Wednesday the 22nd Feb a cooler day but the overnight rain had stopped so the first task was to uncover the scammel flatbed trailer and inflate one tyre but after fitting 2 valve inserts it still leaked.

so I emptied a few years of rubbish off the top and we tried to remove the folded to quadruple layer cargo sheet but this required cutting through all 4 layers to release several gallons of water.

once off the sheet was cut up to make it manageable

The trailer has no bed boards but the previous owner had spent some money having a new bed frame made..

A quick look into the museum coach to see how Mike and Wayne were getting on and it is taking shape.

They were outside putting a frame in the goods sign,

The sign in process of being mounted

I finished the 400+ screws in the Boxford floor boards and adjusted the door whilst Greg mixed stain and linseed oil to treat the new floor so it is now complete..

We then moved to the Morris drop side and stripped out a front brake so the drum could be blasted and painted whilst I stripped the brakes as piston are seized and rust has lifted the friction material off the shoes so a major rework is needed as the plan is to have a roadworthy truck.

 

 Wednesday the 15th Feb a cool start but the sun came out and warmed it up nicely.

I got on with the AA box numbers sanding and painting them ready for fitting after drilling the mounting holes.

 A decision was made on the colour scheme as the AA had various combinations black letters on yellow, yellow letters on black, black on white and white on black some with a border in black, white or yellow

After one coat of the yellow which does not cover very well

A couple of coats later and some applied heat meant they could be bolted on so the exterior is now finished.

A vast improvement from the first visit to collect it

Just need a final site position for it then the interior can be trimmed including a phone, oil lamp on a pulley from the roof so late night breakdowns has light and some warmth and all the information and artefacts for the motorist in need.

Greg has been busy in Boxford laying the floor which then fouled one door when it was pushed open over 90 degrees so some height tweaks were required but once clear the fixing down was completed it then took a long time fitting the screws even with a power driver as there are a few hundred.

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in process

Greg had a rescue from a rubbish skip that will be a future project a coffee machine from the 1920's in use until the 1950;s

outside the workshop awaiting attention it will never work as the boiler is missing but bolted to a counter it should be an object of interest

 A bit of off site work in the shed at home.

Had the router out with a straight bit and cut the lettering into a sheet of plywood.

Attached a perimeter and applied some grease to the surface so the resin would not stick.

Then made 2 signs as the AA box originally had cast iron number plates on the sides and these are missing. 242 is the Andoversford number.

Resin and fibreglass matting means we have 2 signs that need painting yellow with black lettering.

Number one was troublesome as the resin and hardener did not like the cold and due to being thicker it did not mix fully so very slow to cure

 Restoring old crates.

Mike Dodd Ian Boskett Mike Wathen and Wayne Finch are creating a new display in the Museum coach ,entitled, delivering the goods, a display highlighting the work of the railway goods services.

Over the years I have purchased, local wooden crates,  and over their long life  they have acquired the grey, faded patina of age.

They needed refreshing, if it was possible.

The printing on this crate had faded badly, it would seem that the only thing that could be done was to re-ink what remained.

Using a permanent builders marker pen, I set to, and started to fill in the existing type, however, because the wood was absorbent the ink started to bleed so I sprayed some varnish to make the wood non absorbent, after that the bleeding stopped and I got a good result.

  

 Cutting the doors to size

Most of the new floor in the Boxford waiting room is in place, not screwed down, that will happen after it has been in situ for a few weeks to allow for shrinkage.

The doors were too tall to fit with the new floor, so today they were reduced in size a the bottom.

The last photo shows the trimmed down doors back in place.

 Wednesday the 8th Feb another cold clear morning with a frost and working in the shade of the building made a muddy area.

Dropped into the Museum Coach to see how Mike and Wayne were progressing, it is getting there.

Greg has been busy with oxalic acid cleaning up the crates and boxes for the displays, it removes the greying of the timber and reveals the printed signage.

The old belt drive lathe is by the door with space around it ready yo be cleaned up.

Greg fitted a 1920's electric motor a few years ago so the lathe worked.

The main task for the day was putting floor joist in the Boxford building after it was decided it would be better with one.

The rear and front frame timbers are 4 inch deep so we decided to raise the door threshold up 2 inches so we could fit the floor boards level with the top of them. 

2 screws in the way of the threshold bolts slowed progress and me slipping in the mud and putting a hand down on the strip to stop myself with the bolt part in meant we had to glue a split in the timber

It was then time to empty the building and cut joists to suit, they were fitted using joist hangers screwed to the inside. This job also moved the bottom of the right front out 1 inch so it square and the front is now flat when viewed from the side.

Joists in only one more to make for the centre but we did a test fit with one floor board and it is looking good.

this just leaves us to fit and secure the floor boards then remove 2 inches from the bottom of the doors and rehang them.

 All that is needed then is the final siting of the building and the glass cut to fit before putting a yet to be decided interior in.

One of the most straight forward and easy restorations, to Date.

This set of early C20th lathe collets, in their wooden box had seen better days

The box was bleached out,the hinges seized in the open position and the Collets very rusty.

The Cure:

Oxalic acid took the staining out of the box, the Collets blast cleaned and hot blacked in old engine oil and a liberal coating of Lanolin (Wool Oil)  on everything. 

Mike Dodd and Ian Bosket are creating a new museum display in the Museum coach at Toddington Station.

"Carrying the Goods" is a display recording the freight services of the Great Western Railway.

I purchased a lot of old local wooden crates and boxes in the past and they were taken in to improve their look and condition.

The Oxalic acid took a lot of the weathered grey away and each item received a lot of wood worm treatment.

This lovely old egg box was painted white at one end, which had to come off.

I painted the end with the latest No Nonsense water based paint stripper and waited three days for the coating to soften, which it didn't, so I scraped the paint of with a blunt Butter knife under a light flow of tap water.

The Paint Stripper, labelled as water based and environmentally friendly, it is anything but.

It may pass all the volatility tests, but it had to be manufactured, the bottle had to be made, it had to be transported and the people who made it had to drive from where they live to get to the factory.

If the user cannot strip the paint satisfactorily, the project could be aborted and discarded, the end game for reuse, no help to the environment, and adding to an ever increasing environmental threat. 

 " Greenwashing" is a term given to those that purport to care for the environment, but really they do not.

You can see it every where, it is annoying when insincerity is used to sell.

 A couple of rare railway structures, not many people know about.

Pictured, is the water tank and filler still in existence at Brynkir Station, on the former Pwllheli to Carnarvon line in North Wales, the water columnis  in the car park at Dinas Mawddwy  station, now home to Merion Mill. 

 Wednesday 1st Feb a much better day for outside working.

following on from missing photo opportunities last week here is the branding iron cut from a solid block using hand tools around 100 years ago.

Mike and Wayne have been busy in the GWR parcels coach

now a museum the main display and the WW 1 sections have both been completed in the last year so they are now doing a Railway Cargo/goods section.

The railway section

The WW1 railway staff  who served in the armed forces section.

The in process cargo goods section

Greg has been busy restoring old crates and boxes for the display luckily we have some very old ones from local firms

I got some time in on the Scammel so the dash and wiring is all back in the only part not happy is the wiper motor that has a supply and earth but will not work so a job for another day.

After a bit of battery charging the motor fired up but will not idle so yet another carb strip and clean.

The rest of the time was emptying the Boxford building so we can look at putting a floor in it before it get permanently sited and glazed and moving the old belt drive lathe so we have access to clean it up and preserve it ready to put on display.