Tuesday 21st - In absentia

Many thanks to Paul and Robert who took all the photos as I and three other members of C&W were on a course for most of the day.

 [Photo : Robert]  Beginning with the Mogo where Paul is painting the south end drawhook.

 

[Photo : Paul]  Robert of course is heavily involved with the Mogo, here having a discussion about the vehicle and joking with Ainsley.

[Photo : Paul]  Robert having a trial fit of the Cotswold side door frame.

[Photo : Paul]  Alan priming more wood for the Mogo.

  [Photo : Paul]  The north end doors now undercoated.

[Photo : Paul]   It was back to bodywork prep with FK 13326, with Stu doing more filling and sanding on the south half of the Malvern side.

[Photo : Paul]   Richared sands more of the gutter at the north end.

[Photo : Paul]  Ian is concentrating on the south door. We are really getting the door sides and doorframes thoroughly sanded to ensure they don't stick through too much paint.

[Photo : Paul]  Pam carries on from where she left off on Saturday, at the south end of the Cotswold side of the coach. We've got to that stage in bodywork prep where it feels like it will never end, but good progress is being made and we are all eagerly anticipating when the first of the light grey base coat can go on.

[Photo : Robert]   Ainsley working on another new back panel for a door off the FK.

[Photo : Robert] 

 [Photo : Paul]   Almost all the windows have been taken out of RBr 1675. Tony spent the day cleaning up the frames and also the sliders when removed.

 [Photo : Paul]   Derek prepares another piece of floorboarding for 1675.

[Photo : Robert]  David was continuing his work to create the barrier wall that will be fitted in the Workshop to section off the new coach windows area.

 [Photo : Paul]

Monday 20th - Not even Plan Z!

 As we arrived for Carriage Cleaning this greeted us

Rake 1 moving off to Winchcombe behind D6948 (good to see the Green Goddess back in service). Nigel had already started inside and had to be extracted before an unscheduled train ride! It had not been cleaned after the weekend before being removed. It was going there to have the eighth coach removed and to shuffle the first class "MARY" to be next to the buffet car.

In platform 2 we found

Rake 3! This was cleaned inside by the team, and washed on the Cotswold side. It had been cleaned by the Race Train cleaner contractors but there is always something. Like tinsel from Christmas in one carriage. Also mopped throughout. Next use for this set is the Steam Gala in May.

But we did get our first viewing of the lovely horse chestnut moquette we are currently using.

Part way through the morning D6948 re-appeared. We knew rake 2 was up the north siding, was it going to fetch it for us? No - it was on p-way duties.

Why would we need rake 2? Because somehow or other it had been shunted up the siding before the contract cleaners were able to clean it on Friday, so it was in need of a very thorough clean. I heard it is due to be pulled into the station tomorrow so maybe there is a plan to get them back to clean it this week sometime. 

And finally, why we ask that train toilets are not used in the station

So just train pictures this week, the cleaning team was Kath, Greg, John, Mark, Nigel, Paul and self.

Hopefully it will be business as usual next week. This was a definite first in all the years we have been cleaning.

Saturday 18th - A new toy

With the mayhem of the race trains over for another year, it was back to an ordinary day today, for the railway and for me, it was nice just to have a day of standard C&W work and not so busy I couldn't even do the blog!

The first ECS of the day and we all trooped out to see the new toy, 75014 'Braveheart' was out for its first revenue earning day on our railway:

It's visiting us from the Paignton & Dartmouth railway and staying for the Steam Gala 12-14th May.

First off, there was an RBr project meeting to discuss progress between the metal workers, wood workers, electrics and others:

Nick looks out from a window repair in progress!

Meanwhile at the North end Ken was working on preparing the end to refit the corridor connection:

Simon carried on with the floor bearers:

The other main project at the moment is FK 13329 and there were several bodie son this today filling and sanding; Dave:

Pam:

Jeff:

And Phil:

It's definitely making progress and hopefully not long before we can get some paint on some sections of this.

A quick dash outside to see Braveheart return, this time facing the right way:

And then upstairs to see how upholstery were getting on with the seats for 4867. Jenny and John cutting and fitting the fabric:

Laura prepares another back, with a completed piece in the foreground:

We really are indulging this standard coach with first class seating!

Back down to the workshop and Dennis was sorting out some electrical bits and bobs:

On the lathe John was sorting out the rather knackered bolts holding the north end door hinges on the Mogo, thanks John!

On the wagon itself Maurice spent most of the day painting bolt heads, Paul and I were amused to see up up on the scaffold leaning down to paint some:

The main task for today was to trial fit the last pair of doors, on the North end. Robert captured Paul and I at work:

The other 3 pairs of doors went on like a dream, with only a minor bit of easy adjustment needed. Not so here, and we spent most of the afternoon nudging things this way and that, trying to figure out what wasn't right. Eventually we got there though, Robert captured Paul checking the close:

We think the frame must be a bit out of square this end as all the doors were perfectly square, but didn't fit. Once we'd finally established what adjustments we wanted to make we marked up and Robert did the honours once we'd taken them off again:

We even got them primed by the end of the day:

The big vacuum up at the end of the day, an awful lot of pink dust around at the moment:

And the final photo on the way out, the Friends of Winchcombe team's two storage wagons finally back in place in the bay platform, I had nipped out and done a quick repair on a sprung plank on the LNWR van just before I left

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.