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.