Thursday 28th - Grab the opportunity!

A hard frost and bitterly cold start, but with the promise of another gloriously sunny day.

Well, somebody has to clear the Mess Room bin and take the recycling to the bins at the top of the station yard. 

With the interior of RBr 1675 rapidly coming together, time to sort out the doors.

Martin has applied filler to the outside face of the south connection door and now top coats one of the corridor sliding doors used for access to the kitchen and pantry. 

The door to the electrics cupboard has already been painted and awaits fitting by the Indoor Gang. Hopefully we can get the other doors completed and also ready for fitting by next Thursday.

"Oh no, not another photo of me lying on the floor!". Richard I connects the water filler pipework in the pantry.

 

I later caught Richard II also working in that area.

Back to Richard I winding insulation around the main water pipe.

Paul watches Alan, Roger, and Geoff, the Indoor Gang, continuing the fitting of the catches to the pelmets in the saloon. I think the job has now been completed.

Also in preparation are the handrails for the corridor, electrics cupboard and kitchen. These will all be painted in Executive Light Grey to match.

The Indoor Gang also loosely fitted the heating pipe covers.

Two photos taken by Roger on Tuesday of the ceiling repairs in SK 24949. The above still needs further work, while the repair below has been completed.

The frost covered station crossing and sleepers were carefully negotiated on my way down to put some varnish on the central passenger door on BSKD 34929 - a job that needed to be done as early as possible to allow the varnish repair to dry (when closing up at about 5 pm it had just about dried - fingers crossed!).

With always so much else to do and being a very weather dependent job, the three doors on the Model Railway coach had somewhat been pushed aside and remained unpainted when the rest of the coach had been done a year or so ago. With the promise of another lovely day it was time to make amends and get it completed. Maurice and I soon got the job done, and while at it also completed the repaint of the platform side of the north end. We just need to finish the lining out, when we have the time and when the weather is ok!

John and Stu were setting up the suspension on replacement bogies for SK 25488. The original bogies have tyres that need re-turning.

Job completed and the coach body lowered back down.

Maurice cleaning up the metal steps that fit to the ends of the MICA van and later priming them.

Rex  drilling holes in more internal window framing for SO 4798. This is a top section. 

Gerry was also working in 4798 but I somehow missed him

The painting of the child's bench was completed by Jeff.

We recently seem to have had an endless supply of paint trestle jobs. Both Maurice and Jeff get stuck into the spare footboards. We will probably just go to undercoating with these, leaving the final black glossing to when they are needed.

A fine winter's day. We could do with more of these.

Tuesday 26th - What a contrast

After the departure of Bert (hate this naming thing) and the ruined weekend, it was good to be able to get out and enjoy what turned out to be a very nice day. And to add to that, we had a good number attending for a Tuesday.

Beginning  the day with some essential outdoor repairs on BSKD 34929, the Malvern side guards door had been sticking. Chris T. (formerly with the Door team and now with our Friday Maintenance team) had planed down the door frame and left a message on our paint trestles that attention was needed. Richard does the essential paint repair. The door back panel needed some varnish but this has been left to another fine day. 

While working on the BSK Richard noticed some areas of cracking filler on the side of the Discovery Coach that had broken away. With the limited time all we could do for now was a quick patch repair. 

Later in the day Richard was able to get the filler sanded smooth and paint it over, going straight to top coat. You need good dry days in the Winter to get this type of outdoor job done. We must see if we can get the Discovery coach repainted next year - it will have to be done in situ.

While on Platform 2 we saw Rosie and Ian from the FOWS doing some gardening. I meant to get a photo of them when they very kindly helped us on the day of our major power cut by endlessy supplying us with jugs of hot water. So it's a pleasure to make amends and include them in today's post.

While outside, a look at the recent outshoppings in the form of TSO 4772 ..........

.......... and SO 4790.

Meanwhile there was still some final effort required in BCK 21272 with some leather straps to be reinstated and the remaining protective sheets, painting rag, etc to be removed.

The passenger corridor with the bloom on the varnished wood now polished away.

The repainted guards corridor and luggage area.

The repainted guards compartment with the seats in new blue moquette.

Pam with the new almost completed strap which will be replacing the bit of rope holding up the guards tip-up seat.

Further along is FO 3127, now with temporary primer patching.

The interior with lots of sorting out still underway, mainly by Dave H.

One of the single seats has been brought into the Works. This will be taken upstairs to the Upholstery shop and stripped down to enable an assessment to be made as to whether we can do the job ourselves. The seats for FO 3132 "Mary" were reupholstered by outside contract.

Now into the Paintshop and FK 13326, which is in to complete its refurbishment. It is also just like old times with Richard J. sanding the Cotswold side south door and its frame. Richard was Head of C&W for 18 years before becoming our Plc Chairman. He is now a free agent and as such is occasionally seen back in the Works, recently helping out in Upholstery.

With the work on the south corridor connection already underway, Ian begins sanding down the north end connection slider. The amount of grime on the door confirms that 13326 has been at the north end of the rake and hence immediately behind the engine when the train is on the Cheltenham-Broadway run.

Back to Richard who is now greying-up the door and its frame. It's quite some time since he last painted and I could see he was thoroughly enjoying the job.

Phil took over from my former efforts on the south end connection, completing the filler sanding and then painting the door in cream undercoat.

On Saturday Alex had done a good job straightening the bases of three of the four new end panels and then cleaning off any roughness. Ian carefully went over the three to double-check they were clear - a few minor bits were found and removed, leaving the edges completely safe to touch.

Pam took on the north end door on the Cotswold side, adding filler on the frame where needed.

Back to the south end connection with the slider undercoated and Phil now painting the new wood section in dark grey undercoat.

Both sides of 13326 have already had an initial coat of gloss paint, with the lower brown panels sanded ready for the second coat. Richard finishes his day sanding some of the cream section on the Cotswold side.

More progress with the MICA van as Maurice undercoats the metal frame at the north end.

Chris tackles more of the inner planking, initially cutting back some of the existing boards ......

...... before inserting some new ones. Head torches are becoming increasingly common amongst our staff.

Keith primes the mini planks on the children's seat and then progresses to the supply of footboards.

The orange army! Well not quite at the level of Network Rail repairing storm damage at Dawlish.

It was service day for all our woodwork machinery with Stuart attending. He is well used to our set up having previously visited us when with Tewkesbury Saw. Stuart has set up his own business now that his former firm has closed

Painting and varnishing inside RBr 1675 is definitely on the home straight. Stu wasn't completely happy with the painting on these two areas to the left of the counter, so after a light sand a second coat is added.

The upper part of the central passenger door was still in undercoat, so this was also painted in Exec Light Grey.

Excellent results!

In the saloon Roger is attaching the catches for the pelmets.

With respect to the varnishing, with the exception of the pelmets, all the oak in the saloon and counter area has had three coats of varnish, not two as previously reported (thanks to Jeff for the correction).

Phil has done a great job tidying up the raw edges of the panelling and frame in the south entrance. The connection door needs further painting before it can be mounted. The electric cupboard door is ready for reinstating, but will be left off until Richard II has completed all the work in there.

One of the doors for SO 4798 is to be replaced with one of our spares.  Ainsley is looking at this one, which had been originally installed on an EMU.

Taking advantage of the excellent weather, to end the day Maurice and Paul begin top coating some parts of the Open C wagon.

Looking across the south side of the yard to the Cotswold escarpment. Let's hope we get some more days like this instead of all that wind and rain.