Wednesday 1st April 2026 a nice dry summer day so time to crack on getting the displays ready for the influx of visitors no time for jokes today..

An old fire extinguisher rack has been repainted and the extinguisher cartridges cleaned up ready for mounting in the line side wagons as period kit;

                                        

Taylors office is looking tired and dirty after the winter spell with nature and the birds getting in along with a good coating of dust. So  a good sweep out  dusting and treatment of the work tops with lanolin followed by hovering all the insect debris out and cleaning the windows.

        

           The till needed a polish                                 The floor needs a repaint

     The travel chest needs a clean                           The outlook before cleaning

All the brass in the building is looking tired and dirty so before a good clean it looked like this.

                                                       

                                             Apart from the floor painting it is ready for summer.

The 1874 building needed a sweep out and tidy around as the dead leaves from Autumn were still blowing around.

      

Foss Cross has a good amount of dead leaves in so the leaf sucker was brought into action, moving and replacing exhibits was necessary to get at them all                                                         

                                                                                                                After

                                                                           

                                                  The leaves added to the bonfire

                                       

The line side oil lamp hut had had a pellet put through a window pain in the past so glass out although the old putty was rock hard and not willing to come off easily. Some old glass will be cut and fitted to keep the period look.

                                            

When dumping the broken glass in the skip a near new hand drill was spotted so this is now in the Trust shop for sale to give it a new life.

                                   

The Honeybourne signal box floor also requires a repaint so some big stuff out into the oil hut then a good sweep out and tidy around.

            

It was then time to strap the GWR notice board onto the car roof and visit Hayles Abbey halt to mount it on the waiting room ready to have some relevant period posters mounted on it. Another scrap item that has been saved and reused on the railway/.

                                        

As we departed 3850 came up the line in reverse so the first train to see the newly mounted sign board.

 Scrap Metal Recycling Bin

We have been collecting Scrap metal to aid with funding our restorations,

to date we have raised £14,500.

We collect non ferrous metals in the form of old copper pipework, brass taps, cable, car batteries lead and more, we  now have an old steel Steamer trunk rescued from a skip that is now a repository for donations.

This can include domestic scrap, so we hope that this is a facility that will be used and ensure that those donations go to the correct categories for recycling.

  The Steamer, recycling trunk.

As it was before

An old GWR document rack

This artefact has been mentioned before but Keith and I stripped it down depainted sanded and reassembled and installed in the GWR tool van used as the main workshop of the GWSR volunteers responsible for the amazing wagon restorations.

It now contains the essential files on the work that has been done to each wagon in the growing fleet.

 Work on the rebuild of the Morris Commercial, continues.

The previous weld on the bottom of the offside door pillar had rusted through 

So a new patch was made, and welded in

 Wednesday 11th April a nice spring morning where a warm sun got involved which is unusual as it is Gold Cup week so snow is common.

The railway is busy twice a day as the race trains are on for the Cheltenham Festival.

                                            

We are after more volunteers to help do the practical work as the pile although a lot smaller is still significant and there is ongoing work just to keep exhibits in good order that are on public display.

To join you need to be a paid up member of the gwsr and complete a rail health & safety course to get a work permit which renews annually  For more information contact Mr Greg Wigg at Tewkesburydirect@googlemail.com about the Restoration & Archiving Trust.

We have a document stowage box in need of repair as it is useful and carriage and wagon group have expressed interest in it for their records keeping.

                                                    

job one is remove all the shelves for sanding and stripping so the sides were opened up as the shelves slots are a closed end.

                                                  

It had been lacquered and painted a couple of times in it's life and the grain had gone dark where it was exposed so a full sanding and stripping then a session with the sanders got it looking more like it did when new.

             

                                        The paint is off and after a good sanding all over.

                

reassembly proved difficult trying both ends of the shelves at the same time so we started again and glued them all fully in on one end with the aid of a sash clamp. Once the glue is set the top can the be clamped down starting at one end.

                                   

The line side oil hut tin repair is now completed as we had the front corner to do, this  time it was a long lever on a block to lift the corner so we could get the trolley jack in and plock the shed clear of the floor that way we could slide the sheet up into position not down.

Hopefully that job is now completed for us as the junior group or Tewkesbury evening group can paint it and install the appropriate oil and tool goodies.

               

The item I forgot to take a photo of last week the completed sharpening stone, now locked near solid to prevent injuries by rotating parts. It will be sited outside the line side hut when that is completed.

Finally after many months we dropped the bed frame back on the Morris dropside truck.       

                                                                                                                                          

By then we had run out of time.

Wednesday 4th March 2026

A beautiful spring day warmer than it should be so lets get outside and do some work we have been putting off due to cold damp conditions.

                                         

The blade sharpening stone is now finished the foot treadle works and it spins up nicely but for display we need to lock it so no visitors get hurt buy the fast spinning parts. pity the photo has not saved correctly so pictures next week as we have transported it to near the oil lamp hut.

The 2T 5cwt Morris bed frame has been sat on tressels since November cold and wet so today a wire wheel took off any rust that has appeared then 2 coats of a French metal paint in gloss black. (the paint was like runny honey and only liked brushing over twice then it separated and went near transparent) but it is on and looks fine.

                     

The rear interior frame of the cab had rusted so a piece was cut out and new plate welded in with applications of  a wet cloth between short burst of welding so the exterior paint remained undamaged.

                                            

An early 20th century enamel sign has been having all the rust cleared from the rusty pitted areas with a small ball cutting bit in the drill. before repairs can be carried out.

                                                

It was then time to replace the rusted lower section of the oil lamp hut we had moved over for public display, the rusty sections were cut off and some new parts cut from an old sheet that had been located, this was needed as new corrugated sheet do not match the curves of the original old sheets.

                                                                 The first part is in

                                                    

                                                                       one side done

                                                

After a good session with the cutting disc in the angle grinder side two is looking better we just need to get the corner wrapped piece in as it needs sliding down on the inside

then the time was up.

 

 A 1930's Thermos food flask.

This item has been with us for some time.

Painted in brown crinkle paint, much of which was rough with rust, a difficult decision was what was to be the best course of conservation.

The exterior was prepared using a soft rotary brass brush and the nickel plating was cleaned with Phosphoric acid.

The exterior was coated in lanolin and polished, tinted with a small amount of brown oil paint, I think it now looks great  and another fine exhibit.