A warm sunny morning boded well for the Tywyn to Abergynolwyn leg of the Queens baton relay and our labours were temporarily halted to see it off up the line. This morning regulars Charles Benedetto and John Olsen were joined by first timer Robert Morgan.
The first task of the day was to dismantle the Giesl ejector display and pack it away under the stairs; a somewhat easier procedure than erecting it had been. Our second task was also inside the museum as the diesel engine interactive was no longer booting up when the power is turned on in the morning. To investigate the cause, and overcome it, we needed to lift the unit up and out of its slot and then move it forwards to gain access to the rear where three panels cover the workings. We removed one end panel to find no reset button of any nature and moved to the other end where we discovered the monitor controls and the black box that holds the video file. Pressing the monitor power button elicited a response and the boot up proceeded as normal; this indicated that the units internal rechargeable battery had become exhausted at some time due to a longer than normal shutdown, ie a COVID lockdown. We left the unit running to allow the battery to be recharged and went for our coffee.
This morning we were joined by Mark Gibson, duty attendant, and Chris Parrott and Ann McCanna for coffee, custard creams, double chocolate digestives and chat.
Refreshed, we checked that the diesel interactive had recharged sufficiently by turning it off and on again and seeing it boot up correctly. After unplugging it we manhandled it back into position and connected it up again. As it booted correctly we went across the tracks to attend to other jobs on the to do list.
The first was to use the tie bars that Roelof van der Molen left with the museum after he delivered the new wagon frames, several years ago now; these had been his construction aids and he had no immediate need of them. Two were used to strengthen our ageing wagon support stands, which were made from the two halves of the condemned frame of no. 136, the three bar slate wagon, and they will shortly be supporting the new frame for no. 136 as we begin the long delayed rebuild. The tie bars were overlong so Charles and Robert cut off the excess and dressed the ends to remove sharp edges. They then assisted John as he cut a sheet of 8×4 ply into three pieces, ready for further sub division to make the support frames for the Carwyn Jones portrait exhibition that the museum is playing host to this year.
As the morning concluded all the tools were tidied away and the support stands placed ready for the future wagon rebuild.
Photos by John Olsen