Thurs 17th/Fri 18th - Maintenance Report

Graham has kindly stepped forward to help compile some reports on the maintenance side of things in our department. While we wait for Mr Google to get his act together and allow Graham to be added as an author, here's his first report:

Friday

Today's team consisted of John, Ian, Anthony, Martin, and Graham.

This week we concentrated on rake 1. It was placed in P2 so that we could have a go at replacing the rotting step board on M35308 and do the type C inspection. Legionella avoidance flushing activities continued, this time on rake 2. During the morning the step board was replaced…

... and the type C exam was started. Interior and some exterior checks were completed in the morning and the rest of the exterior checks where completed in the afternoon. We found a loose pin on the break adjustment rigging which we removed, cleaned, greased, and refitted more firmly with shim washers:

Sometimes we have to hose these bits down before we start as they can get rather cacked up:

…controlled emission toilets are high on our wish-list!

We also found a few bolts with missing split pins…so we put in replacements:

…and the odd birds nest to remove. We crawl and walk along the whole rake checking for anything obviously amiss as we go…

…together with things we have to check like brake clearance and wear…

…sometimes finding things like a loose nut & bolt to tighten on an axle horn plate. 

Eventually we come to the end of the rake, and the most important task of them all…

…filling out the paperwork!

Thursday

Richard & Richard have been doing more electrical work… Every now and again we need to make sure our spare batteries are charged - this should be once every six months. We have built a test rig which allows batteries to be put on test as well as monitoring when they are being charged.

The bottom left is the 24v charger and above this is a charge balancer which ensures when two series connected batteries are being charged, one is not overcharged and the other undercharged. The test box shows the voltage on either of the batteries as selected by the upper switch by the voltmeter (in this case, battery 2014/09). The blue wire is connected to the linking connection between the two batteries. The charger we use has Bluetooth monitoring and the next two pictures show the status whilst charging at full current (bulk mode) and when it is charging at maximum voltage (absorption mode). We are gradually replacing all our working carriages to this type of charger - 75% so far have been converted.

Monday 21st - And Then There Were 10!

 Last week there were 4 for Carriage Washing - I was not there. Even so they managed to wash both sides but muscles knew about it when they had finished!

Our start time is 10:00 but as you can see the early birds were well under way by then. The volunteer nearest the camera is our man from Kent - he stays with a relative in this area.

With 10 of us in this week we could start on the second rake at the same time.  Equipment failures caused a slight delay but we got going soon enough.

Even the windows got a wipe down after washing - this side of the train gets the morning sun and the windows tend to dry  a bit "streaky".  This removes them.

With the Virus Challenge the insides of the train are cleaned and fogged by specialist cleaners except for inside glass.  Now that an approved Risk Assessment is in place, and with so many in, we were able able to do this and remove the evidence of little finger marks!

Saturday 19th - A Different View

It was a quiet day today, Dave was on holiday, and a few others either weren't in or had duties elsewhere on the railway.

Jenny and John were hard at it though, traipsing up and down the yard swapping out more seats in 4763, wondering why it had been parked closer to Toddington than Winchcombe. It seems an occupational hazard of being a blogger is a cry of "Ah, seeing as you're here..." and I got roped into loading the next batch of seats onto the trolley to take back to the workshops too. 

Ken and Andy were working on one of the bogies from underneath the CK,

And soon enough the bogie was up and one of the wheel sets was out. It looked a bit odd to have the CK on the jack road floating in mid-air and the through road relatively clear.

Chris and Steve were both working on the wood work for the north end vestibule of 34929 in the workshop, it looks like it's beginning to come together.

Out enjoying the last of the summer sun, Dave was nudging 4867 along out in the yard, applying some filler to the usual areas around the window frames. It always seems to take forever to get the surface finished, so it'll be great to have a head start on this aspect when this coach gets its turn.

Speaking of taking forever on surface prep... On to the RMB!

Where Pam and George were both finding areas that needed a little more attention that had been revealed on the application of undercoat. No rushing onto top-coating yet, still a bit more to do!

Meanwhile Richard got the hot air gun out to remove the transfers from the solebar ready for repainting.

I spent a pleasant morning playing sign-writer on another GWR poster board for Broadway:

One more coat of red then that's 2 of this style done. Out of shot to the right is an identical design in varnished wood, which will receive a fancier gold lettering shaded black with translucent shadow which should be fun.

Afterwards I joined in on some more rubbing down before swapping hats at lunchtime and popping up to Toddington for an afternoon TTI turn. Passing through Winchcombe we were greeted with the familiar sight, but from the other end of the telescope so to speak!

Hi Gang! What's that, "Get back here and do some work!"? Well, it's hardly a strenuous task at the moment, all the tickets are checked prior to boarding and we go straight through half the stations. There's not too much to do after the frenetic sanitising at Toddington except sit back and watch the countryside go by to the sound of Foremarke Hall.

Wednesday 16th - A bit of a Shunt day

We needed 16221 on the jack road, for bogie removal and under floor inspection. The compartment floor bearers were found to be in remarkable condition and require no further attention ... happy days!

Rex is seen here altering the outer skin which did not quite match
the door profile, it looks much better now and with capping strip fitted near perfect.

Derek is fitting wood floor sections and found the one hole in the wrong place .... not any more.

Bryan got the best job, he always does ...... This storage container is somewhat porous, so using available and scrounged materials he/we are constructing a pent add on roof, this will take a while so lets hope the weather holds.

Des is working in 34929, varnishing its a never ending job but looks brilliant.

David is sanding a table for the disabled compartment on 34929, its attention to detail like this which gets noticed.

Colin is fixing an inner panel to a door assembly, I have to own up I am not sure for which carriage .... its an ongoing production line.

This is one of my bits, welding the water inlet pipe brackets to the carriage end panel. Its best done before any wood panelling goes inside to reduce the fire risk.

In the paint shop Dave and Rod are debating whether the painted areas are the same colour. Maybe a trick of the light

Rex is cutting steel here for a wall mounted rack to hold our smaller acrow props safely.

 

Bryan did come into the workshop to cut these scrounged lengths of section for the container roof .....

Then exhaustion set in and it was tea time ...... distanced of course.

We are taking the advantage of time and weather to do a number of jobs around the works, even sweeping up .... so when we return to normality, we will be all set to go forward.
 

Tuesday 15th - Another Beginner

It's my turn now as a first timer, so here goes.

Tuesday is the main Painting Team day when we usually have the Works to ourselves. We do of course have members present on the other three working days, but not long after the Works was reopened after lockdown, to keep the numbers attending to requested COVID levels, we abandoned Thursdays to allow the Metalwork Team to do the doorway and roof repairs on RMB1808. This work has now been done so we should soon be back to full time.

Beginning with 1808, with the undercoating on the Cotswold side of the coach largely completed, the concentration moved to the Malvern side.

Initially the brown gutter panel was painted. Painting the three levels on a Chocolate and Cream liveried coach should always be top down, very important once top coating starts.

Maurice, Phil, and Alex (not pictured) then painted the cream panels and then the window frames. 

 

The new batch of this particular paint has a much darker shade, at times very reminiscent of the Executive Light Grey top coat that we use for some of our interiors. On the Malvern side of the coach, with the very bright day and the light pouring through the skylights and side windows, it almost looked coffee coloured. We don't know why Williamson has changed the shade - it may be to improve the final top coating. Of interest the Light Grey undercoat has similarly darkened.

Alex later painted the main lower panels, leaving just a small area as he had to leave early. This can be completed by our Wednesday painters. If this had been top coat someone else would have taken over from Alex to complete the job.

At the south end of 1808 John cleaned up and repainted the connection rubber with the Matt Black Polyurethane top coat.

High up on the scaffold at the north end Ainsley initially repaired the canvas connection covering with some new roofing canvas stuck down with felt adhesive. This will later be painted, again using the Matt Black paint. 

The next job was to complete the cleaning up and any required filling above the connection. Previous filling high up on both sides of the connection was also thoroughly handsanded.

The next job was to apply Dark Grey undercoat over the whole area, leaving just the lower section where some further preparation remains to be done.

Bob starts second coating the Cotswold side of the roof with the Flint Grey top coat.

A little outstanding job was replacing the covers for the electrical connectors at the south end of 1808, now that the rewiring had been completed.

Russ took care of a number of jobs, initially undercoating some new back pads that we use for the electical connectors. These will be painted Gloss Black and stored until needed. He left the varnishing of the internal window trims for the Wednesday team, and instead gave the coach end steps (hanging out of view behind the camera) a second coat of Gloss Black - these are from CK 16221, under restoration in the Barn.

In the Upholstery Shop Dave is unpicking yet another seat back ready for repair and a new cover. As mentioned in recent reports, not having many of our front line coaches running has given us the chance to tackle more of the re-upholstering jobs than would normally be possible. As it is often said there is a silver lining to many things.

What better on a lovely sunny day than one of our trains pulling away from the station. "Dinmore Manor" is on the return run of the second of the day's two trains, mainly comprising the former 3rd Rake coaches that we smartened up.

A little later on "P & O" enters the station with the first of the afternoon trains. With just one of our Chocolate&Cream coaches, the remainder of the rake comprises coaches from our former Maroon or 2nd Rake. It's very sad to see all our other running coaches, mainly from our former Main and 2nd rakes, sat idle in the sidings. We look forward to the day when we can see them running again. 

 

 

A lockdown project completed. 

It had been suggested some time ago by two of the Painting Team that I ought to produce a full guide to the  preparation and painting of our rolling stock. It took a major crisis to do it, but the result is a 62 page document with text and photographs covering every aspect from prep and painting, to types and uses of the various paints, solvents, and preparation materials, listings for our two main suppliers, disposal of hazardous waste, H&S, and the general running of the Paintshop. A hard copy will be held in our general cupboard and a PDF version has been put on our Office 365 system.