The Tywyn weather mojo delivered a fine crisp sunny autumn morning for the team so Max Birchenough, Charles Benedetto, Andy “Two Sheds” Sheffield (just released from marshal duties) and John Olsen got down to business.
Max and Charles polished up the two new end angle pieces for wagon no. 164, cleaned them with white spirit before Max painted them with a special grey primer, in a patch of sunlight beside Llechfan. As Max painted, the rest of us recovered parts of the Big Tent frame from behind the Weighbridge House as the dreaded rust worm had been busy and the legs needed attention. The idea was to shorten the legs by cutting off the worst of the rusty sections, so far so good, until John picked up the end frame and it neatly concertina’d. The cross member had rusted through along its entire length and had to be replaced. With a bit of WD40 the nuts and bolts joining the parts together were undone and a new section sought out. Alas none of the remaining pieces were long enough but one had a length of wooden dowel in it that would provide the mechanical strength to join two shorter pieces together.
Ann McCanna arrived in the yard and secured our morning coffees from the cafe so that we could sit in the sun on the platform and have our chocolate and chat fix. As the biscuits were passed around Mike Green joined us and the dreaded WW was mentioned by certain parties, that’s Weight Watchers folks, so that some of us were more abstemious than others as the last of the chocolate digestives were eaten and the chocolate Hobnobs started. The coffin ordering scene from For a Fistful of Dollars somehow entered our chatter, ‘my mistake, four coffins’, before the latest round of oneupmanship – who is getting their booster jab next week?
Refreshed we returned to our precision surgery of the tent frame, cutting back the legs and re-attaching them to the crossmembers, after a little game of match the holes.
By the close of play six legs had been shortened, two angles primed, one cross member fabricated and the sunshine was enjoyed by all.
Photos by John Olsen.
