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Wednesday 21st Jan 2026 at day that rapidly deteriorated with wind and rain and minutes later the Cotswold hills vanished from sight..

                                   

So inside the workshop and back on the metal strip stamping machine time to make a ferrous metal stamp die cutter that fits the hole in the letter disc, once done it can be case hardened. The bolt was used to hold the disc while shaping on the belt sander.

Once in place it was drilled ready for tapping the holes for the securing bolts but a 3mm drill is to small for the tap a 3.3 is needed. but the plate was also drilled for the end corners whilst on the drill press.

when tapped and secure the shape can be cut out to match the bat like hole in the wheel.

                                            

It was then a wet walk down to line wagon 2 for the floor and lights. the 3rd light mounting was fixed to the roof then the rotten floor was attacked.

The dust pan and brush got the debris and dust up there was a lot, this went into the skip along with the rotten wood. But we could now see where to work and the remaining rusty screws sticking up that needed removing..

                                             

The porta power was used to lift the heavy metal shelving clear of the boards this took a few attempts and required the pump bleeding before it would lift the weight. so we could remove the boards under them, luckily the bearer beams are sound so we can start cutting and laying new boards both under and top layer. The old boards differ to the new metric ones so carriage and wagon thinned them down by 2mm. 

                                                

The first lower board went in nicely board 2 was more time consuming being 2 piece as per originals and both required thinning over the bearers to sit level with the originals.

                   

Then it was time to start on the top layer folks will see and walk on.

These are quite long time consuming jobs so not much to report.