It started off quite fresh on site, but the breeze dropped mid‑morning and the heat built up during the remainder of the day.
A good Saturday team on site so we were able to progress multiple projects. It was a Mills Open Day, and we ran two of the four scheduled trains, carrying lots contented passengers – primarily as our principal task in the morning was the Big Swap Around and re‑organization of the main yard area.
The two new Broughton Moor open wagons were put onto the new siding beside shed 83D and were joined by Trecwn chassis TO 448 which was relocated from shed 83E. The “new” metal flat wagon was then moved into shed 83E, whilst the tower wagon was dragged by our Hunslet Gilbert from alongside shed 83C to a position just outside shed 83E.
Finally, the ballast wagon was moved from the turntable siding round to the display siding next to 83C. The result, once everyone had recovered their breath, was a strangely empty main yard — the purpose of this exercise being to give us plenty of room to welcome our new locomotives in a couple of weeks’ time.
Then the final coats of grey paint were applied to the roof of the Dough wagon, and varnish to the seats and floorboards of the Wickham trolley. The messy job of cleaning and lubricating all the Main Yard points was undertaken, and a necessary repair made to the worn tiebar and point lever bar on pointset seven so it now pulls over smoothly with no play in the joints.
A good clean was given to all the exhibits in museum building 83C, which were getting rather dusty after all the dry weather, and a new belt fitted to the belt sander in the workshop. The two bench units outside ARS2 were finished with cleaning and undercoating, and a mist top coat applied to one of them this afternoon.
The day concluded with a first undercoat applied to one end panel of the Wickham trolley, and stencilled lettering added to both ends of the Dough wagon, faithfully copied from the original, along with the vehicle fleet numbers ready for painting on Wednesday. Oh so close to completion now!
A big thank you to everyone for working so hard today.
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