A bright crisp morning today in Tywyn, a tad too crisp for painting outdoors unfortunately as it was a chill 4oC. Max Birchenough, Pete Thomas, Charles Benedetto and John Olsen went inside the museum to progress the jobs started last week.
Pete fitted a bracket to the wall behind the newly mobile No. 5 diesel interactive to prevent the unit from being pulled over, whilst John and Max scrubbed away the paint drips that had penetrated the dust sheet under the slats that David Broadbent painted last week. Charles moved his work site from beside George Henry to the more commodious circulation area in front of the Baguley and began assembling the components of the slate wagon support frame (to hold the real slates safely in position). He was joined by Max once the paint drips had been removed and John made the first of many trips to the Gunpowder Store to put the slats for wagon no. 136 in store as the museum will be open for the weekend Santa Specials. Having secured the safety bracket, and tested its efficacy, Pete then installed the safety edging behind George Henry that will help protect the visitors from the projecting corner of the stairs.
Coffee time was announced by the arrival of Ann McCanna and Mike Green and we were joined in the cafe by Keith Theobald and Tom Place for our coffee chat and dark chocolate Hobnobs.
Post coffee Pete installed hooks and a rail, to hang the museum cleaning equipment off, in the north wall storage space; this alleviates the previous haphazard storage of brushes and spray bottles on the very restricted floor space. Charles and Max were ready to assemble the new support frame but were required for cleaning duties so they stored the parts on the rear slate wagon on the Host wagon. All hands turned out to clear away all the timber and tools and clean the floor of sawdust and wood offcuts so that by mornings end the museum was tidy and ready to greet our visitors this weekend.
Photos by John Olsen