Latest News
Alan Pakes sent me a summary of progress on S17064 in the past week: Here are the edited highlights
Interior department:-
The middle vestibule cladding has now been fitted, including around the door. The final door trims have not yet been fitted, as they need re-varnishing. With the cladding on, Mark has been able fit the Steel Wire Armoured cable from the compartments to the consumer unit. Quite smart it looks too. Mark has also started work on the wiring alterations to enable us to have independent control of the compartment lighting. This has meant removing some of the corridor side high level trims in the compartments. I have started fitting new pine trunking to carry the wiring for the reading lights, as the old wiring has been either buried in situ behind the panelling or removed.
Norman Burrows did a splendid job cleaning up after us on Saturday - the under seat areas in all the compartments have now been vacuumed to remove the mess left by the carpenters (guilty as charged), and the corridor has been similarly cleaned. Norman was also kind enough to help me cut the plywood for the compartment side panels in the corridor (8 off). I have fitted 3 of these so far (I had to give up as my knees were protesting)
Exterior department :-
Gary has started on the west side of the coach. However wet/cold stopped play today, so he turned his attention to the doors that needed changing. The toilet end west side door was the first one to be changed. The replacement door only needed minor adjustments to make it close. We were so impressed with the ease of this operation that we decided to tackle the 2 intermediate vestibule doors that also needed replacing. As is usual in these cases, things didn't go quite as well... The first door we tried had a small bulge in it, so we decided to try another door. The hinges on the second replacement door weren't in the right place, so we tried a third door. Once again the hinges didn't match properly - back to door 1 as it was the best fit. Curses. 
The corridor side put up less of a fight - however the door itself and the pillars required quite a lot of remedial work to get the door to fit. There is still some work outstanding on this door (the striker plate needs recessing more), but this will have to wait for another day as the correct tooling was not to hand. However, the coach is secure and all 4 passenger doors have working windows, door locks and actually open.
Progress next weekend could be hampered by (a) Mark driving D123 and (b) me working for my employer on Saturday. However, as I am working 6-2 next week, I hope to get some varnishing and carpentry done in the afternoons.
By Info | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | Tags : D123