GWR Mink G 112850  

At the end of the last report the Maroon Second Open 4798 had been taken into our carriage shed for overhaul and refurbishment. It had been running on the railway since 1996 without any major attention, and must have carried thousands of passengers in that time. The biggest problem was around many of the windows where rot had set in. That allowed water to get into the interior wooden frames and many of those had rotted. We had to remove six large windows, and for each of them new internal window frames have had to be made by our carpenters. The refitting of each window has taken 2-3 people on average about 5 hours.

The coach has been repainted in Maroon, and a great deal of work has been done on the interior. In particular it has been fitted with a new set of tables, which are not only larger and more suited to it, but are also covered in melamine so can be kept clean easily. Part of the flooring has also been replaced where it had broken up. It is planned to move the coach out of the shed on the second weekend in March and replace it with the Corridor First (FK) 13329. 4798 will go straight back into the Maroon rake, to replace the Carmine & Cream SO 4790 which is temporarily taking its place.

13329 has been on the railway for about 10 years. It is currently in very faded Network Southeast livery, and it is planned to outshop it in Carmine & Cream; thus being the 5th vehicle in that rake. A great deal of preparatory work has already been done on it. In particular, most of the internal compartments have been stripped out, and the old varnished veneered wood panelling has been gently sanded back, ready to be revarnished. We know from experience what a difference this makes to the overall finish. The compartments will be refurbished and rebuilt, one by one. The moquette in this coach is in very good condition, and although in NSE brown and white, will last us for many years to come.

At the end of the Winter work on the service coaches at Winchcombe, a massive shunt took place to get the coaches in the correct order for services. On the second of the two Saturdays when this was done, it took no less than six hours to complete, and it was dark when the loco took the coaches up to Toddington. The rakes are now fixed for the year, and shunting should now be at a minimum.

The GWR Mink G 112850 (see picture), is now formed up in the Permanent Way train, ready to start earning its living. It will soon be put to good use, as our intrepid p/way gang start work on the extension to Broadway shortly. Its place in our shed has been taken by a GWR Fruit C Van, number 2806. This is going to be refurbished for use as a support van for the Santa's Grotto at Winchcombe and will replace the existing wagon which is too small. The Fruit C will be finished in Chocolate Brown with golden yellow lettering, as it was one of the GWR 'Brown vehicles'. These were passenger rated vans, so called because they were built to run at speed in passenger trains, and were fitted with automatic vacuum brakes and a through carriage warming pipe. 2806 still has the gas tank underneath, which held a supply of gas for the internal gas lamps. It should look the part, parked in the bay platform at Winchcombe.

Work also continues steadily on the GWR Horsebox number 709 in the shed (another 'Brown vehicle'), the Container and its Conflat wagon and an LMS Brakevan. This is being refurbished into later LMS livery. It was first refurbished about 10 years ago, but suffered badly from water ingress when the canvas roof covering came adrift. This van only has a handbrake, and plans are being made to fit it with both a through vacuum pipe, and also a guard's emergency brake, so that it can be actively used in our demonstration goods train. The standard of the workmanship on this van when built can be gauged from the fact that when stripped, both doors were found to be made of solid oak, with brass fittings. They don't make them like that any more.

One of the jobs we have in the very near future is to couple the demonstration goods train together, as it will be in use on both of the forthcoming steam and diesel galas. We need to have it ready at Winchcombe for collection on the first gala morning.