Weds 26th/Thurs 27th - Almost there

Another Weds/Thurs posting which will now be the routine for a while with Nick and Eve in the southern hemisphere for a month. As always, thank you Gerry for Wednesday's photos. Thanks also to Rod for the info on the Door team activities.

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Wednesday

Beginning with Rex cleaning up the internal wood frame for the Cotswold side toilet compartment window in SO 4798 (more on this later in Thursday's section).

On board 4798 Trevor was working on the trim for the Cotswold side centre door.

Rod and Ainsley discuss the jobs for the day. Rod then continued with the window surrounds and Ainsley with internal door trim.

It was nice to see Pat in again. He took on more of the general sanding on the Cotswold side of 4798.

Also related to 4798, Ken was dealing with the metal strips for the south end corridor connection.

Simon was at the south end of RMB 1876 removing some of the internal panelling so that the bottom parts of the connection support pillars could be inspected. 

Tony strips out a non-functioning dynamo, the empty body of which will be fitted underneath RBr 1675 for completeness. 

The old Building Services hut is due to be demolished. As such any items of use are being removed. Tony with the pump trolley, assisted by Rex and Pat, remove some heavy items.

Time to relax while watching two PWay staff at work.

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Thursday

A quiet day for a Thursday with a number of our regulars away, but still some good progress.

Another lovely spring day with just Derek enjoying the fine weather while working outside on the Monster van.

More on the toilet compartment window with Tony cleaning the outside grill.

More cleaning up, this time by Gerry grinding the back of the rebuilt inner frame.

The view inside.

Pat coated the new metal panelling underneath with green primer.

Gerry cleans up more of the inner wood frame.

The inner grill and various sections of the wood frame, some of which will need recreating as they are broken.

Walking past the Open C wagon and spotting a whoops moment.

Alex's notes on the Open C whiteboard.

The new welding power socket set up by our main electrician Steve last week, now completed and ready for use.

On to 1675 and Pat's first go at lining out, beginning on the north end of the Malvern side. The bottom tape is carefully placed along the edge of the brown paint.

Martin started at the south end. We needed to get this done today as Alex will be adding a second coat to his signwriting on Saturday. He begins with one of the little plastic templates to enable the black-yellow dividing line to be pencilled in place.

Pat has progressed to the next section and taping up is now in progress.

With all the tape on at his end of the coach, Martin has now progressed to painting the yellow band on the top line. I later did the same on the lower line.

Tony slid over the top of 1675's south bogie to check the status of the brake rigging.

Later on he fits a new vacuum hose at the south end.

In the saloon Alan and Roger made excellent progress with the table installation. Alan prepares the bedding for the table attachment.

The underside of an installed table showing the fitting.

The leg and wall support for another table. Some painting needed with this one - all the metal fittings will be checked and repainted as required.

Roger sets up the next one for fitting.

Attaching the metal wall support ..........

........ and then the table.

Is this the last one?!

The saloon looking from both ends at the end of the day.

It's almost complete - just some extra black paint  on the table legs where needed and the job is done. Curtains next!

Tuesday 25th - Hail Cedar

A very productive day with the focus in particular on the Open C wagon and RBr 1675.

Previously with the heavy floor planking steadily going on the wagon, the untreated side pieces had been temporarily positioned to allow the trial fitting of four of the cedar side planks, cut to the correct size. The debate about whether to use cedar or buy iroko has been resolved with the owner happy to make use of the former, of which we have a sizeable quantity. With the test over, the side pieces have been extracted and treated with Creosolve.

Using the magnetic drill, the next job is to cut the holes in the correct position for the hooks with go underneath the outer frame. These will later be secured by welding. While Paul drills, Maurice carefully pours oil on the hole.

Some of the hooks which are used to tie on tarpaulins.

Maurice now repositions the drill on the opposite side of the wagon.

 

One of the new corner pieces made by the Metalwork team.

Side planks cut to the correct size, with others primed in the background.

Chris and Robert bring out another of the floor planks.

More side planks being primed.

The existing primed ones are sanded to remove the roughness that results from the priming.

Bar the tidied line of seats, everything else removed from TSO 4867 has been stored so that the through road could be cleared.

On now to SO 4798 where Ainsley is fitting one of the side panels next to the Malvern side north end door and then the rubber draught excluder.

Ian removes some fibre paste filler that had previously been used on the rivet line, some of which hadn't set very well.

After that, a good vac round on the coach sides, bogie and underframe, and surrounding floor.

Ian's job before working on 4798 was doing more underframe painting on 1675, in particular the white painting of the catches on the battery and calor gas boxes.

Priority for Richard and David was continuing the yellow lining out on 1675, with Richard on the Cotswold side and David on the Malvern side. Having taped up the long kitchen-pantry-servery section, Richard applies the yellow paint.

For David it was his first go at lining out. Initially carefully placing the tapes to mark out the edges of the band ........

...... and then adding the yellow. Here he is applying the second coat which goes on almost immediately after the first. We can then get the tape off - carefully!

Another shot of Richard tackling the lengthy stretch.

Later in the day, with all the yellow lining out completed on the Cotswold side, Richard has moved round to the upper line on the Malvern side.

All the time we were lining out, we had to dodge round someone else doing great things on both sides of the coach. The taped sections of printed paper with the outlined words "BUFFET  RESTAURANT CAR" have been carefully laid on the floor.

Alex has taken the day off to crack on with the various lettering on both sides. The first job is setting up the correct position for the template.

With the back of the template coated in French chalk, it is very carefully positioned and stuck on with the yellow masking tape.

Regular readers will know the next step, which is going over the outlines of each letter with a pencil. When the template is removed the letters are outlined in chalk along the side of the coach. Alex carefully brushes each letter to remove excess chalk.

Lengths of yellow tape are then put on the top and bottom of the line of letters to ensure they remain the same size when painting gets underway. With the maul stick carefully positioned Alex puts the first coat of paint on the "R". Note the tape has also been positioned where letters end in the space between the main tapes.

The first one completed, and to be repeated on the Malvern side. The tape will remain on until the second coat has been done on Saturday.

Next the kitchen doors are all identified.

The Malvern side at the end of the day, with the number now also in place. The BR roundel transfers have been ordered and should arrive soon.

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And finally, using my final photo from Saturday's post of the discussion about the Open C wagon, Alex has created a brilliant cartoon. 

Read the title at the bottom first and then starting with orator Chris, go round each person clockwise.