Since the last report work has continued on the Cricklade end of the coach.

The painting of the chassis at this end is almost finished, and the new pieces of bottom side and the new end bar are now permanently in place. Ken Habgood has made from scratch two new corner pillars and these are also now permanently fixed in place, so the major parts of the "new" end are completed. To fit the corner post there are two mortise joints at the top, one of these is so the cant rail can slot into, the other is for the big piece of framing which supports the roof line.

Corner Pillars being fitted, Note ladder in there is mark corner pillar for roof line before removing to cut roof profile on the pillar

Originally when the coach was built these two mortises would have been the required size, but what we did was made the mortises in the post slightly longer than necessary. The reason for this is so the post could be slid upwards from underneath. Making sure both mortises had some lard in them and that the tenons on the cant rail and roof support were engaging in the corner pillar mortises. We then knocked with hammers the post upward until the end of the tenon on the bottom was higher then the bottom side underneath. It was then knocked sideways at the bottom so the post was over the mortised hole in the bottom side. The post was then knocked back downward so it engaged in the mortise in the bottom side, hence why the mortises at the top had to be longer than necessary to allow the post to come up sufficiently to get the tenon high enough to come back down into the bottom side hole.

New and original corner pillars

Once the post was in position it is important to make sure that it is parallel with the body side and the end, i.e. with its opposite corner post and the posts holding the corridor gangway.

Since then all the metal corner gussets (all new ones to the original design) have been drilled and fitted using M12 coach screws. There is also a horizontal bracket holding the end bar to the bottom side which was fitted as originally with coach bolts

Recently Ken has fitted all the framing at one side ( between the corridor connection and the corner pillar) and the other side has been started to and should be finished probably by the end of September.

Paul Richardson has been busy painting the chassis for us and some assorted metalwork such as the draw hooks, draw hook housing etc.

Working on the Buffer Beam

Mike Bradley removed the draw hook and draw bar which fixes close to the bogie centre pins. Originally the fixing end had a whole sandwich of metal plates with rubber between each plate, this provides some damping when an Engine pulls on the draw hook, but unfortunately the rubber had completely disintegrated so will be replaced with new material and the metal plates themselves will be cleaned up, painted and put back.

To get the screw link coupling off is typical of any vehicle in that there is a small section on the side which is slightly flattened, you have to rotate the screw link coupling around in the hook until the flattened section is opposite the gap in the draw hook, the screw link coupling can then be lifted off the draw hook keeping the flattened section parallel with the gap in the hook.

David Ashby has been helping Andrew Creaser during his school holidays. Some time ago the railway was given for a small sum some old railway stuff that had been acquired by a man in Didcot, he was moving house and didn't want to take all the stuff with him so donated it to the SCR. Clive Thompson and myself went in a van to Didcot to collect it. Amongst the items was the platform trolley that is currently on the platform at Blunsdon. Unfortunately at the last years wartime weekend, someone broke the handle and once broken it was obvious it was completely rotten and had been repaired with a piece of softwood and a great "wodge" of filler, so a good tug on the handle and it fell appart.

Andrew made on his woodworking lathe a completely new hardwood handle, identical to the original and this has now been fitted by David Ashby using a proper mortice joint to join the handle to the drawbar of the barrow. The handle has then had several coats of paint including black topcoat. Really to be honest the whole barrow should be undercover to prevent further deterioration along with the various other sack trucks that are on the line and which are looking increasingly neglected

In Addition Andrew and Faringdon college have made a complete new set of window frames and window sills for the former Malmesbury goods office which is being erected near the shop at Blunsdon for use as a staff training room. In you are around Blunsdon take a look at them before they are fitted as they will have been a considerable amount of work for Andrew to make ( currently they are in the TVR coach body ( the ex "red coach"). There are many items of work on the railway that are being done by people that are often unseen and people maybe don't realise when a complete new set of windows " suddenly appears"

Andrew has also been working on the Toplight side framing and helping Nick Bailey prepare the Taff Vale Number 73 body.

We have a new member of the group called Alan Merryweather, he has previously worked on some of the local canal projects but has decided to join the Swindon and Cricklade to come and work on the Toplight and TVR coach. T get him started we have got him paint stripping and repainting some of the electrical connectors that will soon be fitted to the end of the coach for the electrical jumper cables. These were obtained at Caerwent off the Royal Mail TPOs that were being scrapped at the time. He has also been working on some of the metal brackets for the body framing.

A good piece of news happened recently. At the vintage weekend we got talking to a local man called Jim Miller who used to work at Swindon Works wiring up coaches and Diesel Locos He said he wired up some of the Western Diesels for example. Anyway he has passed to us a drawing he made at the time showing exactly how to wire a GWR coach including the regulator, dynamo, fuse, battery and switch boxes etc. It is almost "frighteningly" complex and shows the types and colours of each cable and what fuses went were etc. There are still a number of details and questions we will have to ask him, and perhaps get him to take a look at our coach and also the Collett coach to work out the details exactly.
In addition I have copies from Didcot of a number of lectures that were done at the Swindon Mechanics Institute from the 1890s to 1940s including several detailed ones on carriage lighting and Carriage Steam heating etc so these will have to be studied carefully when we come to do the wiring.
We don't have a GWR regulator or the switch boxes so if any reader knows were we might obtain these items then obviously we would be very keen to hear from them ?

Tony Davis has been fitting some of the corner brackets to the framing and also chopping out some of the bottom side framing to let in a new piece of wood underneath the body bolts.

Finally myself and Ken went and had a look around the South Devon Railway and were shown around all their projects by Patrick Barter, it was interesting to see and they have rescued a number of coach bodies which could form some interesting projects (for them) in the future.

So sitting on your sofa reading this, do YOU fancy getting involved? Much of the work is easy such as sanding and varnishing, wire brushing etc. We are would desperately like it for more people to get involved as the main limiting factor in any of this is a shortage of skilled volunteers. We work on Wednesdays in the day and Evenings and at weekends

You can contact us James Faulkner Tel 07715 322241 or email James75452000@yahoo.com or Nick Bailey on (01242) 604522 or speak to us when we are working.