A small band of hardy volunteers braved the elements on this particular weekend. Present were Gareth Broughton, Oily Smith, Alan Flockhart, Rod Eastman, Sean Sharples, Josh Quirk, Mick Doyle, Robin Fransham.
Saturday
Oli and Alan got down and started removing the engine room floor panels on ‘B’ side. A lot of sludge has collected under here over the years and it was now very hard for any water to drain away. The sludge was removed and the floor dried off properly and the floor panels taken outside and cleaned. A few more panels need removing to finish off ‘B’ side. Once finished this should really help the damp problem that we’ve had lately. Micky, Child, Sean and Rod had a real blitz on the ‘B’ side bodywork, most of which has now been filled and sanded down. Another good days work and she’ll soon be good for priming. Josh finished off the No 1 end cab side and removed the adhesive that was left behind by the Big T motif. Gareth and Robin made various checks to the batteries.
Saturday evening saw a jolly up to the blue door curry house (eh eh Sharples!), followed by a swift pint in the George courtesy of Sean. Several members promptly tried to debag Sean of his trousers but our attempts were hampered because he wanted to keep them!
Sunday
Alan and Gareth left early for a thing called work (wot’s that then!), leaving Sean, Oli, Mick and Child to carry on with the bodywork. The two gaping holes on ‘B’ side that were patched up with bin liners and No Nails have now been fixed up good and proper with aluminum sheet and copious amounts of filler – this will definitely do as a temporary fix until we can chop the sections out and weld some new steel in. Oli refitted the two cab floor panels and tidied up inside before continuing with the bodywork. Micky and Sean started work on a very tired looking No 2 cab end, which has already started to come up rather nicely!
All in all quite a productive weekend. She’s getting there!
