Wednesday the 30th October

 A warm clear day so outside work on a busy day with visitors during half term.

Another sweep up day with the falling leaves hopefully the last as the trees are now pretty bare.

Greg has been busy cutting the glass bowls to go om the gas lights, these are glass bowls off the internet as originals are unobtainable so some thinking cap work to be applied.

Ideal weather for sanding down the flaking and peeling paint where water had got in through small cracks on the Honeybourne signal box. A fine wood filler was used to get into the cracks as the coarse grain filler did not go in well.

Loads of scraping, sanding and filling of the 90 yea old wood. The putty has gone hard  on the windows and again water is getting into the cracks so clean the over painted areas of the glass then use some thickened paint on a spatula to fill the gaps in the putty a lot of work and very little to take photos of.

Whilst working some Morgan owner came in for a visit along with a lotus 7 kit car.they parked up by the Scammel

 Wednesday 23rd Oct a heavy dew start but then lovely sun so outside it is the painting jobs are time consuming so not a great variety today.

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Greg has been busy sign writing the Hayles Abbey Halt sign with other stations and stops

                             

Autumn is here and nature is carpeting the ground with leaves but then blows them around with the wind so some sweeping required as it is the last big weekend of the open season before the Christmas trains run.

The museum coach door stop had come adrift so one new screw and wooden dowel cured one fixing the other had sheared off so required drilling to fit a new brass crosshead.

With the Gala weekend coming up the Scammel needed a good clean after months of being stood by the track with steam engines passing regularly, luckily the heavy dew on this nice autumnal morning meant the lorry was very wet so a large bath towel was applied to wipe it clean.

The Honeybourne building painted a few years ago has suffered from nature again with paint cracking and lifting as the rain water was getting in under it, so flaking paint off, damp areas dried, gaps filled  and sanded then primed this time with an aerosol to get a thin penetrating layer on so hopefully it will adhere better than the brush painted a GWR dark stone top coat was applied to dry areas.

 Wednesday 9th October are dry warm start then the light rain came in.

In the last week Greg has added more to the Hayles Abbey Sign and started on a wooden box refurbishment.

The legs on Malvern Well sign have rotted off and the frame needs repair, so unbolt the sign and get repairs started however rust and rot meant the coach bolts needed cutting off and driving out with a punch and trying to lay the frame down rot meant it fell to bits so a major job not the perceived minor one

Laying it down on the ground resulted in one end falling off.

                                                 

Optimistically the wooden parts were all numbered so we could save and reuse good parts.

                                                

This sign was assembled with all new wood five years ago and painted but it has rotted beyond repair

                                            

                                                        So cut it up for fire wood

The enamel panels are in need of repair so a wire wheel to remove the rust and loose pasts then treat with a rust converter but rain stopped play,

Using the wire wheel killed the drill after a few minutes so a strip down and replace brushes

The Morris roof was then porta powered up  and reshaped with the hammer after getting it hot with a blow torch  cooling it instantly with a wet cloth stress relieves it. Forgot to take a photo now the roof is back in shape.

The final 15 minutes or so were used on the unidentified machine possibly a pipe thread cutter which is a solid rusty lump.

A good application of the propane cutting torch got the 2 locking lever handles moving freely  but the clamping screws are solid so a good soak with a penetrating oil will hopefully free things off in the next week or two.

Wednesday 2nd October

 A damp start as it rained overnight but dry to start and not cold so outside it is.

                    Greg has been busy practising his sign writing on the Sign for Hayles Abbey Halt

The laurel boundary hedge needed finishing up to the road bridge so a lot more to cut off and then clear the path of any hardcore item so the mower can go up there in the future.

                                            

The large pile from last week was also the and took a bit of lighting but one in flame it consumed most of todays cuttings.

                                                

Due to the Autumn weather the leaves are changing, dying and falling into the buildings so a good sweep around was needed.

                                                    At least the workshop floor is tidier now.

We then had a short break in the Trust office as Mike had found loads of old newspaper editorials about the Midland Railway and GWR from the early 1900's including the collapse of the viaduct during construction, Malvern station in Cheltenham, general line construction ones and the  people involved in the project. An interesting 15 minutes.


Last week we removed a GWR fence post that was hiding in the flower beds,this is needed for a future project so some time with hammer and chisel then washing the debris off with the watering can got it presentable

                                                       Looking better with a clear U channel.

Then it was onto the Morris 2T 3cwt roof distortion using a block of wood and the porta power as support then as Greg had found on the net warm the top with the gas torch and dress with a dolly hammer immediately douse with a cold. wet cloth, the method worked well and the roof is a far better shape so we can hopefully avoid any use of body filler.