Wednesday 24th - Film crew day

 A very busy day with a number of jobs moving on. A film crew from the University of Gloucester spent a day on the railway, they are doing a promotional film of the railway which will also count as an assignment for their University year 2.

They were very professional, and went to many operations on the railway. A brilliant experience for them and the makings of a great video of our railway.

They were keen to film a welding operation , so I volunteered and had to do as directed ..... a film star in the making?

Meanwhile in 1675, Trevor was making more adjustments to a door which is not being cooperative.

Still with 1675, Chris is cleaning up sections of guttering ready for welding and fitting back on the carriage.

Colin looking surprised working on internal paneling in the saloon.

Welding up many holes in sections of gutter.

A view looking down from the south end of 1675, Dave is busy undercoating the various parts of the doors from the Toddington shunter before re-fitting. If we have anything which needs painting  .... this is the place to leave them with a request note (very important!).

In 1675 saloon, the Upholstery team are measuring windows for curtains.

Ben is assisting the carpenters, trimming a piece of moulding.

Rod doing much of the same ......

Gerry is also cleaning guttering .....

Rex is well on the way with his fantastic build of the battery carrier for 1675.

Not sure what Phil's is doing, but it is to do with 1675 ...... many skills in use.

13326 did not escape attention, Ken is fitting wooden blocks for the corridor connector ......

Ken had previously drilled and tapped the studs for mounting the emergency brake rigging ..... we then braze these studs, on this occasion 7 fixings.

Simon is working on the framework in the North vestibule.

Finally, it is good to have John back with us .... here he is making repairs to a gas locker door .... he does like bench work.

Thanks to Gerry as always for the great photos.

Tuesday 23rd - Another nice day

Another fine and dry day. The cold wind has gone and lunchtime once again had some of our team enjoying the warm sunshine.

Following up a recent enquiry about Pam's long absence (she last attended during February), she has had a bad spell of ill health with a slow recovery. I keep in touch with her and usually phone her every week. Thankfully she now sounds very much back to normal and her old happy, cheerful self, and hopefully she will be returning sometime in May. As she often says, the Railway is her happy place, so it's a shame she has missed so much.

Please come back soon Pam, we need you.

Now on to today's activities.

A busy station scene with Ian and Keith waving to our passing passengers. Our trains had a lot more on them today which is a good sign.

Some of our regular Tuesday team were away today, including Richard who had his RCS hat on and was on the RMB standing in for someone who was unable to attend. Wish we could repaint 1876 which is now looking extremely shabby.

Door 10, the Cotswold side emergency door, on RBr 1675 has been continually problematic and so another strip down of the door frame is required. Robert and Chris work on the metal frame.

Later on Ainsley was busy working on the lock.

With that unwieldy grossly over-engineered trestle (sorry - I hate the thing!) pushed out of the way, Alan worked on the south half of the Malvern side sole bar, initially wire brushing and then applying a coat of red oxide. While being limited with further bodyside painting at the moment, it's good to get these other bits done.

Keith initially painted the cast step and gas bottle box cover, and then moved on to priming the various wood pieces produced by Chris for the Toddington shunter doors.

The electrical connection patresses are next, and once more those excellent plastic pyramids come into their own, enabling both sides of each patress to be undercoated.

Now a "seasoned commuter" regularly coming from Cheltenham by the train, Paul sands the north end of the ply van before applying top coat.

Moving outside to photograph Derek enjoying the good weather while doing more repairs to the Monster Van.

The next section to be repaired.

Walking over to Rake 3 where Dave is working on his coach BCK 21092, making some cosmetic repairs to the bases of the guards door and adjacent entrance to the two first class compartments.

Alan was in today instead of his normal Thursday working. He managed to free up this sticking door droplight on the Malvern side of SK 25341.

A well worthwhile job for me was applying sealant around some of the Malvern side windows on FK 13326. Fresh undercoat cream can now be applied with the paint going up to the glass and as such looking very much neater.

Ian cleaned up a lot of the south end of 13226. This will given a fresh coat of green primer and then dark grey undercoat in preparation for the eventual reinstatement of the corridor connection.

Following a walk up the yard to deposit a load of cardboard in the recycling bins, I decided to walk back through the station. Winchcombe is always a very attractive station and the newly replanted beds are already beginning to look nice.

With time ticking away I have now started the list of monitors on our lobby white board for when the Works is open to visitors during the three days of the Gala. Just a month to go now.

Walking through the station certainly beats walking through the yard!

Monday 22nd - It's Raining. That's Normal Then.

 Arrived to find the washing team Washing In The Rain.

Kath in the distance, talking to Peter and Tim, with Paul in the foreground.

After cleaning both rakes inside and out it was time to head down to the DMU, which will see regular use this year.

Lawrie and "Ghostbuster" Rick

Val - and Roger C dodging the camera again.

Kath.

The only other member besides myself today was Nigel.

It would be nice to have a warm sunny day!!

Saturday 20th - Good, steady progress

Another typical Saturday with plenty of projects moving forward, nothing ground-breaking, but good progress all round. 

Starting with the FK today, Robert is making good progress with the door thresholds, another one now fits.

Now if it doesn't, do you blame the woodworkers or the metal workers? Here the metal needed a little adjusting, James did the honours.

Simon also continued on his mission with the vestibule framing.

I was itching to get some more top coat on so towards the end of the day Dave captured me doing the cream panels. We're leaving the panels either end in undercoat for now whilst door work is ongoing.

Off the coach Dave spent some time cleaning up the corridor connection chequer plates before fitting, many years of grime and caked up stuff flew off with the wire wheel.

The ply van is coming on well, it was a chilly start in the barn but Maurice cracked on with undercoating the last 2 panels on the Malvern side.

While George finished glossing the underframe on the Cotswold side.

Later on continuing with the undercoat Maurice took care of the door frames.

And once it had warmed up a bit, I cracked the gloss open to do the South end and Malvern side.

Over on the jack road Ian's mission today (which he chose to accept) was the drawbar assembly on the spare SK. A bit of a fight to get it out...

But out it came...

Along with the old tailpin, success!

By the end of the day the whole area had been cleaned up, painted, and everything reassembled with a new tail pin, mission complete.

Once again, we felt obliged to watch the trains go by and give everyone a wave.

Train gone, and Paul and Dennis return from their adventures on the third rake.

With the good weather the model railway coach took another step forward as I added the yellow lining on the final large section. Hopefully I can do the black next week.

It was just Laura up in upholstery today, here sewing up some hand bags for the shop.

Glasses cases had also been on the production line.

And finally the RBr. Phil continued the electrical fit out inside.

Ben and Ainsley had a challenging day it has to be said, this door just wasn't behaving itself. In the end the door liner was concluded to be at fault. Annoying, but better to decide now than a couple of months into service.

Gutter work continues, with Alan welding up the many sections into more sensible lengths.

At one point it needed turning round, and the only option by that time as it had grown so long was to take it outside to spin, then take it back in again!