Wednesday 6th August another nice day and warming up.

A vintage leather suitcase has undergone a brass fittings clean and leather rejuvenation it is now tidy enough to go on display the knapsack spray gun tank also got a clean and polish. 

                                            

The BAC stamping machine has been rubbed down and primed along with a chrome and dial clean.

 

Despite the lack of rain nature has been busy with bramble and bindweed growing well so some clearance was needed it does leave a bit more tidying up to do later.

                                                   

Another few hours on the museum coach repair the last few brass crosshead screws are going in followed by filler.

                                                

Whilst in the coach after last weeks clear out we have screws protruding through the partition into the passage way as this iis now accessible we need no sharp points sticking out.

                                                         

Somebody has broken the locking wire stopping the manual rail drilling machine from turning so as this is a finger trap it has had to be locked using screws and nuts through the driven wheel, we also lockwired the drill loading lever so everything is stable and safe..

                                            

The Scammel Scarab is parked alongside the gravel entrance drive and again the dry weather has resulted in a covering of dust so whilst the hose pipe was laying near by it was a wash off using the palm of the hand but we need to do a proper job.

The sides and frame were removed from the Morris to gain access to the rear of the cab so it could be repaired but we have spaces between the bed boards so another added task was  unscrew the boards clean the tongue and groove joints and refit after some preserving agent was painted on the underside.

As an aside not work related the plastic racing pigeons in the basket on platform one do attract attention

 The Aluminium, Label Stamper

This brilliant piece of nostalgia was brought to us, by Jo Roesen, our colleague who has contributed more than anyone to attain an authentic Great Western Railway ambiance on the GWSR.

This label stamping machine, had been bought by the late John Earle ( Head of Friends of Winchcombe Station) and found itself marginalised and offered for disposal.

John had bought it from Tim Petchey of Winchcombe railway museum.

These machines were everywhere at tourist spots in the UK in the 1959's

We are lucky  have this, our intent to get it fully working to stamp out labels for our museum artifacts

Our Main man, Keith Taylor is sourcing a roll of aluminium strip from the internet, meanwhile I have made a new pressing handle from a turned tool handle I bought from the Gloucestershire Extravaganza, that took place at South Cerney, last weekend.

 The Tool Van Roof

I am restoring the interior of the second of Andrew Goodman's Great western Railway tool vans.

Inside, two of the roof supports have split, offering reduced structural security.

The cracks have been reduced after gluing and screwing closing up the splits.

Wednesday 30th July a cloudy start that turned out nice.

The cupboard moved to Honeybourne for the toy museum has been having work done, A stripping off of the paint and broken glass removal.

Glass cut and fitted it now has a coat of new paint

A display cabinet in the museum carriage has had 2 glass shelves fall down off their dowels no idea why but it must be hot weather related as they will not go back on enough to stay put.

The dowels are glued into the uprights so a work around was required which resulted in some stiff wire going on to sit under the glass.

 

The wire wrapped around the dowels and tied across so the glass shelves cannot fall.

The screw replacement on the Ocean Mail museum coach goes on but slot head brass are now getting in short supply and rot in the frame has meant much fitting og doweling and wooden skewers to fill the voids. The box contains a few of the screws fitted in the last 102 years

That is the full length of the dock on the carriage is done so needs sanding and painting.

The British automatic company embossing machine has been greased and oiled so a test was done using cardboard and a temporary handle

The cardboard test piece proved it works so a roll of 15mm X 0.1mm aluminium is to be ordered and tried as this machine could be useful for marking exhibits.

 

 The  story of the Plastic Garden Storage box.

We bought a garden storage  box so that we could store sales items for our second hand shop at Toddington station.

We  often get donations that are left on the floor of the shop, so to put items in the storage box and out the way until sorted is a good idea

The box left at the rear of the  shop has been stolen after just 2 weeks ,and during this weekends' ( brilliant) diesel gala many donations have filled the shop floor.

We have an old metal trunk that has been rusting away in the garden of 1 station cottages ideal to replace the missing box, but it needs much work to save it. 

1864 is faintly visible on the front, the year  the Clifton suspension bridge opened, Stanley found David Livingstone and the American Civil war was well under way.

The lid has fallen off but  lets see if we can do something good with it.to be continued....

Can you make out the faded date, 1864, on the photo below ?

 Gluing a torn out Page  

Just to see if it could be done, I thought Ii would have a go at repairing a page torn from the edge of this 1950's VW Beetle guide book.

I, ironed the page, and the page stub flat, ran some wood glue along the torn edge an united the torn edges together with some aluminium foil between the repair and the rest of the book.

It worked , and the repaired page is as now as it ever was.

Also nice to have returned, the much repaired GWR Season Ticket enamel sign found buried, folded in half in the ruins of Toddington Station now looking as it would have done in 1904,

on the booking office wall in Broadway ticket office

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 Wednesday 23rd July a nice summers day and slightly cooler for working.

The 1938 water fire extinguisher has been tidied up and is going into one of the carriages on the railway as a period piece.

But it has thrown up a surprise the glass containing sulphuric acid is in tact so a good job the plunger to break it is missing, they operated with water containing baking soda that reacts with the acid and causes the water to expel under pressure. For safety it will need removing before exhibiting although it has survived 85 years.

               

The old ticket sign is now ready to go and be mounted in Broadway ticket office.

The guard mannequin has been removed from the passage in the museum coach freeing up the north end for displays. 

This also opened up an opportunity to get a large display cabinet out and wheeled over to the Honeybourne signal box where it will replace two smaller wall mounted displays.

Most of the time was spent on the museum coach screw replacement job all the steel cross heads are coming out and cross head brass ones fitted but rot and damage in the frame has necessitated a few yards of dowel and wood being put in with glue so the new screws go tight and hold before filling over and sanding in excess of 50 were changed today but it is a slow job..  

That was enough for the day.