Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Carriage & Wagon Dept.

For RMB 1876 it was very much a case of various parts catching up with the rest, in particular three of the doors.

Half of the south end of the coach had also fallen behind with some further work needed to finish sanding. Having completed this David vacs around to remove the dust. Then a wipe over with white spirit prior to undercoating in Dark Grey.

This will be further painted in Gloss Black on Thursday.

The door, or actually doorframe, needing the most work was the Malvern side south end. Again, a lot of filler and careful sanding, and Ainsley was able to produce a good result.

Finally a coat of u/c Light Grey finished the job very neatly. The new length of capping strip blends in very well.

I worked on the north end doorway with more filling and sanding, and was also able to complete this satisfactorily with u/c Light Grey. The final door was the Cotswold side south end which just needed a tiny bit of filler and touch up with the livery undercoats to complete.

Certainly a lot to sort out here with a mass of bits for sanding and revarnishing, or just the latter, from SO 4798. In the foreground more heating pipe covers from 4798 that were cleaned up by Pam on Saturday.

Keith revarnishes some parts from RMB 1876.

David begins painting the backs of the heating pipe covers with Silver Hammerite.

Phil is checking and cleaning up a sink - not sure whether it is from one of the coaches or a spare.

Paul is undercoating one of the heavy roof ends from the Mink D van.

Otherwise is was the same gradual removal of the old planking with most of the south end now clear. Maurice is now working his way near the north end of the Malvern side.

Paul is cleaning up the south end frame where required.

Rose's fire pit soon reduces the removed planks to ashes.

[Photo : Paul E.] The view from the interior towards the south end.

This lovely large plastic framed photo of Foremarke Hall leaving the north end of the tunnel was in the Woodwork shop. Chris and Robert were happy to put it up in the Paintshop.

Very much a full house today with all sorts of activities going on.

The weather has considerably improved after the storm yesterday, no doubt to the relief of the racegoers who would be on the chartered train due through during the morning. It must have been awful for those on yesterday's train.

Inside RBr 1675's kitchen and pantry Jenny gives everywhere, as she said, yet another clean.

With the coach soon becoming operational, Jenny removes the protective plastic covering on some of the stainless steel cupboards. I gave her a hand as it's quite tough to remove, tending to come away in bits.

An extra lock is required for the electrics cupboard in 1675. John is in the process of making the various parts.

Alan watches the metal saw going through a length of the very heavy connection support pillar .......

....... which is needed to replace a corroded piece at the south end of BSK 35308.

Returning later to see new sections of sheet metal tack welded in place.

The luggage compartment in 53808 contained all manner of things, which included old chairs that we used in our original mess room. Everything still thought to be useful was stored in the GUV stabled on the headshunt.

Andy Tu. was carefully marking out reference points with respect to the adjacent doorway on 53808.

Andy Th. was cleaning up a brake hanger from one of the adjacent bogies that are going to be used under SO 4798.

Walking past the weed spraying wagon I noticed all the floor planks on end. Coming by later, all the planks had been reinstated and looked as if they had received a fresh coat of the non-slip floor paint.

A tank has been loaded, while nearby another tank (or tanks?) await on a pallet.

I missed the race train but did manage to capture the midday fish and chip special hauled by 3850.

I also missed Peter and Jane in Upholstery, but did capture Laura making another bag.

I was correct when I presumed in Wednesday's post that Ceri was re-covering the first of the seats for the NYMR DMU. It is in fact the driver's cushion and seat back in Bournemouth Blue moquette.

On descending the stairs, an aerial view of Jenny vacuuming the lobby.

Phil tackles yet another heating pipe cover, this time from TSO 4768.

Pam was back cleaning up the remainder of the heating pipe covers from SO 4798. She worked until well past 5 pm and by then the completed pile on the Paintshop trestles was quite substantial.

Alex repeated what he did last Saturday on RMB 1876, this time on the Cotswold side. The flatted undercoat was then carefully wiped over to remove the dust.

Now on to the crimson top coating.

Tony worked on a number of filling jobs, initially on 1876's Malvern side south end door frame, and then moving on to the south end of the coach to the right of the connection.

It's very much a catch up exercise with the doors now that they are all working correctly. Martin undercoats the top part of the Malvern side centre door, and then repeats the job with the north end door. Some filling is still required on the door liners for the south and north end doors.

Jeff tackles the various bits extracted from the toilet compartments in 1876.

Robert assesses what will be required with fitting the new length of capping strip on the south end door frame where a new length of door liner has been fitted.

Robert, watched by Chris, bores holes in the strip ready for riveting it in place.

With the interior of 1876 now cleared and covers in place on the seats, Bob begins undercoating the ceiling in the servery area.

Paul continues the general vacuuming to remove all the accumulated dust.

Simon rebuilds the floor in the Malvern side toilet compartment.

The connection U frame for the north end of 1876 under repair in the Workshop.

While Tony was waiting for filler to go off on 1876, he did some filling on the Cotswold side of 4798.

Ian removing the old cracked lino in 4798's south vestibule. Bob and Pete, our regular contractors, will soon be prepping and screeding the floor in the vestibules and toilet compartments ready for the new covering.