An interesting day with a lovely ending.
"The grand entrance" immediately sprang to mind when I first saw this. It certainly puts into the shade the use of ladders or small steps to access our coaches when in the yard.
Making use of the temporary staircase, a quick look round RBr 1675 to see what must almost be its completed set up. Firstly the kitchen and then into the pantry.
The shutter now installed. How long now before the cakes, biscuits, sandwiches, drinks, etc are filling the counter display and shelves.
The Railway 200 Weekend notice. Those two characters in the photo look familiar.
The saloon looks really good from whichever end it is viewed.
Returning from an essential trip to Broadway to find Alan, Roger and Geoff (the Indoor Gang) enjoying lunch on Platform 1.
A huge effort went into the conversion of BSK 34929 to provide extra seating and accessible facilities where the luggage compartment had once existed. Seems sad this is now in the Rakes 3 and 4 line of coaches, however it is the result of necessary reshuffling.
Not sure how this came to be, but one of the compartments was without a table. So the Indoor gang sorted out a decent one from our stores and duly installed it.
It's now only just over a week before our Autumn Showcase gala. What?! Already?!!
In preparation Paul continues the internal cleaning in Rakes 3 and 4.
John explains to Richard II why the bogies under GUV 86828 are so useful. Essentially they are very little worn despite their age as can be seen in the chart below where John is recording his findings. As such these BR1 bogies will replace those currently under SO 4798.
In the Paintshop Bob sands the various bits of secondary filler on the Cotswold side of RMB 1876. I meanwhile continued some filler repairs to the top of the south end doorframe.
Ainsley more or less completed the basic sanding down of the Malvern side of the coach.
Phil restarted the roof work on the Cotswold side. With the paint scraping and general sanding already completed, it was a case of vacuuming off any dust, doing a little more hand sanding if felt necessary, wiping over, and then painting on the light grey MIO.
Rose enjoys her lunch while I catch up on more progress with the WSMD greenhouse.
I love the old artifacts like the paraffin tin and garden sieve.
A good way to keep a record of what has been sown and planted.
The tyres filled with compost and rhubarb planted. The bird feeder is a nice extra touch.
Phil takes a break and watches 3850 come by.
Maurice had a change from stripping the old paint off the planking on the Mink D van and reverted to cleaning up the frame, headstock and buffers. No firm decision has been made yet as to how much planking will need to be replaced.
Christine and Richard mount a memorial plaque for Bob Mack, who we greatly miss.
To add that final touch Rose created a mini trough from her greenhouse planting. Thank you Rose, this will be lovely for Bob's family to see on Saturday when they visit C&W after the train ride to scatter his ashes.
