Tuesday 10th - Cream done, brown next

It's good to go home feeling well satisfied  and knowing a lot of good progress has been made. That was certainly the case with Tuesday's efforts.

Chris fits the final set of bolts to the Open C wagon, although I remembering him saying that they are one bolt short. A search in the drawers holding all kinds of bolts, nuts and washers unfortunately did not provide one of the correct length. Later on I could hear the sound of an anglegrinder being used to trim off the excess lengths of those fitted. They were then coated in primer.

The inside top planks are being painted, beginning with a coat of primer. Robert, ......

........ Paul (taping up), .......

........ and Keith all getting involved.

Maurice gave both of the top ends of the MICA van another coat of gloss white.

Both wagons are now very near to completion, bar the tempering of the springs for the MICA and possible sourcing of replacement buffers for the Open C wagon.

Some really good progress was made with TSO 5023 which was brought into the Paintshop on Saturday.

Both David and Tony got cracking with powered brushes to remove all the loose, cracking filler from the rivet line on both sides.

The Cotswold side had been started by Pam on Saturday. This required a great deal more work, but Tony was able to complete it along with some further areas. David also completed what he needed to do on the Malvern side.

While I was busy outside, Robert had removed the water damaged back panels on two of the doors on the Cotswold side. New ones will be made to replace them.

When Richard and I had finished what we could on the Discovery coach, Richard went round 5023 removing the old roundels and number transfers.

The results of Tony's and David's efforts can be seen with the primed rivet lines. These will be filled with Upol fibre paste which is waterproof and will prevent future breakouts. With the rivet lines primed, both Tony and David proceeded to do a general bodyside sanding.

Besides sanding the side of the coach, Tony also removed loose paint from the roof edge. This will be the first coach to be refurbished without Bob Mac's roofing work - he will forever be missed.

As detailed above, the Malvern side rivet line was in a much better state. I later went round the Paintshop giving it a serious session with the Henry vacuum cleaner.

Richard and I had a good few hours adding the cream top coat to the Discovery Coach in Platform 2 bay. The sun was just cool enough to allow us to paint, as much as anything thanks to the frequent cloud cover. I would have loved to have got some gloss brown on the bottom section, but with the day moving on and cloud cover diminishing, we decided to call it a day. Thursday has thundery showers and this weekend is the Railway's Beer Festival, so the bottom section will have to wait until next week.

Monday 9th - Where Is Everyone?

 By recent standards it was a low turnout - just 11 today.

But it was good to see Jane had arrived OK and had been cleaning windows. She was "murdered" on the Murder Mystery train on Saturday but was happily resurrected. Having a husband as a vicar probably helped!

Jane - on the left, with Val.

Paul was doing his usual "detailing" - this end carriage looking very good now.

I worked inside today (I got the Top Job - toilets!) as both John M and Lynn were away. Also inside were John S, Kath, Rich, Roger C and Val, while ourside as well as Paul were the usual team of David, Peter and Tim.

Saturday 7th - A big shunt

 Most of the day was taken up with what ended up being quite a big shunt - it gets a bit tricky this time of year with the 4th rake needing to be vaguely kept together between steam and diesel galas, but with a lot of toing and froing the team managed it.

Before we even got to emptying the works, the next repaint project had to be brought over from the other side of the yard, TSO 5023. We last overhauled this one in 2015 so apart from very faded paintwork and a bit of cracked filler in the usual places, it should be fairly straightforward.

Noting the comment about filler cracking, yes, it is a major problem we have. We're trying increased use of fibreglass filler in the worst places like the rivet line to see if that lasts any better, but upol type still needed to finish off and get a smooth finish.

With ladders etc. moved to one side in preparation, available work was limited, but the Open C needed a light rub down all over before a 2nd topcoat and this could be done whenever, so Dave set too...

Along with Martin.

In the woodwork shop work could continue regardless of the shunt. Today's project was making the end timbers for the water tank wagon at Toddington - the last major job to do on that. Lumps of timber big enough to make them from solid were not economical and we also don't have the machinery to work with that sort of thing, so the solution was several layers laminated together.

Steven and I spent the morning cutting, clamping, gluing and screwing until we had two baulks ready to send up to Todd for fettling before painting.

Meanwhile Robert and Chris started cutting some replacement door panels I think for 5023.

Other work also continued while the threat of everything moving out hung over us - Kevin sorted out a donation of spanners. Some sizes you just can't have enough of!

While John was overhauling this valve, I'm afraid I've forgotten what it's for though.

Soon enough everything was dragged out including the Open C now looking very much complete.

With a bit of adjustment 5023 went into the paintshop followed by the two wagons and still leaving room for 4798 in the main workshop. It's a bit tight but it all fits, and still room for the other main step forward today...

...As 4798 regained its South end gangway connection.

No time was wasted, as soon as the hoist was free it was wheeled along to the South end of 1876 also back in the barn and the gangway connection came off, allowing the welders easier access to continue their work.

To answer the blog comment about completely new ends, we do still do this where warranted, but in this case it was better to weld in a few patches rather than replace the whole thing as most areas weren't too bad.

Once everything was back inside Robert and Chris fitted the last corner plate to the Open C and trimmed the bolts.

In answer to the comments about orientation of bolts, yes this is absolutely the correct way round for coach bolts. Coach bolts have a large smooth round head so no way for goods to be damaged and they also bear on the (relatively) soft wood better than a nut. And of course the square neck of the coach bolt has to bite into the wood to hold it in place to enable it to be done up tightly. That also meant you didn't need two people to do each bolt up, one with a spanner holding the head steady, another doing the nut up. They knew what they were doing back then!

We've also concluded that the top plank on the inside should be painted rather than left bare, so after Paul went round with the sander Maurice set to with the wood primer. 

Time to watch some trains - it was heavy freight day today with 3850 and 2807 out.

Later in the day I also caught Bob and Dave doing a bit more filling and sanding on 4798, plenty still to do on this.

The Rbr had another brief stint outside, this time over the pit to attend to some brake hanger safety loops.

The pit is very useful at times like this. Unfortunately it is outside, and at this point the heavens well and truly opened. Good for lowering the lineside fire risk, not so great for the dirty gang.

To finish off I also signwrote the other end of the Mica, just one side left to go.

Although I got roped into carrying the next batch of seats from the DFR for recovering from the van, I didn't actually pop in to see what was going on until the end of the day, so missed the workers. Here's some of the pile...

And I'm guessing this was the day's efforts, another batch of cushions to sell.

Thursday 5th - Rain stopped play

 Well the rain stopped any work on the Discovery Coach, but it meant we could get back to SO 4798. All remaining jobs were inside, either in the Works or Rake Three so the state of the weather didn't matter.

Maurice completed almost all of the remaining top coating on the MICA van, which importantly included the Malvern side. This will enable Alex to begin the remaining signwriting. The underside of the steps were given a second coat of white gloss; they will probably benefit from a third coat.

On to 4798 where Jeff and I began more sanding on the Cotswold side. There is so much filler to sand down, and some of the basic bodywork still hasn't had a general sanding. 

As this is a longer term refurb it's worth taking the grab handles off as this makes the prep and painting so much easier. There were just five to remove as the Malvern side north end has had new metal and a handle will need to be reinstated when painting has been completed. The securing bolts were stiff and creaked, and took some effort to undo. Four handles came off perfectly, but not the fifth where annoyingly one of the captive nuts has come loose so the internal panel strip will need to be removed to allow access.

Bob worked around several of the windows, sanding the many patches of filler covering the recessed screw heads. I had previously begun sanding the nearby door edges and doorframe sides - very important.

Jeff chalks around further areas on the north end that require filling.

George had left a clear note on the Malvern side area where he ended his day last Saturday. He has done a great job with the general sanding down on this side of the coach.

Phil was busy setting up new electrical connectors for coach ends. These will be destined for SO 4798 and RMB 1876.

The bogie work on RBr 1675 continued with John tackling the Cotswold side of the south bogie. As with the Malvern side of both bogies, the bolster spring hanger assembly had been removed to allow the hellical springs to be removed, the badly  corroded shims to be replaced and the area needle gunned to clean it up. 

Getting the heavy bolster spring hanger assembly back in place needed help from Phil and Roger.

When everything is put back the suspension will be adjusted to give the correct ride height. A quick run up the yard and back will be done as this helps everything settle back down before final adjustments are made.

Two photos showing the current metalworking on the south end of RMB 1876. When this eventually comes into the Paintshop it will go into crimson and cream livery, and then replace RMB 1808 in Rake 2.

The Indoor Gang were busy in FK 13337 "Gillian". Roger was repairing the back of the Cotswold side south end door.

While Geoff and Alan were reinstating a seat side panel having replaced a section of corroded ply panelling.

The disabled area in BCK 21092 makes a handy place for all the cleaning items while Rake 3 is stabled in its siding.

Further along the rake in SK 25341 Paul is vacuuming all the seats.

Returning to 21092, while the exterior could do with a much needed repaint, the interior is looking superb with the recently reupholstered second class compartment joining the two first class compartments in having the lovely silver horsechestnut leaf moquette. Walking into Upholstery during the morning, in the pile of newly made cushions I noticed one had been made with this moquette. A second one was spotted in the pile on the storage rack.

The lead coach in Rake 3 is TSO 5023, which I believe will be shunted into the Paintshop on Saturday, and the next coach to go into crimson and cream.

In the Monster Van Derek is in the middle of repairing one of the south end bottom corners

A very wet yard. The rain had eased off but it was too late for any outside work on the Discovery Coach.

A very happy Jeff with his recent purchase of two brown donkey strip moquette cushions and specs case.

Bob watches the last train of the day to Cheltenham, and then the penultimate one to Toddington.