting Alex, of course, who generated the templates for the lettering. Next Tuesday Ian and I will mount the final two - the one above the Upholstery shop entrance, the other directing visitors upstairs to Upholstery.
The major sanding effort on 13329 is generating a lot of dust so we are vacuuming the Paintshop floor at the end of each day.
The End Of Day Tea Club included Paul and Maurice today. After a busy day it's nice to have a relaxing cup of tea and a bit of cake or a biscuit before wending our way home, both Robert and Pam with long drives ahead of them. Besides his usual Tuesday/Saturday attendance, Robert said he might also do Thursday this week. Pam will be missing next Saturday as she will be attending the Friends of Toddington Station annual get-together.
