Hello all and welcome to our first August’24 update. This week the team have been working at Rothley getting brake van B954268 ready for the forthcoming Railways at Work Gala, and making a few other preparations at Quorn.
Nick, Tom, Dan and Oliver have been working during the week to get the replacement panel work fitted, sanded and undercoated. New lower step boards have been fitted and the east side of the roof sheet secured along its edge and trimmed.
Saturday with Nick, Ross, Charlie, Ernie and myself at Rothley we continued securing and trimming the roof sheet west side edge. We then did the corners which involved removing the roof end hoops to secure the folded corner ends.
The duckets were sanded and wood primer was applied to any bare wood on the inside of the verandas. New trim sections for the veranda lower edges were cut and primed.
We then cleaned down the veranda panels, window areas and body sides. The bauxite paint was opened and with brushes in-hand we set to work.
After lunch the painting continued.
By the end of Saturday the main brake van body was in bauxite.
Nick, Ross, Mark, Tom, Dan and Oliver started the day on Sunday at Rothley which was a special day for Dan who was celebrating reaching ‘sweet 16’…….. well sweet tooth anyway with his superb Palvan Cake, that was enjoyed by all.
On the brake van, the end framework was scraped and cleaned down by Mark, Nick and Tom then painted with undercoat. Mark also undercoated the trim sections for the veranda lower edges.
The bauxite body sides we painted yesterday were still a little tacky, however with limited time before the gala the vehicle number needed to be applied.
I carefully traced the template on both sides and painted the numbers on. The remainder of the vehicle lettering will be completed when we have more time after the gala.
Dan and Oliver got to work touching up some areas of bauxite, then painting the handrails and lamp brackets.
The undercoat dried quickly so Nick, Dan and Oliver finished off the handrails, door furniture and applied bauxite to the end framework whilst Ross, Mark, Tom and myself headed to Quorn.
In order to deal safely with loading and unloading Brute Trolleys from Rail Vehicles during the Railways at Work Gala, we need a suitable ramp.
Having managed to get hold of two old wheelchair ramps we set about some modifications to one and a half of these to make a three section ramp to accommodate the width of Brute Trolleys.
Five of our Brute Trolleys were then unloaded from their home in the Palvan in readiness for the Gala.
BRUTE (British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment) trolleys were used from 1964 until 1999 for sorting, handling and transport of station loaded goods, parcels and Newspapers.
Other preparation work included sorting oil barrels and parcels, with a little help from Jack; as well as getting the Electric Tugs cleaned down and on-charge.
Thanks for reading, join us next week when the team will be taking part in the 2024 Railways at Work Gala.
More information about this ‘Not To Be Missed’ Gala on the 10th – 11th August can be found by clicking the link below.
https://tickets.gcrailway.co.uk/events/79272
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