Thursday 3rd March

Attendance: 4

With greetings over the plan of campaign today was to get the radiator tanks fitted into the cooler group of the ‘Object'. The previous day Chris B and Jason had made up one of the radiator sets so Adam and Chris set off down to the secure lock up and collected four elements, two large and two small so that they could be test fitted with the radiator tanks.

With these placed into the car Chris and Adam returned to Baron Street . They then set about making sure that the elements fitted between the tanks and once happy the nuts and bolts that connect the side panels to the tanks were torque up. Meanwhile Jason trimmed a tree so that the radiator could be lifted into the ‘Object' with a forklift truck. With these tasks completed it was decided to get the parts for the 2 nd radiator unit and construct the parts ready to lift that one in.

At this stage the fourth member turned up in the form of Rob Purcell. So the four of them transported the parts around to in front of the steam shed and as before the tanks and sides were loosely bolted together and then checked that everything was ok by inserting the radiator elements. Once happy the nuts and bolts were torqued up.

After a brew the forklift arrived and once the radiator unit was strapped to the forks it was lifted into place on the car park side and bolted in relatively easily. However the other side proved to be a bit more awkward! The CoBo is situated down the side of the steam shed so a shunt was required before the other radiator could be lifted in. Once the shunt was completed the forklift was utilised again to lift the second radiator set into place. However this one didn't quite go to plan. Some of the holes didn't line up and even with the aid of a metal bar the holes couldn't be lined up. So it was decided to file out the holes located in the side frames of the radiator tanks and then a tap was run through and all the remaining bolts were fitted and tightened up. With that completed the CoBo was shunted back into place.

Adam then moved onto give one of the internal doors a coat of undercoat. The doors had been stripped down off site and given a coat of Aluminium etch paint. While Adam completed the painting Chris and Jason made a start on tidying up the workshop in the coach. When Adam finished the painting he joined them in the tidy up. And this brought the day to a close......

Friday 4th March

Attendance: 3

The majority of the work undertaken today was on the class 14 D9531. Jason made a start on the Class 14 but Adam and Chris made a journey with some items to the secure lockup identified as being not required in the near future during the tidy up the previous day. On their return Adam applied a coat of Hemp gloss paint to one side of the internal door. Once complete Adam moved over to working on the Class 14.

Saturday 5th March

Attendance: 2

Jason and Adam started the day working on the Class 14 but leading up to lunchtime Adam moved over to the CoBo. Adam decided to start by tidying up inside the ‘Object'. In the boiler end a conduit had been filled with lots old bolts and tools so these were cleared out and these along with old paint tins full of other nuts and bolts were removed to the workshop (filling the space created during the tidy up a couple of days previously).

With the tidying up completed Adam set up the compressor so that the needle gun could be used. There were three small sections of the floor that needing prepping ready for painting and a larger area that leads around the electrical cubicle to the cab door. The three smaller sections were needle gunned and given a Hoover up to removed all the loose rust then they were drelled and again another Hoover up to remove the dust. One of the areas treated was very rusty and there are holes in the body work above the floor so this will need to be tackled at a later date.

With this completed Adam tidied away the tools that he had used and called it a day.....

Sunday 6th March

Attendance: 2

So the final day of the extended working weekend. Again Jason would be working on the Class 14 today so Adam would be working on the CoBo by himself. First job of the day was to remove the internal cab door and take it to the workshop. The reason for this is that Adam was needle gunning the floor up to the cab door so it was in the way. With the door in the workshop Adam stripped the door handles off the door so that the door can be taken off site to be drelled prior to painting in the near future.

With the stripping of the door completed next job was to needle gun the last of the floor. Firstly though a piece of conduit was removed by simply unscrewing a collar that held it in place. The needle gunning took an hour or so and was then followed by a Hoover up to remove the dislodged rust and paint. Over the previous 24 hours the Hoover must have been emptied at least 5 times when it was full, that's a lot of rust and paint! Then some time was spent drelling the floor so that shiny metal was left ready for painting. Another quick Hoover up took place once all of the dust had settled.

The four areas of floor were given a wipe down with a cloth soaked in white spirit to remove any final residue and then a coat of anti-rust green paint was applied with Adam being careful not to paint himself into any corners. With the painting complete it was now time for a cup of tea.........

After the cuppa it was time to tidy away the compressor and needle gun as they weren't required again today. There are a couple of sections of the floor still remaining to be treated. The problem is that they are a little bit awkward to treat as they are narrow gaps down between walls and conduits. One of these sections was found to be full of oily muck. Adam set about scraping up the worst of the muck and then it was time to start tidying up.

Two last jobs for the day before leaving was giving one of the internal doors a coat of gloss on the other side to that completed a couple of days previously. Also the conduit that was removed earlier in the day was drelled back to bare metal and given a coat of green anti-rust paint. And that brought to an end a very productive weekend.

The next working weekend is 19/20 March. If you wish to lend a hand please contact Chris Tatton