Saturday 16th - It's Grim Out There

 A grim day weather-wise, but lots achieved. Starting off in the barn, where Steve was investigating door function on the blue DMU:

There's not much time to do any actual work on this as it's only in for the metal repairs at the cab end, but investigating and recording is a good start for future work.

On the jack road the dirty gang discuss the plan of action for the day:

It was good to see Clive back after a while away.

The first job was to take some measurements on SK 25488, which John did:

Before it was shunted out and a pair of bogies were brought in to do some wheel swaps to enable them to be put under the SK:

The gantry lifts the bogie up:

Allowing the wheelset to be rolled out:

And axleboxes to be taken off:

One was later found stewing in the parts cleaner:

A vaguely tidy environment is always important, Ian does the honours!

In the workshop, Richard and Paul were once again wielding the paint brushes on the Mink A, this time top-coating the inside surfaces of the framing:

Meanwhile, John got to do his favourite activity, a turn on the pipe-bending machine, to make some more buckeye bars for lifting the couplings:

Checking the angle:

The finished product:

Meanwhile I pottered on with some more window frame painting on CK16221, now completed on the Cotswold side:

Alan was also working in the workshop, working his way through some more PAT testing:

As Dave says, just where do they go! George was painting the new scotches which should keep us going for a little while:

Onto BSK 34929, Dave and Pam were both cleaning up various bits of window trim for the toilet compartment:

While some other bits of trim were being fitted by Dave:

Looking smart by the end of the day:

Chris and Robert were once again busy on fitting door pillars:

A bit more adjustment was still required!

Ainsley was cleaning up a wood frame for one of the doors in the woodwork shop:

A trip upstairs found Jenny and John working on a completely different coach, recovering some seats for TSO 5042:

And I dodged the showers to nip out in the yard and find Dave and Rob sanding down the sycamore veneer in their coach SK 24006, it's coming back quite nicely:

Dinmore Manor and 4270 were out today, absence of rain and Dinmore facing the right way did not occur simultaneously, but I caught 4270 coming through on the last train, exchanging tokens with Bob on signalman duty today:

Friday 14th - Maintenance

Report by Graham

Carriage maintenance has an element of repetitive process, this centres around the monthly Type C examinations of the rolling stock. That’s partly explains the absence from the blog, there are limited ways of saying ‘stuff was examined’. However, while not examining, the rest of the time is spent repairing the items found during the exams or fixing the bits that have fallen off or vibrated loose during traffic. Today was a bit of each with the Type C on the maroon rake and doing a few fixes where feasible. 

First job is always to secure the rake with the NTBM board and scotches. 

Not to be moved board in place 

The external examination involves a lot of crawling around underneath the carriages, hence the need to put safety at the top of the agenda. 

Ian checking the dynamo belt 

Ian also found two Elephant trunks trapped between brake gear and axle. The elephant trunks lost the fight. 

Some jobs get done, like refixing the panelling on the back of a door… 

Wooden panel removed to check for screw holes before refixing the panel 

Some jobs don’t get done because fate conspires against us; this door had to stay out of use because the back panel couldn’t be removed as the screws were varnished in. The drop light glass has become detached from the carrier on the lazy tongs, it has been propped shut to (hopefully) stop anyone opening it and dropping the glass down which would probably shatter it. 

Mark 1 window closing device deployed 

Other things the observant internal examiner spotted was that First Class passengers in the BR Mark 1 carriages need an extra luggage rack, probably for their newspapers 😊 (hats maybe? -Ed.)

Second Class luggage rack - Mk1 CK

First Class luggage rack - Mk 1 CK, note the more elegant reading lamps 

The maintenance team spend a significant part of the day wandering back and forth to the store room on Platform 2 to search for sundry items of kit needed for the repairs. On one such foray the presence of the apocryphal station cat was observed. It has never been seen in daylight, does it really exist? 

Ghostly footprints along the rail head 

We also investigated a potential roof leak above one of the toilets.

Martin checking out state of the roof.

Martin reported that one of the clam-shell vents had lost a bit one side and looked like it might be acting more like a funnel. There is not a lot we can do roof wise during our regular maintenance. Weather, access issues, and length of time the work requires mean it really needs the carriage taking into the main workshop, we just look and report.

There may be more excitement to report next week.

Thursday 13th - Ticking off the jobs and a mystery resolved

 With Nick attending on Thursday this week, just a few photos from Wednesday taken by Bryan on progress with the blue DMU 51306.

Good progress was being made on rebuilding the front corner that had been damaged in BR days. With the basic framework coated in oxide, Rex carefully measures up for the first section of replacement sheet metal.

He also takes a measurement for the new section of crash pillar that will need to be inserted.

The new section of sheet metal is tried for size.

Thank you Bryan for the photos.

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Now moving onto Thursday and continuing with the reconstruction on 51306.

Gerry is assisting Nick with the rebuild. The new sheet metal has now been spot welded on. Just behind Gerry's arm is the new piece of crash pillar now welded in and coated with oxide.

Nick tries the next small section of sheet metal, which will be bent round to conform with the curve - never easy when you have in effect a double curve to contend with. Also not helping is the fact that the section of frame just above the sheet metal is bent inwards, a legacy of the past collision.

Nick then carefully marks the approximate position for the curve.

Photo: Nick

Returning later to find that Nick had successfully welded in the new curved piece. A really great bit of progress with the corner rebuild.

The progress on the restoration of the Mink A van is also coming on well. Richard and Paul are enjoying the break, after several hours of hard work.

It's not long before they are back to work. Paul is top coating the vacuum brake through pipe using up some redundant paint ("Carmine Lake" that had been bought by mistake many years ago and sat in the paint cupboard unrequired).

Richard is back to the "Dark Grey" undercoating around the main frame.

A walk down the yard to RBR 1672 (currently redundant because of Covid) where Richards I and II are inserting some new cabling to enable a second fridge to be used.

Richard I down below, feeding in the new cabling.

In the Workshop Geoff (welcome back!) and Alan were cleaning up a window from SK 24006.

The next stage with Alan carefully applying the sealant around the edge of the pane.

 The pane now put back with new sections of inner framing in place.

Meanwhile Dave H. (co-owner of 24006) has been busy cleaning up the ceiling vent covers, and they have come up amazingly well with all the old paint removed. Usually these are painted because the old plastic (bakelite?) has tarnished, but these are like new and certainly won't need repainting.

The photo I forgot to take on Tuesday (apologies to Derek!), with the new ceiling in place in the south end (2nd Class) toilet compartment in CK 16221.

The new ceiling for the 1st Class toilet is on its way.

Taken near the end of the day. Having been involved in a range of different jobs, Bob S. spent the last half hour or so continuing with the undercoating of the Cotswold side windows of 16221.

Just where do our chocs disappear?! Waiting on the Paintshop trestles was another large pile of these with a note: "In yellow please with C&W on both sides". Bob gives them an initial coat of wood primer, leaving just the base and curve. The yellow will go on during Saturday and then over to Alex for the signwriting - "C & W" 22 times! 😀

On to more progress with BSK 34929, with Bob K. preparing the toilet walls for top coating.

 Returning much later and the "Executive Light Grey" topcoating was almost finished and looking really good. Bob is a professional painter and always does a fantastic job. He also very kindly brings in some custard tarts for our afternoon tea break, a very welcome treat!

The top section of window frame had been mounted on Wednesday - this was removed and cleaned up ready for varnishing, and will be put back on Saturday ready for the continued rebuilding next week.

 

Another of the many jobs done by Bob S. was to clean the gathered dust and dirt from all the surfaces in the guards compartment. This meant that Bob K. could get straight on with making a start on a second top coat in here.

Another of the long list of requested jobs for 34929 was to apply Silver Hammerite to the bolt heads for the compartment luggage racks - Jeff was very careful with that new upholstery underneath. Tuesday's work was also very much in evidence with the newly varnished seat tops and Hammerited underseat heating grills now in place.

 Two more jobs done by Jeff was top coating this side of the guards compartment inner door and a second top coat on the north end corridor slider. Beyond that the cleaned up metal runners for the guards and compartment doors, another Tuesday/Wednesday job, await fitting.

Jeff's first job of the day was top coating the inner side of the toilet door. Just the edge pieces to be varnished and the door "furniture" reinstated, and the door can go back on.

Four superbly cut top sections for the seats in the disabled compartment in 34929 awaited varnishing. Bob S. applies the first coat. Another job to complete on Saturday, after which they will be fitted by our Wednesday woodworkers. In the background are various undercoated parts from the Mink A van.

Into the Door Team's area, with Ainsley fitting the door handle on the next door to be mounted on 34929.

Trevor and Des were reconstructing another of 34929's doors, with the inner base being secured.

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And finally, an email to Clive, owner of CK 16221, about the former liveries being uncovered by the sanding down of the doors and bodysides (mentioned in the Tuesday report), produced the following reply:

"It was new to WR in approx July 1961 and was built to diagram 128 which had 4-a-side bench seats in 2nd class. It was in Lot 30666 which was for 28 vehicles numbered W16198 - W16225. All were originally allocated to the WR and had Commonwealth bogies and dual heating from new. It would have been maroon from new I think.

It was transferred to the SR in April 1964, and then to the ScR in October 1976. It's not surprising that it got a coat of green and I suspect it would've been blue/grey before it went to Scotland.  At some point it was in SR Set 128. The info I've got shows it was an unallocated spare in 1969, but elsewhere I've seen Set 128 was 16221, a BSK and another CK.

Whilst on the SR it lost its Commonwealth bogies to an earlier SR coach that had been airbraked and got BR1s in return. This had certainly happened by 1974 and probably before 1971. At some point it got armrest seats in 2nd class - possibly whilst in Scotland?" 

A very interesting history. Thank you Clive.