Thursday 24th - A lot of outdoors today

With the weather fine, especially with another wet spell looming, it was time to make the most of the outdoor work.

Beginning with the Model Railway TPO, Alex carries on with his "ROYAL", adding the white highlighting.

 Phil gets cracking with second top coating the "MAIL" panel.

 Returning later to find that he was well on the way to completing this part of the overall sign. 

Chris and Steven were busy installing the large planks inside the MACAW wagon in the Usk goods office platform.

 

The day had begun with a warm sultry morning and it was becoming even warmer, so I didn't envy Paul and Dennis making their way back to the 3rd Rake for more cleaning.

The good news with SK 24949 is that a test with a hose earlier on has proved that the leak has been fixed at last. So Alan and Geoff are now reinstating the various items, beginning with the communication cord, and now the ceiling and light fitting. This will be followed by new wall panelling and then the whole compartment given a complete repaint. The opposite toilet compartment will also be repainted.

Also enjoying the good weather is Dave, well on the way to completing the "tidy up and protect" work on the Cotswold side of SO 4806. Late in the day I completed the wire bushing and painting above the end doorway. 

 Our little companion, the homeless homing pigeon, joined us once again. It seems to like the area around the S&T coach.

With spare capacity in the Painting Team, we decided it was time to get back to FK 13326, especially as the Metalwork Team are now doing more with the north end rebuild. Bob and I taped up the lines on the Cotswold side of the coach between the two end doorways.

Bob then got going on undercoating the top panel and gutter, while I later did the same at the north end. 13326 is changing to Chocolate & Cream and when all work has been completed it will be joining the Main Rake.

 

Ian held another meeting in the kitchen area of RBr 1675 involving our electricians and a member of our Catering staff.

A quick peek in Upholstery to see what happened the day before. All the completed refurbished seating for the DFR that has yet to be collected, has now been placed in the rack, while the remaining seating, either still to be done or in progress, has replaced it against the Workshop wall.

 

Tool Van 92 has now been completely stripped of paint on the Cotswold side, while the Malvern side was completed by Maurice during the morning.

 

Sticking to the "dust in the morning, painting in the afternoon" regime, Maurice top coats the north end of Tool Van 4, while Phil and Alex top coated the Malvern side in GW Brown. 

 

Finally the almost completed SO 4806, leaving just some holes to tape over and the Cotswold side south passenger door to clean up and paint. The latter is difficult to access with a very large pile of metal bits below it. 

Wednesday 23rd - Hot Metal

 With the need to get on with welding, so the carpenters can then crack on with inside panelling, I decided today would be a day of welding. It pretty much turned out that way.

Ainsley volunteered to help me, and followed along grinding the welds flat.

Derek was busy sorting fasteners.

Meanwhile in the barn, Bob and Steve set about removing the last bits from the north end of 13326. The roof is held up by 3 acrows, and they have established a measurement where all pillars will be cut ready for new sections to be welded in.

Ben and Trevor are altering a door for 1675, this is the easier option and fairly straightforward. Stuart is obviously very interested.

Chris is doing his favourite job, cleaning window frames ..... favourite? Not really but it has to be done.

Phil is attempting a repair on the pipe thread cutter, sadly to no avail. It turned out a new machine is cheaper than the spare parts.

Bryan is finishing off some upper panels ready for priming.

All photos are by Gerry ( Many thanks )

The work is difficult and slow at times, but we will get there .....watch this space.

Tuesday 22nd - Make a mess then paint

 Make a mess then paint, that was the plan for today! With a good number of people in, the plan was to focus on the tool vans, spending the morning sanding more of the paint off No.92, then sweep/vacuum up and spend the afternoon painting No.4, so as to progress both projects and to save anyone getting too bored/dusty.

Maurice got stuck in on the Malvern side, along with Ian who I managed to forget to photograph...

Richard took on the South end...

And Stu finished off the Cotswold side.

At the North end David cleaned up the headstock...

And there was a small amount of sanding to do on No.4 as well on the door handles which had a lot of flaky paint, which Roger took care of.

Taking advantage of the dusty conditions, Keith also sanded down another chair.

Yes it got very dusty!

It wasn't just tool vans today, other projects did move forward as well. Stu put a first top coat on the next section of the Royal Mail coach early in the morning before it got too warm.

Robert spent some time on the top door liner.

While Ainsley was sort out some internal battening...

Later drilling the steel door pillar to accept a liner.

Dave splashed a bit more green on the S&T coach.

And spotted this rather lost looking homing pigeon. It had green rings on both legs - no idea what this signifies.

Dave and Pam spent some time cutting up rags

It was a good spot to watch the well filled trains today, quite a crowd watching the Std 2 pass Foremarke on the former's penultimate operating day with us.

I also found and outside job doing the other 2 axleboxes on the second tank wagon. As it was a rather messy, oily job I didn't get my camera out until I'd finished, but just to record I did it!

So, back to the tool vans, and after lunch we had a big sweep and vacuum up, then everyone got their paint pots and brushes out. David red oxided the headstock he'd cleaned up on No.92.

Later on with the dust gone and the paint dry Robert fitted some more replacement planks on this end too.

Stu cracked open the undercoat dark grey on the Malvern side of No.4, while Ian had the underframe black out...

Along with Roger at the other end.

Maurice had the GWR brown out to gloss the second panel on the Cotswold side, while Dave applied the pink on the end.

After Stu had zoomed along and got both panels in undercoat grey, Pam primed the last bit of unpainted wood, the door on the Malvern side (it had of course had several coats of the epoxy primer first like the rest of the van).

Dave caught me with the gloss red tin out for the end I'd undercoated on Saturday.

By the end of the day almost every section had had a coat of paint of one sort or another such were the number of people wielding paintbrushes. Another coat of brown to go yet though before I can put the big yellow letters and number on.

Another end of day shot showing progress with the Royal Mail model railway coach, the one big section yet to be touched is out of shot. The weather has not been conducive to progress with this generally but it is coming together now.