As volunteers we are always up for something new, today was no exception. Upholstery are a bit short of operatives so the idea was presented to Chris, could you help in upholstery? Oh yes please was the response ……and so ….. Chris's first comment was, how quiet it is in upholstery unlike the workshop. Laura is cutting lining material for their famous line of shopping bags. Another view of Chris with Eve in the background, stripping seats from the 'Bluebell' Railway. down in the workshop, Bob is making a new piece to be welded in to the Mica Van. The edge was a bit rough so it was ..read more

 The first oddity was a normal trip down the road from Broadway until we got to Little Buckland. Road closed, no diversion signs! After an unguided tour around the very narrow country lanes we ended up back on the road to Toddington. Several of us met this problem. It was a fallen tree at Laverton Meadow. Being cleared as we came home. The second oddity was this. As he was Ghostbusting train 1 Rich came across this. On first inspection it is a typewritten note in German, with a date of 31 August 1944. The stamp, again in German, says 6 Sep 1944. So is it really from Germany, and ho ..read more

This is really a joint effort by Alex and myself. Alex had already taken 11 photos but being a bit more able to get about during the day I offered to do today's blog post. Alex was also attending the Young Engineers Event at Toddington during Sunday so would be out for much of the day. Apologies for no Tuesday or Thursday posts as I was unable to get in. As with the rest of the week attendances were reported low on both days. So on to today's events with plenty of photos to make up for the gaps. Catching up with a Tuesday job where Keith was able to complete the repainting of the cupboard fro ..read more

 With recent weather it was difficult to plan what to do ..... Upholstery generally are not affected by extreme weather, and today we were visited by Tim Robbins from Torrington fabrics with dining chair seats and backs, from the Bluebell Railway. Laura is discussing with Tim what is required.  This is the new moquette ..... Eve has made a start stripping the old seat covers. These are some of the seats to be re-covered. Withe the morning weather looking ok, John continued with rivet removal on the Open C Wagon prior to grit blasting. He stuck at it but by 2.00pm it st ..read more

 So we knew there would be only one rake today, as there was a delivery due to the Broadway P2 building team. Here it is. As you can see we had arranged for the rake to be down the platform so that the north carriage could be washed. It certainly was - but not by us! The heavens had opened for some hours and so not surprisingly none of the outside team appeared. So it was just David, Greg, Jane, John M, Kath, Lynn, Nick, Steve and self on the inside. Getting the Ghostbuster and GTech from the shed to the train without them getting rain damaged was successfully achieved, fortunately. R ..read more

Another very quiet day as the autumn holiday season continues. Just 11 of us in today. To kick things off Stu needed to get another vac cylinder ready for use, so Maurice stepped in to coat it in black MIO (Micaceous Iron Oxide).  Later on I captured Stu pressing rubber seals within the piston and then reconnecting the two halves. Bryan and Rex were back on 4798's windows. Bryan initially was lightly sanding a section of internal frame. Now sorting out the various rivet holes in the surrounding panelling of the current window. Returning later to find that the glass has been put ..read more

 Not many in today, so Gerry, Rex and Bryan carried on with windows and surrounds on 4798. Chris became painter for the day, Steve and myself got close up with corrosion. The 'OPEN C ' Wagon will be grit blasted next week, a number of actions and old corroded rivets needed removing before this happens. We volunteered to do this ....... ...... it is strenuous work but we got a result ....... Steve is smiling, rather happy with the job being almost complete. Next a visit to upholstery, Eve is stapling foam seating for 4798 ..... ..... Laura is cutting out moquette shapes for more ..read more

Just 8 of us in today as the autumn holiday season is now well underway with a number of our regulars absent. The promise of a good day sometimes begins with a thick fog, especially on an almost windless day in autumn. I needed to get BCK 21272 opened up early as two door edges needed painting and allowed to dry before the end of the day. In the half hour while I was doing the job the fog became even thicker. That's better! Two end of day photos of the paint repaired guards and north connection doors and doorways. All of the inside of the north connection could really do with a repaint. It ..read more

 And as usual the first sighting is of David, Paul, Tim and Peter washing the Malvern side of rake1. A doggy hair mess in rake 2. We are having good numbers these days and even with some out on hols or bionic parts replacement we had 14. The others were Greg, Jane, Kath, Lynn (on toilet duty while John M is on hols), Nick, Rich, Roger C, Steve (washing the vertical heater covers, amongst other things), and Val. Kath's electronics told her she walked 2.5 miles while carriage cleaning today. You will have seen in other blogs pictures of Jane cleaning. She doesn't dress like this for ..read more

Apologies if there's a dip in photo quality this week, I rather optimistically decided I was capable of fitting a new SIM card reader to my otherwise perfectly functioning phone (surely it can't be any harder than hard-wiring a DCC chip into a kit-built oo gauge locomotive!?). Suffice to say, it was - it did not go well, and I now have a very expensive coaster.... Anyway, on with Saturday! Window cleaning was in full swing on 4790 with James joining in for a change with Jenny too. Dave went round doing all sorts of little jobs, here putting some stain on some badly scratched veneer on th ..read more