Saturday 16th - Enjoying what we do

Another day of glorious weather, but for most in C&W it was another day inside the Works. However, as is often said, we are here because we want to be, and today there was certainly a lot to keep us busy. Besides which on lovely warm days we can have our breaks in the lovely station garden or on our benches in the yard just outside the Barn.

Beginning with Andy and Andy .........oh, er, how about Andy T. and Andy T.......... oh, alright then, Andy Th and Andy Tu. working on one of the DA valves from 1675.

It was causing some bother initially, hence the massive spanner giving plenty of torque, but eventually it was part dismantled for servicing.

It's a long trawl cleaning up the luggage racks from CK 16221 but as ever, we keep going. Dave is busy with yet another.

And once they are cleaned, we want to keep them so - that netting collects a lot of dust and grime, especially in our dusty Workshop. As such Kevin is busy wrapping the cleaned ones in clingfilm.

The cleaned and repainted underseat heating grills all ready for reinstating in 16221.

In the centre vestibule of 16221 Simon wrestles with a large sheet of veneer panelling before securing it in place.

Later on I caught Simon creating some curved sections of battening using the runner for one of the two vestibule sliders.

 Robert is back working on liners for the Cotswold side north end doorframe. 

Inside the kitchen area of RBr 1675 Phil is doing some more dismantling. 

He later appeared with a fairly ancient bar list that had fallen behind what he had removed. It's at least 50 years old with its pre-decimalization (1971) prices. 

 One of the new underfloor cross-bearers inside 1675.

 In Upholstery John trims up a new seat foam pad with the electric breadknife.

 

Another of 1675's chairs nears completion with Laura and Jenny adding the final bits of sewing. 

Maurice is back at the southern end of the Toad brake van cleaning up the vertical girders.

Paul is removing old residue from another of the underfloor ballast bins.

Andy Th. now works on the vacuum cylinder from the Toad brake van. This will also be given a thorough servicing.

In the Paintshop Pam and I worked on the backs of the two toilet doors from TK 24006. Both have been varnished on the outer sides, but the backs need painting. The toilet roll holder on this one proved to be somewhat difficult to remove, especially as half of one of the screw heads had been sheered away. Pam initially uses a punch to create a decent indent to enable the remainder of the broken screw head to be drilled away.

The three dented aluminium strips were also removed and the tiny screw holes and indents filled using a very fine filler. The old tarnished formica also needed roughening up.

The back of the second door had been painted in the past, but before repainting, needed filling where the groves for the old strips still existed and where the old paint had come away.

We now have quite a collection of photos of past members on our stairs wall and Ian thought it would be nice if we had a plaque mounted to state what this was. Steve carefully cuts an ideal piece of planking.

The beautifully shaped end result, ready for varnishing and then Alex's excellent signwriting.

It is often said that we spend all our time working on our coaches without actually getting on the train and enjoying the benefits. So after a bit of initial work, two of us caught the first train from Cheltenham, did the complete round trip sat in luxurious comfort in FO 3132 "Mary", and then returned to work. Wonderful !

Dinmore pulls in with the other train.

Before we left, Alan had been in the final stages of installing the new back lighting on the Cotswold side of the Paintshop.

The work had been completed when we got back. With camera at the ready Alan did the formal switch-on and what a difference.There will be no excuses for any paintwork runs now!

13th/14th/15th - Toddington-Winchcombe-Toddington

 A busy few days at the railway for me, starting off Wednesday evening at Toddington, for another riveting session on the tank wagon. Always tricky to take photos of this activity as it all has to happen fairly quickly while the rivet's still hot enough, and I was the middle bit of the process! But here's Mark on the BBQ cooking the next rivet up:

You heat until the surface of the rivet starts to 'boil' then a shout of "Ready!", I pick the rivet up and shove it in the hole, then Mark and Ian come in with the jammer from below and the rivet gun from above:

We decided to focus on the easier outer ones this time, so made great progress, 46 rivets in 2 hours or so we thought wasn't bad at all. Apart from a couple of awkward ones requiring a little more thought, that's all the outer ones done now. Still plenty to do inside though.

No sooner had we finished Greg turned up and promptly slapped some green primer on them, thanks Greg!

While with the last of the light Mark and I got the steam cleaner out and had some fun took all the lichen and verdigris off the Macaw, which is now almost ready to see some paint:

To Thursday then, and the early starters first, Dave declared it was time for a vacuum up, with the prep on the bubble car nearly finished, and Aland and Geoff were looking at filling a hole in the floor of a 3rd rake coach:

My project for the day was the big noticeboard for the entrance at Cheltenham. The times are on a separate board cut from a recycled redundant plastic timetable board, lettering designed on the computer (carefully font matched to GWR styles), printed out and chalk dusted on the back before going over the lines with a pencil to leave an imprint:

Into the workshop for a break to find a worker and a supervisor! Robert was painting some heating grills while Dave was supposedly cleaning up luggage racks, I guess both for 16221:

Inside the coach, Bob got the satisfying job of applying the first coat of varnish on the new panelling along the corridor:

2-3 more coats and it will really gleam!

Bryan and Gerry continued the good work in pulling apart the RBr:

Paul was delighted to be caught vacuuming in 4986(?) out in the yard:

Just one on the Toad today, Gerry again on the angle grinder:

And a well earned tea at the end of the day, he'll be lucky if he's allowed in the house for a shower, it might be the hose for you Gerry!

Keeping much cleaner was Ian, who spent most of the day in the office, either in meetings or doing admin. There's a lot more to being Head of Department than (trying to!) tell us what to do!

This was as far as I got with my noticeboard today, still to add GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY along the top, some more script lettering to explain about diesel/DMU running in the bottom, and finish the white outer moulding. Note the printed Fares sign, carefully designed to match GWR style, layout and typeface:

And finally Friday, back at Toddington for some more wagon work. The gala's not far away! In fact I was so focussed on what I was doing that I forgot to take any photos until the end of the day, when I'd taken another batch of planks out of the Macaw and got most of one side in undercoat grey:

Rather unthoughtfully someone parked an engine just out of shot on the left blocking my light! It is all 9nearly) the same colour in reality, although it turned out the new batch of dark grey undercoat I switched to half way along is a slightly different shade.

Speaking of the gala, on Thursday we were excited to announce our fourth and final guest for the gala, 92203 Black Prince, making a very welcome return after being resident here at the GWSR until about 10 years ago. Since then it moved to the North Norfolk Railway and this will be the first time it's left their metals since they bought it.

Dave was particularly excited, and dug out some old pictures from 2009:

Thanks Dave, wish the ballast train I guarded the other month had that good a motive power!

This really is an event not to be missed, with 9 locos in steam, an intense timetable with non-stop expresses, goods trains, shunting demos, the lot. 3-5th June, you can pre-book tickets here.

Wednesday 13th - RBr, Toad, CK and Bubblecar

Many thanks are due to Russ who very kindly took and later forwarded the following photos for Wednesday's activities.

Beginning with the major refurbishment of RBr 1675.

Rex is inserting spacers into the new underfloor cross bearers to give them added strength.

Bryan is removing an old cross bearer (above and below)

Later in the day with two new bearers now welded in place.

 

Ken removes one of the sliding windows from 1675.

On the other Barn line Gerry is busy removing rusty sheet metal from the Malvern side of the Toad brake van (above and below)

 

Moving into the Workshop and CK 16221, Trevor is fitting a liner to the Cotswold side north end doorway.

 Robert is doing the same job on the same side, but at the opposite end.

Meanwhile Ainsley is working on the opposite doorway, attaching the overhead liner. The new end veneer panelling behind Ainsley shows up well and will soon be given its first coat of varnish.

David D. is working on the handrails for the corridor, both cleaning up existing ones and making new ones. These were later left in the Paintshop for varnishing.

 Colin is fitting the handrail supports to the window frames (above and below).

 

In the Paintshop David A. and Russ continued the lengthy sanding down of the door edges and frames, particularly important where areas of cracked and flaking paint are found. The warning labels on the back of the doors are also being removed. Russ found that the easiest way of doing this was by using 80, and then 120, paper.