Blue Flower

This was the second Wednesday working on the railway wagon, there were 10 of us and there's always a good atmosphere with a big group. Fred had already finished the roof with a fibre glass top which had set to give a waterproof finish. Eddie and I fitted the curved end strips to the roof and sealed them with mastic. The fibre-glass ends had to be linished flat to enable the strips to fit, and some resin spill was linished off the metal end panels so these were repainted by Dennis, John and Adam.

Graeme welded steel plates into the end panels to replace corroded sections which were cut out, and John painted them. Andrew and James fitted the new floor, which is made from thick planks with plywood keys in between to keep them in line and level. Each plank was bolted to the metal wagon frame each side, most of the team worked on this at some point. It has made a good solid sprung floor which feels like a dance floor, so we suggested having a disco when the wagon is finished.

As well as helping with the work, Debra kept us supplied with tea, and brought us bacon, sausage and egg rolls and pizza rolls for lunch. Adam had made coasters with a recent picture of the water wheel and gate frame after the scaffolding had been removed, which he gave out to the volunteers, and he gave Fred a pillowcase with a picture of him pretending to hang himself from the gate frame.

After lunch various people painted the rest of the wagon frame and door hinges. We wanted to get the sides on to protect the floor from bad weather, so plywood panels were made by Fred & Andrew and bolted to the frame by most of the team. Debra, Dennis and John painted the side panels with undercoat.

Fred has made the doors but we did not have time to fit them today. Adam painted the locking gear and some areas of the end panel where resin had been linished off. Just as we were about to finish work it started raining, and the wind picked up. After clearing up we put the original old wooden panels against the doorway to keep out rain, but when we were inside the wagon admiring our work, a gust of wind blew the panels over so they were wedged back in place.

Brian who gave us the wagon visited and we were discussing its history, we looked it up on the internet using the original numbers painted on the side and found that the original color was Bauxite, a reddish brown and we found pictures of similar ventilated vans in this livery. The wagon is taking shape now, one section of plywood sides remains to be done as well as fitting the doors, then we can start fitting out the inside.

Graham Bartlett     Interactive Plan            Volunteer       Previous    Next

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