Saturday 4th - A lovely late Spring day

Firstly apologies for no Thursday post as I was unable to come in. So to make up for it a hopefully interesting and varied post for Saturday.  Regular readers will know that Alex normally does this day, but he was enjoying a visit to the Churnet Valley Railway. Hope it all went well.

Beginning with FK 13326. Simon levels off the supports for the new south vestibule floor.

With the floor now fitted, he checks the fit of one of the end panels of veneer sheet. This vestibule is really coming together.

The north end corridor connection is now in place.

Something I started a few weeks ago was the cleaning up of the connection chequerplates for 13326. They will soon be required for refitting, so let's get them finished. Nice to work outside in the sun!

It was nice to see Martin back in. Living in Oxted, Surrey he is only able to attend occasionally. Having lightly sanded the cover for 1675's generator box, he is adding dark grey undercoat.

Robert was back on the problematical Cotswold side emergency door.

During the coming week the new flooring is being laid in the kitchen and pantry. The saloon and bar area has also been cleared, presumably to provide space for cutting the flooring.. The heating pipes are gradually being reinstated.

With just Phil occasionally coming inside, it provided an opportunity to do more work on the Cotswold side of the corridor. As such Martin was able to complete the general sanding down and add a coat of etch primer on the new sheet metal panel which fills in the redundant doorway into the kitchen/pantry.

Phil tests the electrical connections at the south end of the coach.

On to SO 4798 where, with the window removed, John has now cut out the corroded section underneath. A new correctly shaped section of sheet metal will be created and welded in. All the windows on 4798 will need to be done.

Alan continues his repair work at the north end, where new base sections of the connection support pillars have been welded in, painted with MIO, and the new sheet metal put on to complete the job.

In Upholstery the trials with these headrests have been successful. Laura begins stripping the old moquette off this one which, as I watched, turned out to be a bit of a battle and was reluctant to be removed.

The chosen moquette for these is the Red Chain Link and very good it looks too. Behind it a second one is ready for re-covering.

John looks to be having a battle stripping this one.

In the Woodshop Chris is reassembling the window frame for one of the Toddington shunter doors.

In the Barn the doors of the ply van are now being reassembled. Clive, having laid out the screws in their approximate positions, uses a tape measure to ensure the row will be straight.

Next pre-drill the holes.

Paul meanwhile is cleaning up some of the bolts. We may as well reuse what we can.

With this door nicely finished Maurice adds a final top coat.

Paul and Dennis taking a well earned break while spending the day preparing Rake 3 for the Steam Gala in a few weeks time.

More checks of the north end of TSO 5023, now looking somewhat faded.

It really was a delightful day to be outside. Warm. Sunny, no cold wind ..........

....... and certainly one to enjoy lunch on Platform 2 with Robert and Chris.

The northbound train pulled in and almost opposite where we were sitting two very well known faces appeared in the doorway. Nick and Eve were enjoying a day on the line, and why not. As often happens, we spend loads of time at the Works but very little time actually enjoying the trains and the results of all our hard work.

Time to enjoy the sun and watch P & O pass by with the Cheltenham train. It was nice to see Tina driving too - looks like she is now a fully qualified driver - excellent!

The end of a long and busy day with Stu, Alan, Maurice and Robert watching the Peak come by on its final run to Toddington.

Wednesday 1st - A challenging Day

 With the contractors working in 1675, we had to make sure we were not getting under their feet. So we tended to spread out over a number of jobs.

Upstairs to start with, a delivery of foam to be used in the seat build set for 4798.

Back in the paintshop 1675 getting some jobs done out of the contractors way ..... aluminium guttering welded, just needs a clean up and painting can begin.

Bob applying paint to his generator door creation.

Its a tough climb up that tower, so Gerry is fine tuning the welder for me.

Chris is preparing the Cotswold side, guttering for riveting .......

With all these opportunities, Richard is proudly posing with his creation ...... water stuff, I'm not a plumber  but it looks very impressive.

Phil is assisting, and looking for plumbing fittings .

Richard 2 is on the mezzanine working on the switchgear for 1675s kitchen equipment.

Rex is working on the extractor fan assembly for the battery pack on 1675.

Although Steve is here working on the bench, he took advantage of the weather and made the water tank at Winchcombe Station ready for welding plates on ....... that's if it ever stops raining! Maybe pictures next week.

13326 is getting attention from Dave ......

....... and from Simon on the south vestibule.

Trevor is adding wood stain to a door threshold for 13326, when these are fixed we will fit a floor cross bearer behind them. Then the floor can go down.

A challenging day with good progress.

Thanks to Gerry and Eve for the photos.

Tuesday 30th - Hey, look who's back!

An interesting day day to say the least, which included another successful Carriage Edition tour of the Works for 13 members of the public. We also had a very welcome surprise visit during our morning tea break.

Beginning today with a photo from Saturday evening and the Fish and Chip train. One of our unsung heroes, Jeff has been in charge of these for the past 7 years. A lot of organising goes into them, everybody from our Admin staff to the stewards on the train. On the night it's Jeff who checks everyone in and is in charge of the smooth running of the evening, which it certainly was.  Well done Jeff! You look very dapper with that bow tie and waistcoat.

The train guard by the way was Alex.

Jeff, of course, is C&W's Finance Officer and a member of the Painting and Prep Team.

With RBr 1675 generally unavailable for any main painting at the moment, the concentration for the team was FK 13326. Stu kicked off and top coated the Malvern side top brown section, and then did all the cream panels.

Richard and Roger top coated windows on the Cotswold side.

Stu did his usual speedy painting, and then transferred to join Richard and Roger.

Stu surveys his work on the Malvern side.

At the south end Ian lightly sanded the righthand side of the connection.

He then moved back to the lefthand side to add a fresh coat of green primer.

Later in the day Robert assesses the curved section at the Malvern side south door. A new door liner will be cut from the wood.

Chris, Ian and Keith take quick break to watch the trains and wave to the passengers.

Keith had a selection of items waiting for him on the trestles, including two more spare sliders to go into the window area store.

The fire bucket receives its first red top coat.

Dave was enjoying the open air. It was a pleasant day without the cold wind.

Ian was working in the vacuum cylinder area.

The only bit of painting on RBr 1675 was being done by Alan, who finished undercoating the sole bar and then added red oxide to the generator cover.

During this week contractors have been lining the walls of the kitchen and pantry with Whiteroc hygenic covering and where needed stainless steel sheeting.

Dave and I climbed on board to see the progress being made.

The ply van is coming on well. Maurice was adding Flexacryl to the sides of the roof. The top will be done from one of the tall scaffold towers.

On the Cotswold side Paul, with Maurice helping, was bolting on the new panels.

Our 1100 tea break presented us with a lovely surprise when Richard suddenly appeared with a great cheer from all of us. Long time blog readers will know that Richard used to be in charge of the Wagon Team. Richard now lives on the Dorset coast.

[Photo : Paul]  The old Wagon Team back together. Happy memories!