The weather was mild but with rain in the air this morning for the first working party of the New Year. Allan Black, Max Birchenough, Charles, Benedetto, Pete Thomas and John Olsen were on hand to open up the museum and continue our work refreshing the displays and adding new items.
Pete got the chisels out to make rebates in two battens and attach angle brackets to them in preparation for displaying two Talyllyn carriage destination boards on the first floor, while Allan fitted a support batten and perspex screen below William Finlays rear buffer beam to prevent little fingers getting anywhere near to the two electrical trailing blocks. Max, Charles and John erected the scaffolding tower up on the first floor to remove the large Heritage Lottery Funding sign as the grant period is now long past and we wish to mount new display items in its place. The tower was then partially dismantled to allow it to be moved round to a second work site where the Talyllyn carriage destination board was taken down. We have acquired two additional destination boards to be displayed on this beam with it and are changing the mounting method to a non-destructive system (the board had been drilled through and screwed directly to the plasterboard cladding of the beam – without any form of secure plastic plug) of L shaped hooks that we have successfully used for the locomotive wooden casting templates.
We took our coffee break in the Guard’s Room as the cafe is currently being refurbished ahead of the new season and were treated by Max to more of Linda’s delicious baking, in the form of lemon drizzle cake, which went down extremely well.
Refreshed we returned to the museum to set up a painting zone for Max to prime the wood of the finished support battens and the FR triangular milepost display pillar. John, Allan and Max went to the Gunpowder Store to re-arrange some of the boxes to allow wagon no. 146 to be moved back by another foot so that the hatch into the loft space could be opened ready for electrical safety testing work. We discussed fixing arrangements for the carriage destination boards as the one taken down was in two pieces that would need to be held together when re-mounted, but a final decision was not taken. After a general tidy up we wrapped up for the day.
Photos by Allan Black and John Olsen