Thursday 16th - All change

 

 

It's the third day of Cheltenham Races and the Thursday gang did not want to miss the first of the two special trains.

P&O had the honour to be the first one through with the Main Rake in tow.

That 3-cylinder sandpaper shuffle, so prominent with the Bullied pacifics, clearly heard as the engine passes. While Geoff and I take photos, Steve and Rex look on.

Michael B. was the guard. The train looked very full and certainly confirms Classic Hospitality's comment that all the four days of race trains are fully booked, usually months in advance.

Flashback to 14th March 2019 at Toddington. The waiting race trains look pretty impressive with gleaming "Dinmore Manor" and "P&O", and the "At The Races" headboards prominently displayed.

Back to work with Ainsley re-attaching the back panels and window surrounds after servicing the central door on the Cotswold side of FK 13326.

On the Malvern side Bob continues the general sanding of the paintwork at the north end.

[Photo : Gerry]  Gerry captured me using 240 paper to provide the final finish to the filler on this part of the Cotswold side. The surface after this treatment feels incredibly smooth. After this it was back to the pad sander with 120 paper to work on the various areas of top-up filling.

As reported by Nick in Wednesday's post, the major work to rebuild the north end will begin soon. As such there was a glut of activity today, beginning with Phil removing the electric connectors.

Roger was uncovering the screws holding the left side door pillar in the adjacent Malvern side doorway.

Phil's next job was the removal of the heavy cabling and connectors for the redundant electric heating.

It was all change in this part of the Workshop which will make for better use of the space. The new partition being built by David D. on Tuesday will go across in the gap to the left of the large wooden frame. The rack and general storage area at the back will be replaced by cupboards, which will be better for the various window parts which currently end up covered in dust. The second work bench has been moved to where the old belt sanding table was located. Three windows removed from RBr 1675 temporarily lean against the first work bench.

It was also all change in the yard with a series of shunting moves.

The empty looking yard with the 3rd Rake in the station.

With the race trains now at Cheltenham, the 3rd Rake leaves for Broadway to be ready for Gold Cup Day when all three rakes are in use. Andy Tu. was second man and had given me a cheery wave as they went by.

With the all clear given, the 03 moves on to the Works siding .............

................. and pulls out the Fruit C van and LMS Guards van.

The consist is then backed onto the BR Vanfit and "Gloucester RU" Toad brakevan.

With the LMS Brakevan removed, the remaining three are shunted into Platform 1 Bay, the former location of the Santa coach.

Now on to 1675 and the seating area which is beginning to look more like an empty shell with almost all of the windows now removed. However as Nick said in yesterday's post, all repairs are being made no matter how small. Rex is cleaning up around this window.

Gerry is doing the same on the Malvern side.

Inside 16875 Bryan is removing old internal wood framing.

Further along Geoff and Alan are working out how to get on to the scaffold platform and still be able to access the window frame. This side of the Workshop is somewhat restricted to say the least - there's many a time when you wish for just one more foot of space.

Success! Now on with the job in hand with Geoff cleaning the paint and filler off the window screws in preparation for its removal.

As stated above, it does look strange with all the windows out.

Angle grinders everywhere. Bryan is now outside and joins in the cleaning up around the windows. The primed backs of the new skirting are very obvious.

Rex has moved inside and now works on the inside of his window.

Kevin, our hard working storekeeper, exits one of our containers after another tidy up and reorganisation, with clear labelling everywhere.

Wednesday 15th - RBR RBR RBR

 The title tells it all really, but other things were happening. Chris persevered with the Mogo ......

The top corners are being replaced with 3mm plates, once they are shaped to the hole they will be fully welded into place.

Derek resumed his battle with 13326, removing the last bit of old floor at the corridor connection. Before we start any end removal, the door pillars will be replaced which will help to support the roof while we remove crash pillars etc. Although we have decided an extra bespoke support will be in place as well.

Still with 13326 Trevor and Rod are refitting a door, they have worked their magic on this one .....

This a little earlier with Ben assisting fitting the inner panel, before it is hoisted into position.

No blog is complete without Geoff and Colin aka 'The Chuckle Brothers', two of our carpenter team.

Inside 1675 its beginning to look less cluttered, behind Rex you can just make out Gerry he is removing another window frame. We are removing every frame and repairing any corrosion , however small. This old girl is 62 years old, so she should last another 62 years.

Bryan has spent a lot of time aligning the side skirts, so as not to have a rippled look. It is paying off.

Rex and Gerry's work on the window frames, as a team we work very well, they cut and prepare and all I have to do is weld into position.

Magnets, clamps whatever it takes to hold the work in position.

After collecting gas cylinders, John V and Ken A set about welding the very long runs of lower skirt panels. The trick is move about so as not concentrate too much heat in one place, and avoid warping.

Our upholstery team hard at work.

And finally because its Cheltenham festival week, I had to include the first train of the day ..... P&O looking fantastic.

Tuesday 14th - As they happen

Another busy day with some good progress on the FK, Mogo and Santa coach. 

For a change the photos are in time order as the events happen, rather than by subject.

My first job was to get the four new scotches for BCK 21092 into the guards compartment. The 3rd Rake was in Platform 2, ready to be taken up to Broadway on Friday for Gold Cup Day. While on the coach I just had to have another look at the first class compartments with the newly refurbsihed seating. They look stunning and a real credit to the Upholstery Team.

 

In the Barn Richard was removing the old transfers from the Malvern side and ends of the Santa coach. It was a lot warmer in there than of late and later on, as the day turned into a lovely sunny one, Ian raised the roller shutter.

Ian began his day completing the sanding down of the paintwork on the Cotswold side.

Alex had listed a number of jobs for Maurice (Paul was away). However Maurice instead took on the job of trimming the new bolts on the Mogo where this hadn't been done.

David D. began building something large in the Paintshop. Whatever could this be? It's certainly not for the RBr!

On to FK 13326 and the Malvern side where Stu carries on with the sanding/filling job. There is quite a bit to do on both sides. I worked at the north end, in particular sanding the side of the gutter, which I feel we don't clean up enough on some of our coaches, before working down to the door and along the side to and including the toilet window.

Robert prepares the blocks that he had previously cut for fitting to the large dropdown plates at the ends of the Mogo.

There is a problem with a sticking window on one of the two doors taken off 13326. Ainsley begins removing the back panel to investigate the working of the lazy tongs.

David is still busy with his creation.

Dave H. continues his refurbishment of compartment Door 2 from his coach TK 24006, gently sanding the veneer so as not to go through it. Interestingly this door was actually fitted to Compartment 3 and should have been stamped as such as there is already a Door 2 correctly fitted to Compartment 2 - a mix-up perhaps when this series of TKs was being built in 1951?

A visit to the office means passing through Upholstery, so an opportunity to catch up with some more of their excellent work. Another seat base from TSO 4867 waits to be stripped and rebuilt with the horsechestnut leaf moquette, which appears to be cut to size and sits nearby.

Two more photos of the new head rests being created by Jenny and John on Saturday.

More bundles of moquette with their futures mapped out.

Just to the left of the above bundles, not a selection of screws (they are in the light blue tin below), but some very yummy looking chocolates. If anyone from Upholstery is reading this post - no, I didn't take any! 😇

This is looking to be quite a sturdy structure, with another sheet of plyboard standing nearby ready to be fitted to box in the frame.

Maurice said he used to have a nickname at work, so working on the Mogo seems very appropriate!

It really was turning out to be a lovely warm spring day and no doubt a treat for the racegoers. The rain did return much later as the last of us left for the day. With all three rakes back to 8-coach strength and the 3rd Rake in the station, the yard looks somewhat empty.

Alan worked on the north half of the Cotswold side of the FK, adding more filler where needed, in particular on the central door frame.

The three areas on the Cotswold side that had all the peeling paint have cleaned up very well and had two coats of red oxide. We managed to "ease in" the existing surrounding area with some careful pad sanding, but to finish the job Pam applies a thin skim of filler along the main joins on all three panels.

Derek largely completed the stripping out of the north vestibule in preparation for the main rebuilding of the north end. The old lino and floorboarding lie alongside the coach and can probably be skipped, but a check will be made first to see if the latter needs to be kept to provide a pattern for when the new floor is eventually put in.

Pam carefully sands the skims with 120 paper and our new pad sander.

Back in the Barn Richard and Ian are now sanding down the Malvern side. Although the FK is the lower priority, as it is a bigger job with the need to rebuild the two ends, and we seem to be putting in a lot more effort on that, in reality the Santa coach will be very easy to progress. There are no windows, only three doors on the Malvern side, and bar the metalwork repairs which are already part completed, the coach is in very good condition.

Back to Dave who has now completed the sanding of the outer side of Door 2 and is removing the handle.

Unfortunately I missed the two race trains with their happy racegoers on their way to Cheltenham, but managed to photograph one of the late afternoon trains returning to Cheltenham just as our new coach was passing. All the coaches have the names of famous horses placed in two or three windows on each side. I noticed "Arkle" on the windows in one of the 3rd Rake coaches.

Maurice has long completed the trimming and priming of the overlong bolts, and with the primer drying quickly is now well into adding undercoat.

So what was the large structure being created by David in the Paintshop? It turns out to be a new partition that will be fitted into the space at the end of the vacuum cylinder maintenance and storage area. Apparently it is for leaning windows removed during major refurbishments - we already have a limited A-frame (in the background) for this purpose, but it sounds as though we need more storage space. I hope we don't lose the bench as there are times when both benches in this area are needed.

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Finally, with our new running season now underway, how's the blog doing?

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