Hello everyone, and welcome to this weekends update. The railway has hosted its Road Rail Steam event over this extended weekend, and as one of the attractions Test Car 2 has been open to the public, however, we have been able to continue progress on the two Esso tanks.
On Good Friday (though we prefer Goods Friday) both the vans and the mixed goods were out and about the railway which was a pleasant sight to see. Dave, Nick and I were on site to make the final preparations to opening the Test Car.
On Saturday, the main event was the Test Car opening, with Ernie and Dave mainly taking care of proceedings. Nick, Tom, Oliver and I took a look at repairing/and painting some of the splash guards from 3621 and 3606. Those from 3606 only needed a scrape and wire brush before receiving some primer. Nick, Tom and Oliver also applied primer to both chassis where these splash guards mount. Additionally the areas covered up by the tank supports also got a coat of primer.
Three of the four splash guards from 3621 need a more in depth repair, which I tackled. I cut out the rotten sections, then used a scribe to draw around the cut out on some new metal to make my new piece. After they were ground up, I welded them into place on the top and bottom face to complete the repairs on two of the three plates. I ran out of time for the third, so this will be done another day. Once completed and cooled, they joined the queue to be painted.
Dave and I covered Test Car proceedings on Sunday, with Ernie joining us again today, ably running the sales stand. Thanks to everyone who visited, and to those who donated or bought something from us, every bit of goes back into the wagon fleet and the continued restoration of Test Car 2.
The weather on Monday was a bit poor for wagon work, but the team set into refurbishing some vacuum release valves, and fitted another vice to the work bench in the GUV. At the end of the day the hose was coiled back up after being used to fill the reserves for Colin McAndrew, and other tidying up was done ready for next weekend, where the Test Car will be open again, this time for the Spring Diesel Gala.
Thanks for reading and join us again next week to see what else happens!
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