The grey overcast sky was not promising for work in the yard this morning, but it remained dry throughout allowing Max Birchenough, Andy Sheffield, Charles Benedetto, Ian Evans and John Olsen to carry on working on the wagons.
With the cover off the wagon frame for no. 136 Andy very pragmatically asked that we align the floor plate with all the holes in the frame before it was sent away to be galvanised; it was good that he did as one hole was completely off the mark. Andy and Charles set to work to correct this by cutting the hole where it should have been. Max and Ian set about cutting up the frame of our Big Tent as the years of exposure to Tywyn’s salty air had led to terminal rusting in the joints; the remains were consigned to the scrap bins from which they had been rescued some years before. Ian then moved onto painting the wooden slats with grey primer and Max painting the FR steel slate wagon axlebox covers with black bitumenous paint. John assisted moving the wagon floor plate off the frame so that all the holes could be de-burred.
Coffee was taken in the cafe where we joined up with Keith Theobald, Andrea Sutherland and David Broadbent, who were working on sorting Corris related material from the Sarah Eade collection of documents. Ann McCanna and Mike Green also joined us for our break.
Back in the yard the wagon frame got a good scrub down to remove the rust and dirt that had accumulated while we had been working on the floor plate in situ, before it was moved to a new location, along with its stands, off the track to allow access to the Gunpowder Store, as we intend to store wagon no. 146 inside for the winter. Ian completed his painting of the wooden slats and Max cleaned down the door from no. 117, the incline wagon before painting it with acid etch primer.
The painted items were carefully transferred inside the Gunpowder Store and the cover put back on the wagon frame to wrap up the mornings activities.
Photos by John Olsen