Wednesday 21st - Glad to be indoors

The title says it all, when is this rain going to stop?

So lets start with a smile, Eve is modelling one of the new shopping bags being created by the upholstery team.

                                              

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Meanwhile in the workshop, the gas axe is removing some redundant brackets to make way for the new battery mounting frame.

Rex is creating the battery mounting frame, it will be tack welded, checked and then fully welded.

With Phil's guidance we are checking whether blanking plates are needed under the original vents in the kitchen of 1675........

We will see and if necessary they can be added later.

The original vents will remain for authenticity. One of them is already used for the modern extractor.

Still with 1675, there is much to do. Simon and Phil are discussing the finer points of panelling.

Underneath Bob is fitting 2 retaining brackets to the generator, this will be followed with discussions about weather protection.

Geoff looks deep in thought with measurements .

Ben is making door lock parts, for a winter maintenance job. I did see him later working with the lathe.

13326, Steve is fixing into position the lower hinge, this door has been quite a challenge ......

He then proceeded to trim the lower panel to the correct height , we leave as much material as possible until we get to this stage.

..... And finally Ken continues in preparing parts for the corridor connectors, he has given us a list of jobs to do, consisting of welding captive nuts in place before wood panelling goes on.

Gerry was way ahead of me with photos as usual, for which we thank him profusely.

Tuesday 20th - Time is getting tight and some sad news.

We had a good attendance today, which included some of our volunteers who don't normally do Tuesdays.

External progress on RBr 1675 with the painting preparation stages now coming on in leaps and bounds. Saturday's efforts concluded with the south end coated in green primer.

For Stu and Ian it was back to building up the skirt line on the Cotswold side. Tony (Alex's Dad) had done a very good job on Saturday, from which today's efforts could improve still further. Initially further sanding, then more top-up filling, more sanding, and finally a fresh coat of green primer. A review on Thursday will decide whether we add yet more filler.

Pam completed the work on the Malvern side emergency door and then filled around the edges of the capping strips. The screw heads were also covered.

Roger worked on the south half of the Malvern side.

He was later joined by Stu and Ian.

Taking a break! It's tiring work being done mainly by hand sanding with the large pads, ideal when trying to bridge the skirt line and better than using the small pad sanders which can easily remove too much of the filler if not careful. 

 Dave working on more of the oak beading for the seating area in 1675.

Much of the interior insulation has now been installed - the Cotswold side of the seating area, .............

................  the Malvern side emergency door, ..................

 ................ and the corridor.

In the Workshop Ken was drilling the holes in the north end of FK 13326 ready for fitting the heavy wood connection back plates.

The connection which Ken has rebuilt and now ready to be reinstated.

 At the south end of 13326 Derek was attaching the floor supports for the vestibule floor.

The Paintshop trestles where so many individual parts are painted. In the foreground, one of the locking bars from the GW/SR van awaiting a top coat of GW Grey, and one of the grab handles from the north end of 1675 which Keith has cleaned up and primed. On the far side a new roof batten for the GW/SR van with dark grey undercoat. Keith is coating the undersides of the compartment door runners with silver Hammerite, while Bob is painting the spare window sliders.

Maurice top coating one of the Cotswold side doors of the GW/SR van.

One door on the Malvern side is too far gone to leave in place. As such on Saturday Alex and Maurice removed it ready for rebuilding.

While looking for photos from ten years ago, I came across one I had taken on 12th July 2014 of the completed GW/SR van when it was initially refurbished. It will be good to see it looking like this again and running in our Gala freight train.

With Winter Shutdown work now entering the final week or so before the new season kicks off on Saturday 2nd March, it's a rush to try and get done as many of the remaining jobs as possible. Richard repaints the ceiling in the south vestibule of BSO 9000.

Roger began his day in CK 16221 "Abigail/Charlotte" working on one of the sets of window sliders and then moved outside to the 2nd Rake to replace one of the footboards.

 Maurice tries one of the re-covered bar chairs for the Cotswold Halt restaurant.

The pile of completed Mk2 seat parts for the FODR continues to grow.

The spendid new bar counter in the Cotswold Halt that has been built by Alan and Chris. Chris holds up the flap ready for the Del Boy moment.

Chris adds the dowels to provide that finishing touch. Over now to the Painting Team to add the varnish and Danish oil.

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We end today with the sad news that another of our former members, Paul Cowburn, has passed away.

When Paul joined us he soon showed how adept he was, one of his first jobs being the repair work to a window in the Discovery Coach when that was being created. Eddie, our former Head of Woodwork soon grabbed him for his team, but eventually Paul joined the Door Team where he became a much valued member. A few years later we were very sad to hear that he was suffering from cancer. He never returned after the pandemic and we have just heard that he recently passed away. His funeral will be at 11 a.m.on 29th February at Vale Crematorium, Evesham.

 Paul working on the very window described above (4th September 2014)

Painting the Discovery Coach ceiling (4th December 2014)

Working with Mike Blakeman (above) and Derrick O'Brien (below), two more who are no longer with us.

Five photos showing Paul with typical day-to-day Door Team jobs. 

As our coaches get older and older, with the result that a lot more of the bodywork is now replaced, the refitting of coach doors has become ever more complex and we could really do with Paul's skills. Although it is now several years since he last worked with us, he is still much missed.

Monday 19th - Best Laid Plans

 When 9 of the Monday Cleaning Team turned up on Thursday 15th, this was the scene to greet us :-

Not a carriage in site! Always a risk, but I think this time there has been extra shunting because of the complete re-arranging of the rakes. Suffice to say a lot of shunting was still taking place, so we abandoned any plans to do cleaning. But it was a pleasant day so good to chat.

Later a few of us went to check our shed at Toddington - the roofing felt put on late last year has done an excellent job, it was all dry in there instead of the damp and musty atmosphere found in previous years at the start of the season.

As there are only 2 more Thursdays before trains start running we have assumed more shunting will be happening and so our next outing will be after the first weekend running.

Thursday 15th - Another very busy Thursday

It was all happening again with this now very busy day in the life of the Works, despite there being a number of our regulars away. The big shunt was continuing but with the end in sight. 

Many thanks to Gerry and Paul for the extra photos.

Paul looks on as our three electricians have a brief meeting at the end of the early morning cuppa and biscuits. I imagine it's about RBr 1675.

 Another consultation between Phil and Richard I inside 1675.

The various electrical conduits are gradually being mounted in the kitchen area.

In the seating area Dave was gradually adding the wall insulation.

On the Cotswold side of the coach Jeff was doing a great job filling the rivets holding the window frames and the edges of the doorway capping strips.

I was back on the scaffold tower at the south end adding more filler under the roof end where the new end panels had been welded on. By the end of the day, all this had been sanded smooth and the whole area, bar the black backplates, coated in green primer.

[Photo : Paul]   Paul captured Jeff and myself during the afternoon.

 Gerry prepares the glass for the final window to be fitted to 1675.

It's been quite a journey, but this is another major job soon to be ticked off.

Today was the final day of the big shunt to rearrange the rakes. This completes Phase 1 of a long term strategy to have all three rakes of (near) identical consist. 

The primary benefits of having this will be the ability to:-

• reduce the Winter Maintenance Schedule as we will be able to rotate/swap rakes out of service for planned maintenance and reactive repairs without having an impact on the advance ticket sales/seat reservations 
• spread wear and tear more evenly across all three rakes  

Phase 2 will be restoring another open coach (TSO 4867) and converting an open coach to First Class (SO 4798). Busy days ahead!

"Ere, where's our train gone?!".  Paul and Dennis decide to enjoy the pleasant day instead.

Earlier in the day Nick came in for a meeting. Prior to this a quick job finishing off the under-roof section of the new end panel.

Eve also came in and worked on another Mk 2 seat back.

Guess this is the remaining batch of Mk 2 seat components to be re-covered.

The current batch in the process of re-covering. A large completed batch ready for collection is stacked on the trolley outside the Upholstery workshop.

Having completed his work on the bogies underneath FK 13337 "Gillian", John tests the vacuum system.

[Photo : Paul]  After taking the photo of John with FK 13337, I must have caught my phone screen awkwardly, which caused all sorts of problems and as such I missed the crucial bit of Alan and Dave refitting the seat base in one of 16221's first class compartments. Thankfully Paul stepped in and captured the moment.

With my phone still in a mess and driving me mad, I was still able to photo Alan refitting the far side panel. And the phone? It took a while, but I eventually sorted it all out.

[Photo : Gerry]  My first job of the day was to undercoat the repair work on the Cotswold side south door and frame on CK 16221 "Abigail/Charlotte". If all is well on Saturday, this will be top coated.

A later job done by Alan was a repair to the south doorframe on the Malvern side of 16221.

The doors on the GW/SR van are in a worse state than originally thought. Further investigation by Maurice is revealing more and more damp wood and the pile on the floor from one of the Malvern side doors is pretty substantial.

The back of the left door on the Cotswold side was prodded for soft spots. When one was found a jab with the screwdriver revealed the underlying damp wood.  It took just a few minutes to produce the above on the lower half of the door.

Well, I think that's a fair summing up ! 😁