Thursday 14th - Another busy day at the Works

 Beginning in the yard with SK 24804.

 

Richard was working on the fuse box underneath. Due to the potential for overheated contacts, Bulgin type fuse holders are being replaced on the battery charging circuit for automotive in line fuse holders which give better reliability. An example of heat damage is visible on the removed part.

Inside the coach, Geoff and Alan (below) were going through the list of jobs, one of which was repairing broken luggage rack netting. 

 Now moving back to the Works.

The test of the water tank from TSO 4867 was successful with no leaks detected. Phil drains off the remaining water.

It was just Nick today working on RBr 1675. He poses for the photo before resuming welding another of the underfloor crossbearers in place.

In the office his wife Eve pauses in her work while I take her photo. Our essential records grow ever more extensive.

Dave was busy again with the current work on our storage, in particular the stored seating. While some is being retained, other parts are being scrapped as being too worn to be worth salvaging.

With the not so much for the Indoor Gang to do today, Roger assisted Dave with the removal of these cushions to the skip.

It was very nice to have a visit from Jane Bennett today and show her the latest work going on, especially our plans for the RBr refurbishment.

It was just Alex working on the Macaw today, with a considerable amount on the Cotswold side and north end now primed.

Later in the day he had moved round to the Malvern side and was well into the cleaning up along the top section. 

 The cleaned and primed south end.

Earlier in the day I couldn't resist a shot of the Bubblecar and 03 in the sunshine.

Then crossing the line to visit Alex, a repeat pairing this time with Foremarke Hall and the Baguley-Drewry inspection railcar.

On to progress with CK 16221, Jeff continues the work on the Cotswold side door frames working on the south doorway. I later joined him on the central doorway. The work comprises sanding down the door liners to remove any rough sections and then fill where necessary to obtain a nice smooth surface.

Back on the north end doorway on the other side of the coach where Robert is fitting the centre section of the left hand capping strip. 

A quick flashback to Tuesday's posting and the seven small ceiling panels being top coated by Keith. The photo below shows where they are destined in 16221's compartments.

 

Two photos showing the work of the Wednesday woodwork team with the new outside sections of the corridor heating covers. More lovely new wood to varnish. This corridor is really going to look good when completed.

 

Finally, a very pleasant surpise from the Cotswold Diesel Railcar Group as a Thank You for the Bubblecar repaint. Thank you chaps - we will enjoy these in our tea breaks! 

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 An additional item from Alex

 I'll just sneak in at the end here with a couple of photos from Wednesday evening, where a small gang of us has started up again after a bit of a rest since the steam gala.

The next project on the agenda for our team is to tidy up these two steel opens currently being used to store coal. They were down at Hunting Butts for many years and proved a popular canvas for locals, and they were a bit of an eyesore in Toddington yard and needed painting. Before that though, a bit of surface prep:

Military grade paint with graffiti on top actually proved very solid, so all we really needed to do was key the surface up and clean up any rust spots and prime.

With the warm weather, the primer dried quick enough that after a late dinner, we broke out some undercoat and got one side of both looking much tidier:

Modern cameras are very good in low light which is lucky, as this was the actual lighting condition by the time we packed up!

 

 

Alex

 

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Tuesday 12th - New projects

After the big shunt on Saturday it was the beginning of some new projects for many of the Tuesday gang.

With the Bubblecar completed and CK 16221 now in the Paintshop, for the Painting and Prep team the latter has now become the new priority. The new capping strips are gradually being modified with notches for the fitting of the grab handles, but basically once all the strips are in place this allows for the line taping to go on and livery undercoating to begin.

However the first job is to tidy up the doorframe liners and fill any longitudinal gaps to create a good smooth surface. Richard works on the Cotswold side centre doorframe. When the left side of the frame was completed it was given a coat of primer.

Ian sanded both sides of the south end frame and created a very smooth surface. He too began adding filler where needed.

 Alan took over from Richard and tackled the right hand side of the centre doorframe.

On the Malvern side Robert was attaching the base of the north end door. All that new wood will look lovely with 3-4 coats of varnish.

At the opposite end Ainsley is undoing the grab handle in preparation for the removal of the capping strip.

 The strip now back in place with the notches cut out.

 

Back to the north end doorway where Robert is trial fitting a short section of reused strip between the centre and bottom hinges.

Keith finished off these tiny panels with a light sand and a final coat of white gloss. These are destined for the compartment ceilings in 16221.

For the Wagon Team it was also a new project with the replacement of the roof on the "Cheltenham High Street" Toad. Paul gradually removes the felting to reveal the old planking.

Meanwhile at the veranda end Richard has the plank clearance well underway. Maurice was also there but I missed him.

 Most of the old planking has already been skipped, leaving just some of the felting.

 With the roof stripping completed Richard, Maurice and Paul take a well earned rest.

Before helping out on 16221, Alan cleaned up some old scotches. These will be painted red and kept for internal Works use.

Another notice board repaint is underway with Keith adding undercoat white to the frame.

Having been unable to come in on Saturday, Pam enjoys her first day with the Tuesday gang and doing what she is really beginning to enjoy. 

Having completed the load limit to the door hoist frame, she moved on to adding ownership idents to the heavy spanners that will be used for removing wagon drawhooks and drawbar assemblies. 

And done both sides too!

 

As for the two station signboards that had previously been lettered by Pam, Alex and I carried them to Platform 2 and put them on the train. Alex later received a photo showing them already mounted at Broadway with posters in place! That was very quick work by the Broadway team and the photo will no doubt be in their blog.

Yet another new project is the cosmetic repaint of GWR "Macaw H" bogie bolster 107328. Alex, Phil, and Clive were busy cleaning off the old paint and rust around the main frame. The Macaw will be displayed next to the Usk Goods Office platform. Being low in height it will not hide the Goods Office, which is now beginning to look very good as the Heritage group continue with its rebuild. 

 The next job was applying a coat of green primer.

 

[Photo : Alex]  The completed job, at least on the Cotswold side and north end. I guess the south end and Malvern side still need doing. I forgot to ask! 

It was a busy day on the trains despite the heat and, after loading up the Broadway notice boards, it was great to watch the departure of the train with the Ivatt Mogul. 

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Finally, thank you for all the kind comments at the end of Saturday's posting. 

Regarding the query about whether the Upholstery team do their own piping on the seat cushions, I emailed John, who is head of the team, and his reply was as follows: - 

Hi Dave,

All our compartments have seats and armrests with piping, but they are not conspicuous because we use a plain coloured material for piping. The cushion you illustrate was not upholstered by us and we don’t know the source!

Cheers,

John.

Monday 11th - Pass Down The Platform, Please!

 As regular readers will know, our trains are 7 carriages long but the platform is only 6 long. Usually the north end is of the platform but by special request we can get the south end off and the north end on. That was what happened today - and it is 8 weeks since this last happened. Needless to say Coaches A were a bit grubby, especially the windows. Add to that the temperature was 25°C plus today so I decided to forego the Ghostbuster and join the carriage washers on rake 2 doing the Cotswold side of the maroon set. This is the sunny side and it dries very quickly, so the method is wet half a carriage, brush that half, rinse, wipe windows. Move to next half. Here are the before and after pictures - you can see difference in the windows - honest!

My helpers in this were Phil and David.

This was hot work, not helped by the hose coming adrift on numerous occasions - but the cold shower was nice!

After the break Tim came over to help as David had had to leave by then. He had been helping Paul on the other set and here he is finishing that off afterwards with Paul (on the left).

The rest of the team were working inside (I must get round to taking their photos!)  - John, Nigel, Greg . And our second new starter this year - Monica! 

No blog next week as we are off to a Family Event.