Tuesday 18th - An enjoyable day

Just ten of us in on what turned out to be a very satisfying day. All the photos are in the order taken.

Well the weather certainly turned out to be lovely, and very welcome after a fairly dismal forecast had been given. A wander outside to enjoy a few minutes in the sun and fortuitously just in time to catch the second down train of the day.

 Having taken the one, you have to take the other. The first train of the day returns north.

The first main job of the day was a tidy up of the Paintshop which over time inevitably becomes a dumping ground as painted items accumulate and more items are brought in to be prep'd and painted. Also Woodwork have needed space to store all the plyboard for RBr 1675 and from this prepare the new sections of floorboarding.

Two items awaiting prepping are the new battery boxes for 1675 which had been completed some time ago by David D. These were brought out into the cleared floor space where Alan initially sanded down the edges to both smooth them and remove any splinters from the plyboard.

Moving round the end of the Santa coach to see Richard working along the gutter to removed flakey paint from the side and in turn smooth this down as much as possible. Along the wall, the stored plyboard with offcuts.

It was good to see Roger back following a serious health issue, and back to stay. The lighting channels are from 1675's seating area, having been removed by Phil last week. A further group of shorter ones are on the table out of sight on the left. All required a good sanding prior to re-painting.

On now to the Mogo in the Workshop where Robert is chiselling out a recess for a door handle.

On the Malvern side Paul is drilling screw holes for more door fittings.

It was also good to see Pat back again. He lives in Cardiff but stays near the Railway for occasional weekly visits, working with both Railway Catering and us. This time he was in the Coffee Pot Cafe on the station on Saturday and on the train on Sunday, and is now with us for today, Wednesday and Thursday.

Pat carried on the greying up on the upper half of the FK. It's good to see the uniform covering of grey removing the mishmash of preparation work.

Tucked round the back of GW Mink A van 124589 Maurice was working his way over the many protruding bolts with a tin of green primer. When the van was rebuilt these had been left unpainted, but now it was back inside the Barn the decision was made to paint them.

Back out into the glorious sunshine to see Dave, who definitely had the best job of the day. He has extended his general protective and tidy-up painting onto the neighbouring BG. I felt like joining him, but blog duties called and there was an amount of painting that I needed to do before I left for the day.

Returning to the Barn, Pat had progressed onto the FK's lower panel.

Paul was now inside the Mogo painting the Malvern side inner door frame.

An excellent place to have lunch on a nice warm day. Not that we want the southbound train to be delayed, but if it is then we get to have the northbound train and the loco by us for even longer!

Happily it's on time with lots of passengers on board. The tokens are exchanged as P&O shuffles by and brings the train to a stand. It soon departs for Cheltenham. Meanwhile 75014's blower is briefly turned on to raise the pressure, the Toddington token is brought over, the guard and station staff are poised for the off, the chime whistle sounds and the train pulls away. Hey ho, time to return. Our pace is somewhat slower than when we came over here - it was nice sitting there watching the world go by.

Guard on the northbound train was Bob, having a day off from cleaning and painting coach roofs. Behind is the rebuilt Usk Goods Office - the Heritage Group have done a superb job. We should soon be able to bring the Macaw and the vehicles used by the FOWS into the goods platform, which will complete the scene perfectly. And everybody loves that oak tree - the perfect backdrop!

On leaving the Mess Room, a quick look in Upholstery to photograph their first completed seat back in the reupholstering work being done for the Dean Forest Railway.

Downstairs in the Doors/Woodwork Shop, Robert is checking over the rebuilt base of one of 1675's emergency doors. The second door is undergoing similar repair work on the near bench.

Roger is now into the undercoating of the lighting channels - that's a lot better even with just undercoat.

Alan has also progressed to the wood priming, doing the outer sides of the two battery boxes.  I gave the battery box doors a further sanding around the edges to ensure they are really smooth as these are handled by both our electricians and our Friday Maintenance staff.

In the far background Richard has progressed almost to the south end of the Santa coach.

Pam had had a busy morning initially cleaning up the edges of the second name plate for Capel Dewi Hall, before applying the letters. The first name plate, now partially painted, sits on the scaffold in the background.

The undercoated lighting channels looking very much better. Roger had also completed the shorter ones on the table (out of sight on the left). Behind is the U-frame which I have literally just black glossed, which is for the north corridor connection on 1675.

1675 receives its first bit of gloss paint. However this is simply so that Ken can rebuild the corridor connection. The hardwood plates will be removed so that they can be primed and painted before the connection is put back.

Pat has finished for the day and gone, but has done an excellent job getting the rest of the north half of the Cotswold side of the FK greyed up. Just the windows to do. 

Tomorrow it's back to the Malvern side preparation - filling, sanding and plenty of red oxide.

Pam finishes her day black glossing what will be the back of one of the headboards to be used during the Cambrian Weekend 22nd/23rd April.

 Finally three photos taken by Paul E.

Maurice has progressed to the Cotswold side of the Mink A van with the bolt priming.

 Later Maurice was busy top coating the Mogo door frame on the Cotswold side.

Paul's comment regarding this final photo, "The Mogo nearing completion". A nice end to this posting.

Monday 17th - A Birthday for One

 As expected the scene to greet us today was 

Just rake 1 in platform 2. You'll see why later.

So here are Paul, Lawrie and David washing the Cotswold side of rake 1 (I was on that team as well, not just taking photos!). This was the first time we have been able to do this side this year - and it was obvious! We had 10 volunteers for just one rake, so as part of the "birthday" Paul scrubbed down every window deflector on the top windows. Coach G on the south end was very dirty. It's those steam trains and diesels that do it!

So here we have John and Rich in the buffet car (and someone, sorry, name unknown) from C & W had been in measuring up for reference for the buffet car undergoing the rebuild in C & W.  

As I passed through the train I couldn't help taking a pic of a very smart "Mary" after it had been cleaned. Looked so much better after the dead chips etc had been removed!

Further along I found Nigel (in the distance) and Kath still busy.

Then back down the train Jane and Greg had just finished. As another "birthday" treat Jane (taller than most of us) had wiped the top of the lamp covers in 4790. The cloth is now in need of a very good clean!

That reminds me that just after this David was reminded that it is a good idea to turn the water off before disconnecting the hose..........

As a final part of the "birthday" the train was mopped throughout.

Something else happening in the buffet car was Graham counting the stock so that Rosemary could keep the tally.

Back over on platform 1 I stopped to admire the yellow tulip display.

And so why just one rake?  Here's why

It's the weed killing "train". Having been up to Broadway it was on it's way back.

A Pre-Easter Treat.

At the beginning of the season Ian, HoD of C & W, offered the cleaning team a conducted tour of the works, so on April 5th we eagerly took up the offer. Some of us did this when Peter Bennett was HoD but several of the new members had the chance to get this in-depth look for the first time. Eight of the team came and everyone was very impressed with the work undertaken and the friendly greetings from the C & W volunteers and especially Ian's helpful commentary. Those who had not been before were suitably amazed at both how complex carriages are and the skill of our volunteer restorers. At the end of the tour we repaired to the mess room where Ian made the tea - and washed up afterwards. Real leadership skills!

Here is Ian explaining the total rebuild of the buffet car.

Saturday 15th - Is it Spring now?

 A pleasant day to be at the railway, with none of the dreadful weather we've had over the last few days and weeks, enough to be getting on with some outdoor work.

Dennis was first off, sorting out the third rake:

And while I was there, watch P&O steam past too

Today was a good day for Clive and I to tick off some annual pad exams on wagons being used during the steam gala. It was mostly the short BR set that needed doing, having not been used since last year's steam gala:

Pleasingly they were all in good condition with only a couple of boxes showing signs of leakage. On the bright side, now that we're doing this regularly, the job gets easier as fewer nuts are seized on their threads. On the downside, we're now amassing such a fleet of operational wagons that we have to spend more and more time just doing exams on them!

We paused to watch Braveheart going the other way, trains were pleasingly full today.

Next door to us also making use of the dry day was Dave, putting some paint on one of our storage BGs to help prevent any further deterioration.

On our way through the works, the two Andys puzzle over how best to test the pipework on 16221 that unfortunately got failed during the week.

We quietly snuck past with the vacuum pump before they realised they might need it to hook it up to the Fruit C, which we also want to use at the gala. The cylinder showed signs of life although the brakes will need a bit of adjusting.

One cylinder that was off was on the CK, John blanking off some pipework here I think to allow some testing.

Meanwhile seeing as it was off, Dave took the opportunity to give the cylinder itself a more thorough coat of paint than we'd managed beforehand.

Alan and Simon continued their fantastic job building the floor for the RBr. Here cutting another section in the paintshop.

And another section fitted.

Dave also found some painting to do here, the North corridor connection can soon be fitted.

Ben spent most of the day angle-grinding this door portal to try and enlarge it such that a door might fit in it.

As you can see, quite a lot had to come off.

Laura and Jenny were on duty in upholstery today, starting on a new venture helping out the Dean Forest Railway. As our gang are always way ahead of the rest of the works, we've agreed to do a set of TSO seats for them. They've chosen this Boomerang style, another early '50s design contemporary with the red chain link and the blue and gold chestnut leaf we all like.

Back in the workshop and the main job on the Mogo today was battening down the roof canvas. I captured Paul...

And a passing train from the window...

And Paul captured me. Another job ticked off as this project nears completion.

Another small job done by John for us was the addition of a little bit of metal on the door lintel metal straps to receive the door locking bars. Originally the bits holding the locking bar were countersunk into the wood allowing the bar to be retained behind the metal strip, but we didn't fancy doing this with the plywood, so a small modification and it all works nicely.

Final picture of the day is the wooden nameplates to dress up Foremarke, I splashed a bit more paint on them including some rather nice brass effect stuff. Must make sure we put that number plate on the right way round!