Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Carriage & Wagon Dept.

Very much a concerted effort to progress the RBr today, partly due to contractors coming in to lay the floor in the saloon next week, and partly because we want to get it done and out!

Plenty of activity in the saloon, Robert and Chris doing a bit of woodworking on the left

Ian and Tony are fitting more radiator covers.

Further down Simon and Tom were on roof duty with the hardboard along the corridor.

The longitudinal roof strips were the other challenge for today, the gang contemplate the way forward.

Human acro-props was the answer! They got there in the end.

In the serving area Pam got the top coat out on the shelves.

Later in the day Dave was going round filling any holes to stop the levelling compound leaking when the lino is laid. You can also see the door threshold strips were fitted today by Ben who I missed in action, during the week he'd been cleaning them up ready.

Outside saw some activity too with Tony doing the chocolate brown undercoat on the Malvern side.

While in the workshop, Phil was working on some of the covers for the boxes below the solebar.

It wasn't all RBr work though. James was at the North end of the FK, first offering up the door with the hoist before welding in the steel body panel.

It was steel body panels for Alan too on the SO in the barn, around the windows this time.

Alan welded, and John followed on to grind everything smooth.

Progress continues on the Mica, first thing I took the other Malvern side door pillar out, Paul and Maurice de-rusted the metal behind, and de-screwed the internal planks.

The first batch of planks have been stacked away for now and the second batch, for one of the ends, laid out for undercoating by Maurice.

Paul carried on with underframe undercoating. We are fast running out of jobs until the welding repairs can be effected - as seen above there is a lot of welding going on with coaches at the moment! Hopefully with Nick back off holiday soon there'll be a bit of spare capacity, then we can start putting some planks back on.

Steven has also been working from home on the heavy duty door frames, chunky stuff this!

On lighter matters John and Laura are well into the production flow of the SO/FO seats in GWR snapdragon.

More seats done, no doubt they'll be finished long before the rest of the coach!

Lastly Dave captured me doing a little bit more on the Cheltenham board, just a little explanatory note to sign-write then it's done.

Thurs 20th / Fri 21st - And Friday too!

- June 21, 2024

Busy or what! With so much to do, occasionally some overtime is needed, especially when it enables exclusive access to areas that are otherwise very busy, and RBr 1675 is certainly that with some jobs impossible, Painting falls very much into this category.

However, firstly to answer more questions from recent comments.

Anonymous June 19, 2024 at 10:26 PM

Dave
Perhaps I should have been more clear on my comment regarding screw heads, as I realised when I read your response, the screws were expected to be both tight and in line. It was some 60 plus years when I was an apprentice in the Carriage Works (I was really a loco works "Priv" but we were expected to do 1 year in the Carriage works), I seem to remember that not all screws were slotted in the same orientation, so by dint of judicious tightening and swapping screws a good straight line was achieved, bits of fag packets and even ends of match sticks were sometimes called into play. The art was to leave an obvious one for QA to spot if there was a marginal one next to it. BTW we were allowed 10 minutes to hang a door and get it working correctly. I won't go into the somewhat savage tricks used to persuade a door to adopt the right position.
Best wishes

Malcolm in Canada

Hi Malcolm,

I did know what you meant. I don't think Derrick ever forced the vertical orientation of the screw heads because that is why Paul was forever tightening them up. It became a joke when Derrick put them back vertically, only for Paul to tighten them yet again. I can't remember who "won" in the end, but it did give us all a laugh.

I forgot to check whether we do line the heads up, but I think it unlikely.

Crikey, 10 minutes to hang a door and get it working! If only we could do that.

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Tim J June 20, 2024 at 9:02 AM

I've been wondering about the moquettes. Were there first class moquettes and second class moquettes, or moquettes that were only used in compartments or only used in open/tourist coaches? Also, do you try to use moquettes that the coach had during its service life in the way that the loco teams normally paint the locos into liveries that were carried by that particular engine?

Yes, there were moquettes for different classes, but I wouldn't have thought ones specific to compartments or open coaches. Does anyone know?

Our moquettes are simply allocated to coaches by choice, not for any historical reason. For example our choice of the Snapdragon moquette for the upgrade of SO 4798 to a GWSR First Class coach is simply because we like it and wish to have a moquette that is unique to the Railway, in the same way that the moquette used in FO 3132 "Mary" is unique.

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Thursday

First in today, so kettle on, water boiler on, make a cuppa, and top up the tea caddy.

Walking into Upholstery to see these lovely displays of seat sides covered with Snapdragon moquette. I'm not sure whether these were laid out for me to photograph, or for another of the formal tours that was taking place on Wednesday afternoon.

2807 hauls the first train of the day.

We need to get some top coat on the new planks for the seat at Hayles Halt, so Jeff takes this on and does a good job.

In the Barn the work to make the lovely BCK 21272 operational continues. Richard I continues the upgrades to the electrical system.

The clean up of the luggage compartment and guards corridor continues, with Bob K. adding sealant to the ceiling beading ............................

................... while Bob S. vacs the grill, which is covered in dust. Various ledges will also need this, followed by a wipe down with thinners to remove the last bits of grime. Overall the recent undercoating by Dave H. has really improved the whole appearance of the area.

On the way back to the Paintshop, a quick check to see Derek's repair work from inside Monster Van "600".

Phil works on a connection door mechanism for probably FK 13326.

A problem with this quarter door meant that some more work is needed. Gerry cleans up around the three hinges.

Earlier in the day both Bobs undercoated a lot of the Malvern side of 1675.

Some minor alterations had been done on the front of the calor gas boxes. Bob tidies up the internal paintwork.

Also on the Cotswold side, Gerry removes the temporary fittings from this kitchen window and replaces them with full rubber seals.

In the small electrical room the 240 volt main control and distribution panel, that Richard II was building a few weeks ago, is now in its final location. Richard is wiring up the various circuits. This room still has to be painted throughout.

Jeff has a more straightforward job, continuing the preparation and undercoating in the counter and closet area.

Ian and Roger installed more of the covers for the saloon radiatiors.

Saturday afternoon the plan is to clean up inside in preparation for the laying of the marmoleum. on Tuesday.

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Friday

There were four of us in as well as Stu, our Workshop Manager who attends Wednesday - Saturday.

It was a lovely warm day, ideal for the Gold Fire & Drive event, the members of which had a 20 minute tour of C&W. 2807 was the loco used - an excellent choice.