Wednesday 6th - Welding here .... Welding there

 Just when you think a quiet day is about to happen ....

The 'C' wagon was the first to get attention, marking out four chassis corner plates. The old ones were invisible through corrosion, after much cleaning of the chassis all four plates were welded in.

As you can see the beast is slowly coming together .......

Steve and John were patiently preparing areas to be welded, paint and rust don't weld .

John is setting the very long angle iron for cutting, even the purchased  lengths are not the full wagon length. These will be root welded with no visible join.

The previously mentioned Bubble car seat frames seem to be everywhere, thats Dave doing what he loves best.

Simon busy in the south vestibule of 4798.

Still with 4798, Bryan surveying their handy work  ..... nearly half way.

Ben and Trevor posing and about to move down to the barn ......

...... fine adjustments to another door.

Rod is working on the next door along.

Bob has spent many hours cleaning the window retainers for 4798.

I think Ken is cleaning up brackets etc for the corridor connector on 4798.

In upholstery Chris is sewing curtains for 1675 .....

Eve is stripping more seats for the Bluebell Railway set .......

Laura is making more cushions, due to a high demand at our recent Gala .

As a foot note to the title, a final bit of welding for S&T  ..... attaching feet to this workbench, which is destined for S&T s new workshop.

Many thanks to Gerry and Eve for the photos.

Tuesday 5th - No bangs here!

Another "November the 5th" arrives but the only bangs were some mild ones in the Paintshop, though a few displays in nearby Winchcombe made themselves known while we were enjoying our end of day tea and biscuits.

Robert and Chris were now reinstating the Cotswold side planking on the MICA van.

 Chris redrills the holes.

Maurice completes the undercoating on the remaining door planks.

John did an excellent job making new brackets for the MICA van handrails .......

......... and demonstrating how they will fit on the van.

Later on Paul and Maurice were back outside adding more Dark Grey undercoat to the Open C wagon. It might have been a day of anticyclonic gloom, but most importantly it was dry! The drizzle attacked us as we were leaving for the day.

Stu did an epic job in RBr 1675, completing the second coating of Executive Light Grey in the corridor. I think he also added some second top coat on more of the corridor ceiling. The north end sliding door was also completed. Well done Stu!

Meanwhile it was more toothbrush, rag and cutting paste on both sides of TSO 4772, with Pam and Keith working on the window frames. There is still some way to go before the polishing is finished and there are a number of small paint repairs needed - will we have time?

What will help make 4772 a lot better is to repaint the blackwork - sole bar, headstocks, corridor connections and related attachments. Keith did the sole bar (I had previously taped over the transfers) and I later got well stuck into both ends, and what a difference all this made! None of it took long to do.

An unexpected job appeared last week in the form of the seat frames for the Bubblecar. Although the DMU has been sold, the Bubblecar is being kept.

Our regular contractor duly arrived and managed to get all the seat frames grit blasted and primed in one go.

We are always happy to help where we can, but the timing isn't good for the Painting Team with a number of us away and pressure to get 4772 completed as far as we can before 3850 arrives. And yes, there is a deadline for getting the seats completed, though I can't remember what Stu said it was. 

Maurice made a start towards the end of the day. These are like painting a metal scroll gate and anyone who has done one of those will know how long they take!

Monday 4th - The No Picture Show

 We were not at cleaning today so no photos. But John M has sent me some details - thanks John.

At this time of year the rakes are in different places, as they go to Winchcombe for Santa decorating. Today rake 2 was at Toddington. Cotswold side washed carriages B - G, by Paul, Peter and Tim. Then (bit of a guess, sorry team if I get it wrong!) Roger C, Val, Nick and Steve cleaned inside. Nigel and Rich off to Winchcombe to clean rake 1. John M cleaned toilets in rake 2 at Toddington then off to do those in rake 1 at Winchcombe. Finishing off his stint helping on windows.

No trains this week so no cleaning on 11th November. Rakes are due to be swapped over 13th November so rake 2 can be decorated.

Charity Santa is Sunday 17th November so we will be back on duty 18th and every Monday until December 16th. Santa trains run on the 23rd so we are done until March 4th next year! 

Saturday 2nd - A quiet start

 A quiet start to the new month with no trains running ....... but not for long as our Permanent Way gang began replacing track on the main line near the station crossing.

The Open C wagon was being undercoated in Dark Grey by Paul, Clive and Maurice.

Meanwhile on the running line the road-railer was trundling past with diggings from the track replacement area.

John offers up one of the heavy hand rails on the MICA van. These are fairly heavy and I had to give him some help so that, once held steady, part of the bottom section could be marked ready for cutting to the correct size.

Robert unscrews more of the Cotswold side planking.

Although it seems fairly straightforward, this is actually quite a complex vehicle, hence the backtracking. With the planks removed Chris and Robert discuss the next stage.

We are making good progress with TSO 4772's tidy up. The use of the polisher with the cutting paste has really breathed new life into the paintwork. Tony began the cream section and by lunchtime had got about half way along the coach.

George and Pam, and later myself, cleaned the edges of capping strips and window frames, and within the window frames. Basically all the places that the polisher cannot reach. Toothbrushes with a drop of cutting paste are very good for getting right into the grooves and inaccesible places. It takes a while but over the next week we hope to get this aspect completed. We have other plans to improve 4772 externally.

Inside the coach Jenny was doing a great job cleaning the windows. It can be somewhat tiring  having to squeeze between the seat and table while trying to reach as far as possible.

The next job was to repaint in gloss black the base of each frame, which really brings them back.

Paul begins loading up the trolley with the Henry and all the cleaning bits before going down the yard to Rake 3.

I later went down to see progress. Paul had started vacuuming ......

..... while Dennis was going through the rake putting anti-freeze into the toilets.

In Upholstery Laura and Helen were working on more of the seats from the Bluebell Railway

Tim Robbins from Torrington Heritage Transport Fabrics is due to visit us during next week to view progress with the contract and collect the three recently repainted heating pipe covers. The chair looks really lovely in the new moquette.

Andy was busy shortening some stools from 

Upholstery.

Phil was cleaning up some parts for the oak pelmets on RBr 1675.

The window repairs on SO 4798 have now got as far as the south compartment. Alan works on the first of these on the Cotswold side.

The result at the end of the day. Of the eight windows in the north compartment just one remains to have the pane reinstated.

Inside the coach Simon and Alan are fitting new ply side panels.

Tom is fitting top strips in one of the vestibules in FK 13326.

Well spotted! Kevin has seen that the tyres on the heavy trolley need pumping up. I am guessing that the generator is from RBr 1672 in Rake 1, which is currently in Platform 2 awaiting internal cleaning and decorating for the Santa trains.

Ian and Andy are restripping this vacuum cylinder which has proved to be a problem in that it isn't holding the vacuum.

The painting trestle jobs are stacking up. The latest additions are the wood steps made by Simon for painting and a somewhat rusty fire extinguisher holder. The steps are simply to boost our general supply.

We had a good number in as can be seen by the very full Mess Room during the morning tea break. Even with this there were several missing.