Wednesday the 15th Jan 2025 a clear day warmer than it should be so great for outside work.

                                    A nice view of the morning from the workshop door.

                                            

We have acquired a railway lamp cupboard this is not a GWR one but a rarity so it will be saved, it has been painted a few times and is now black so some careful paint stripping revealed the original brown colour. This is a future project for the museum.

        the lid opens and the oil tray is in good condition but we need to secure the loose fixed top.

                                            

                            It was then onto the Salter Scales out in the sun.

            Tipping them over allowed access to lubricate all the rusty joints and pivots.

                                

some carefull drilling from the rear got the heads off the seized screws holding the face on then heat and levering got the needle off to expose the seized mechanism

the drilled screws needed to sleeve left in the threads removed with a slightly larger drill to enable tapping for some new brass screws

                        The broken lock mechanism handle needed welding it lined up nicely

A quick dress of the mating surfaces it was then clamped together so we could weld it together again the little £39 parkside inverter welder came into it's own.

After a good oil and grease of the internal mechanism it was a surprise to find it worked and returned so the dial was refitted loosely to keep things together. The needle was shot blasted and repainted with the brass centre being polished

 

New Life for Old Ticket Cupboard

The Carcass of this cupboard was recovered from a skip at Winchcombe.

It is stamped BR(W) but is a Great Western Railway design.

Having no door or drawers, it was to be a future task to remake them.

Having, recently met Kevin Broughton from Carriage and wagon to talk about assisting the R and A trust, he mentioned that he had seen  a door and some drawers that could have originated from the cupboard in the model railway coach.

Kevin investigated,  recovered them and sure enough they are from this Cupboard,which is great news as we will have another piece of authentic railway furniture to restore and use.

Interestingly the drawers have stickers on the front refering to Paddington (cheaps) Heathrow, and written pen inside, Worcester Shrub Hill and Stratford. These will remain in place for provenance.

 A better, sliding door handle for the Great western Railway, Tool Van.

Here is a photo of an original GWR door handle, courtesy of the Severn Valley railway association, together with a photo of the 1960's door handle replacement that was on our van door.

I made this replacement, by modifying a modern brass handle with an old brass bezel

Better I think, than what was there before.

 After missing a week with the New Year Wednesday 8Th January 2025 was a cold frosty restart so the line wagon tasks was delayed in favour of work around the workshop area as popping in and out on an white icy day was ok.

Greg has been busy with the line wagon windows and both are painted on one side.

The change of schedule if we ever had one meant the old scales could be started and Greg had already bonded two scaffold planks together so these were cut into a 38.5mm square and sanded down

then the router table go used in anger for the first time to put a corner shape on

The broken base plate parts were collected and put on the rotary wire wheel to clean the up before a coating of lanolin.

The new wooden block was then pilot hole drilled and the cast metal parts fixed with their original screw holes using brass screws.

the scales look better already with a simple fix

The platform lock out rod was bent so careful application of the cutting torch to a nice cherry red it was bent straight and pulled up through.

It was then time to straighten and weld the ols GWR gate which had been damaged and the inner upright was bent and snapped it two so straighten clean align and weld it up using the Parkside inverter welder that has never been unwrapped but for £39 it did actually manage to weld the old gates 1/4" metal frame

                                                                the upright done

The upright was then welded back onto the gate and the outer top corner welded after squaring it up.

the bottom hinge needed the mounting bolt hole drilling out and tapping as the original coarse thread bolt was heavily corroded and not screwing in.

 It was the down the sidings to the line wagon to change the wiring so all 3 old lights are through the door switch but on the way  we passed the no loner lone racing pigeon now with 5 friends in the flock and one escape

After the wiring changes it was back to the workshop as fingers and feet were now cold but a quick look at the scales resulted in lubricating oil applied to the top of the operating tube to see if we can get the needle to read.
 

Monday 30th December the fog has finally gone so a colder but clearer day.

first job was de bag the pigeons and hang them on wires in the wicker pigeon basket

A flock of 6 decoy pigeons off the web so now 6 in the basket suspended on copper wire with a note to get a photo next time.

After a week and a half the trust sign boards were dry  to go back on the fence and needed hooks made,

 better looking with no peeling paint and they can no longer swing in the wind.

it was then source an old period carriage light switch for the line wagon, cable clamping screws were located and the switch cleaned up internally and tested for continuity before polishing the cover and finger grip..

It was then down to the line wagon to install the switch so the workers can light up the inside before entering in the dark.

                                            

One end door mounting has been accessed and the runner lifted so we now have 3 out of 4 doors sliding easily and locking.but the opening windows in the side doors needed removing to be tidied up and get fully working with the leather straps repaired.

That was all for a short monday morning apart from trying to stop a tv going into sleep mode after 3 hours unfortunately with no remote it is easier said than done.

The light switch only turns off the middle and one end light as the switch loom is on the centre so a job for another time but safer for the evening workers

Mike in the photo archiving room reckons there are several years of photos to digitise, find the location  of and upload onto the database and that they have had a couple of new volunteers come forward.