Monday 25th - Last man Standing

 Just 8 for Carriage Cleaning today, so just rake 1. We do like to do things the traditional way here, so in that spirit here we have one working and four watching! Mark is the worker, Paul is on stand-by, Roger O, Phil and John are having a discussion in the background.

Inside Nigel P has his head down brushing the seats in "Mary". Being First Class (no supplement!) and next to the Buffet car it gets a lot of use with plenty of crumbs to show how popular it has been (and the trains are still very busy, we're pleased to say).

We don't know why, but the large disabled compartment in this train always has coffee stains, here it was bonus time with an actual puddle! Mops were out later, so all will be well tomorrow.

Also inside was Greg, being a contortionist to do the windows.

Meanwhile I had been through with the Ghostbuster reaching the parts others can't reach. On my own as Mrs Blogger was not here today.

And so to the Last Man Standing. Not content with washing the train, every week Paul cleans every window with glass cleaner and so removes any smears.  That's quite a few windows in a 7 rake set! He is always last to finish.

Friday 22nd/Saturday 23rd - Underground, Overground...

...Wombling free! Friday was assigned as "Winchcombe Wombles day" the aim being to have a tidy up of 'stuff' scattered round the yard in the undergrowth, and basically fill the skips up!

We wombled round the yard with trolleys going back and forth at quite a rate:

We also took the opportunity to clear out some of the stuff in the RBr which will be the next major project - its going to have a new kitchen so all the old fittings well past their sell by date are going to be scrapped:

We also chose today as a good day to have the annual high wire inspection, which necessitates everything being shunted out to allow access for a cherry picker. It gave a good opportunity to see an overall view of where everything's at. The 2 extensive and lengthy carriage restorations CK 16221 and BSK 34929:

And the 3 wagons currently in, the Mink A, the Queen Mary of course, and the Fruit C:

A group photo (courtesy of Richard) mid way through the day:

The Wombles of Winchcombe yard are we!

And the results:

Hmm, think we need a new skip! (thanks to Dave for those photos, it was dark by the time I remembered!)

Wombling mission complete, a couple of us stayed a little longer to progress the Queen Mary; I masked up the waist line inside to do some more painting and Dave red oxided one of the veranda floors:

Thanks to Richard for the photos.

Saturday

Starting with our newest victim recruit, Bob is Tony's son and joined us today, and in the process claimed the title of C&W's youngest volunteer off of me!

He got stuck straight in cleaning up one of the window frames for the CK.

More doors! Chris was investigating the Cotswold side guards door on 34929, while I think Robert was, rather excitingly, actually working on door pillars for the CK rather than the BSK, hurrah!

No less than 8 people were doing various things on the Queen Mary today, possibly a record. Today was vacuum brake test day, and it was shunted out over the pit as some adjustment was expected:

The portable vacuum pump was hooked up and we created and destroyed vacuum a few times to see what happened:

I did the honours testing the setter and watching the gauge, all good up here!

Underneath though it didn't quite meet John's standards, the piston went up into the cylinder a little too much. So he and Andy disappeared underneath to fiddle with the relevant bit:

While this was going on 2 teams of 2, Paul and Maurice, and me and Richard, were finally bolting in place the new veranda sides:

We had also rather hopefully left one of the padded bench seats with upholstery to see what they could do with it as it was looking a bit tatty, they soon worked their magic (so quickly in fact I missed an in progress picture)

Much better!

Once adjustments were made and we were shunted back inside, Dave got the "fun" job of going round priming all the bolt heads:

The interior is coming along nicely, Paul blacked the stove with heat resistant paint (yes, I do want to test it out at some point) and Maurice carried on with the lower dark colour:

An end of day photo, just the 1.5" black line to do most of the way round and a few other bits and pieces, it's coming together:

Further preparations for the gala goods train took place in the afternoon with John and Andy trundling round the yard with the portable vac pump to test a few more wagons out. This one passed:

Along with several others. The beer tank threw up a few issues though:

But hopefully nothing in surmountable. Ian and Tony also did some preparatory shunting which was a nice surprise, so although I missed taking a photo, thank you for doing that :-)

Thursday 21st - The letters go on

A quieter Thursday with less in with the metalworking team having attended the day before. Most of photos are of the Queen Mary where progress continues at a rapid rate - very necessary as the Gala "countdown clock" is ticking loudly!

With the topcoating on the cabin sides completed on Tuesday, Alex could start the signwriting, beginning with the "S R" of course. The French chalk outline of the "S" patiently awaits his careful painting.

Cotswold side almost finished. Malvern side next!

An overview of the whole van. This was the only photo taken of this - the traditional end of day photo was not possible as by then we had hand-shunted most the vehicles together ready for extraction the next day while our high safety wires and associated equipment underwent the annual check and recertification.

Then the numbers begin to go on.

Phil adds a coat of white gloss to the roof.

Inside the cab Bob continues the lower level undercoating of the walls in Dark Grey.

We had been donated a tin of GW Cream gloss paint, which could not be used on our Choc & Cream coaches as it was quite a buttery cream, very different from that made by our regular supplier. However it is ideal for the inside of ths cab.

 Jeff having cleaned up the brake column undercoats that in Dark Grey.

Next for undercoating was the brake setter pipework.

Rapid progress with the column and setter completed, and Bob now working on the south end of the cab.

The next day would be our big yard tidy up, our safety wire inspection, and if time, continued effort on the Queen Mary van. Watch this space to see what happened.

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Now on to some of the other work taking place.

The Indoor Gang have now moved into CK 16221. As can be seen with these two windows, battening to allow the fixing of inner framing has been applied. Roger is drilling holes in the metal wall framing to allow battens to be fixed here too, which in turn will provide support for the new wall panelling. 

I later went back to the CK to photo Alan and Geoff, but missed their efforts. However I did capture Roger in one of the compartments attaching more battens.

Nearly lunchtime with some of the gang enjoying the sun as P&O passes.

I may have missed them working, but an hour and a half later I captured Paul and Dennis (who had been working in the 3rd Rake), and Geoff and Alan (who had been working in the CK) watching the DMU.

Paul's last job of the day was to vac the lobby, stairs and landing. Nice to keep everywhere tidy.

Several of our members are very fortunate to be able to own and run some lovely old cars. This beautifully restored 1953 MG YB is owned by Jeff. It is one of only 1301 that were actually made in the years 1952-53. It has a 1.25 litre engine.

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Lastly and most importantly, we were all delighted to see that Dave received his 15 years' service certificate and badge from GWR Trust chairman Glyn:

Dave is an absolute stalwart of C&W, and it's difficult to imagine the place without him - congratulations Dave, and here's to another 15 years! :-) -Ed.

Wednesday 20th - More of the same

With mainly us metal workers in the workshop and barn, and with our work on the Queen Mary done, we took to doing a bit of housework. This involved me giving the 3 MIG welders a good check over and clean, putting things where they should be and having lengthy discussions about the next projects.

It was a nice enough day in between the monsoons, so we took our last opportunity of tea breaks at the open end of the barn. I say last opportunity, surely after half term the weather will fold. On our hikes to the barn we had to go past the QM.

More pictures were inevitable.

Dave applying some of the last coats of paint, I did say make sure you climb off before doing the last bit.

One continuing job is these storage cages, John is making a lovely job of them using discarded fence sections.

John using a serviced MIG welder, nice bit of welding.

Meanwhile in the woodwork shop, an opportunity to have a clean up.

Although Dave found some work to do.

Geoff and Colin always ready for a pose.

Ainsley and the doorfit team are still finding things they didn't know we had. If they find any cash its mine!

They were just trying out the mess room, to see its all in working order.

A useful day, its always nice to have a clean up.