Monday 6th - A Routine Clean.

 Nice sunny autumn day, and warm enough.

First up is Greg (on the left) and very pleased to see Nick back, recovering well after his heart attack. And he is the youngest on the team! Kath is catching up with the news.

Rich, Ghostbusting.

Nigel

And that's about it. As it says in the title, a routine clean. I was "odd job" again today.

The outside team were missing 2 regulars - Paul on Grandad duty and Peter at the vets with one of his dogs! Next week is another (mostly) holiday week, so we will be at least 6 short. Please don't make a mess this week!!

Other members on site to day were Chris, David, Jane, John M, John S, Steve, Tim and Val.

Saturday 4th - Next!

 A pretty quiet day in the works with several regulars off on holiday. But that didn't stop us cracking on with 1876 and digging the next project out...

Starting off with the RMB though, more filling and sanding. Jeff was on the Malvern side...

Tony and I on the Cotswold side. I had hoped to get my section ready for greying up by close of play but kept finding more bits to dig out.

Robert was repairing various bits of door panelling for the coach, gluing and clamping.

Chris had cut some new ceiling panels which Paul duly primed.

Peter was doing some very technical work with the sewing machine, but where's Jane, isn't someone starting on the mountain of NYMR DMU seats?

Ah, there she is! The padding foam is just turning to powder as the seats are disassembled, so the outdoor undercover workbench is the best place for this messy work.

Maurice had a good day on the weedkilling wagon, this end was all wire brushed and by the end of the day painted in primer. Not much left to do on this in terms of de-rusting/priming. Yes there is a colour scheme planned for it, that shall have to wait though... (and I need to tell Dave what colours to order!)

John was back on gater making duty when I stopped by, although he was also progressing brake pins for the Open C - the old ones are ok for now hence ok to run but could do with replacing.

The vacuum pipe connecting the train pipe to the pass comm system on 4798 was also being installed today by Ken and John.

Into the barn and Alan is progressing 35308's steel repairs on the North end.

Ian and Clive were on shunting duty today, with a few jobs on the list. First was to swap the RBR and the Santa coach + Fruit C around in the bay platform ready for the Santa team to start getting things ready.

Second was to bring in a stack of bogies for John to start looking at. I assume Some wheel swapping will be taking place as there was a defined order these all had to be in.

Third was a pretty please, can you extract our next wagon project? Why is the one I want always at the back?

But here it is, GWR Mink D 28833. This ran in the demo goods train up until about 2017 and isn't in all that bad a shape.

Almost all of the fixed planking is in good condition, so we'll just strip the paint off and go again. The roof timber is good too so just a recanvas. The biggest job will be new doors all round, as they are pretty rotten. Just a small step today, moving from the back of the back siding to the front of the middle siding on the other side of the yard, but it's all progress.

Thursday 2nd - That's it for a bit

Not many in today and even then I didn't capture everyone, so another small posting.

A catch up on Wednesday's efforts with the weed spraying wagon. The roof sections have now been trimmed.

Side panels have been cut and welded in on the Malvern side.

Horizontal strengthening bars have been welded across the back of each panel.

It's all beginning to look really good and a credit to Nick's team. I don't know what the final livery will be and as I will be supplying the paint I guess I will need to know soon.

Back to RMB 1876 where Martin is grinding down the edge of the new capping strip on the Cotswold side south end doorway to give just that little bit of extra clearance. With all the other prep done the whole doorframe was given a coat of undercoat grey.

Still some way yet with the rest of the coach before that can be greyed up. If we are to achieve the superb finish of TSO 5023 then there is still a reasonable bit of work yet to do on 1876. The Cotswold side is littered with my blue chalk markings indicating where more filler is needed and/or more sanding of filler is required.

Ainsley works his way around a window frame using the excellent sander with the tiny triangular head.

More major sanding for Bob on the Malvern side, removing the old top coat.

With the Cotswold side of the roof scraped and cleaned up as far as possible, time to make a start on the Malvern side. Phil vacs his latest cleaned up section before moving on to the next panel.

One of my jobs was to prime the area that will be under the top section of the connection support at the north end. While at this I also scraped and cleaned under the roof edge, and then coated that with primer.

Phil, having cleaned the hinges Phil coats them in silver hammerite. These are from the toilet compartment doors in SO 4798.

On board FK 13337 "Gillian", Roger, Geoff and Alan are doing more general maintenance. Before I joined the Railway, and well before I became a volunteer, I have fond memories of regularly travelling in this coach, spending the whole day in the peace and quiet of First Class when we used to charge the extra fare for this. Four round trips were the perfect wind down after a busy week at work. 13337 desperately needs refurbishing, but with so much else to do it could still be some time yet before this happens.

Phil (and I) enjoying the sight of P & O on the day's final run to Cheltenham. Just a short time left before she disappears for her major overhaul.

She's always with a lovely smile, and why not when the dream turns to reality. Rose looking very happy in the new greenhouse, especially with the trays of seedlings  and all the donated plants now making it look very established.

Rose points out all the other plans which include the setting up of the trellises at the end of the remaining building, which has been repaired at this end. It is used by our Lineside Drainage team.

Well that's it from me for a week as sunny Exmoor and the little railway beckon. The L &B is only a mile and a half away from the cottage so we will hear the whistles! Might even do the big railway if it is as wet as currently forecast.

Tuesday 30th - After the busy weekend

After the busy Railway 200 weekend it was time to put all the display goods, signs and barriers away again. Being only four weeks to the Autumn Showcase when we are open for the fourth and final time this year, Keith and I took a few shortcuts to speed up the job. We have enough storage space in the Monster van to leave intact the stands for the viewing area and advisory notices. Unless the space is needed for anything else, we will continue in this new mode- it will certainly save some time and effort when both setting and packing up.

Sixteen windows = thirtytwo pelmets to make. Why is the latter double the number of the former? The wall lights in SO 4798 are in the centre of each window. Chris and Robert are going to be busy!

And talking of those lights, Phil is repairing the base section of one of them.

Is Keith painting a coat of GW Brown on a new table top? No, it will be a new gala notice board with respect to prohibiting public access to the Works via the signalbox footway. A bit posh, but better than the small metal notice currently used. And a good way for others in the Painting team to practice signwriting. 

More new door back panels made by Robert for RMB 1876, dyed and now ready for varnishing.

As for other work on 1876 it was back to the seemingly endless body side, door and doorframe preparation. Pam working on her doorframe at the Cotswold side south end, ensuring all the filler is adequately sanded.

It was nice to see Roger back in. He ended up doing the same on the north end door.

Richard was on the opposite side doing the same on the central door.

David worked on both sides clearing up areas where more filler or sanding was required. It's amazing how much still needs doing despite all our efforts as I found out when marking these areas out with blue chalk.

Ainsley was working on windows and the gutter panelling on the Malvern side.

Maurice had a good day cleaning up the corrugated north end of the weed spraying wagon.

Monday 29th - We Didn't Clean This One

 

Last Saturday, at Rail 200, I was fortunate to be able to capture this photo of the completely refurbished buffet car, currently stabled in the bay platform at Winchcombe.  Certainly posh! But you will have to wait until next year to try it. My grapevine says staff training will take place in the winter, ready for the new season. The kitchen equipment is as that installed in the Cotswold Halt, so totally new to everyone. The Wallace & Gromitt gas boiler is no more!

Today I was on Ghostbuster duty, hence only two photos from today.

Paul, Chris and Peter. Tim had hastily dodged behind the camera. 

The rest of the team was David, Greg, Jane, John M (on toilet duty - found one totally blocked), Kath, Nigel, Rich, Steve and Val.

Second prize today was this, found resting on a radiator cover below a table.

And finally one more pic from Saturday. The lattice side parapets from Stanley Pontlarge bridge 28, being refurbished by our very talented volunteer, Neil. (One of many Neils)