Cleanliness is next to Godliness Impossible

I had been hoping to bring you a fascinating blog entry on the arrival of Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD's inside steam piped 28XX, 2874 at Toddington for her restoration from Barry Scrapyard condition.  As usual, my plans have been thwarted, this time by transport problems which have delayed her arrival.  That didn't stop us getting to grips with tidying up the yard in the area where she will be located when she does turn up. 

Prior to that though, I started on Saturday on a normal cleaning turn.  Being the only rostered cleaner and with two locos needing to be cleaned, I was more than delighted to find that Steve had turned up as well.

Steve at work on 5542

2807 was the other loco running on Saturday

Needless to say, they needed decorating with tinsel as well as all the usual preparations:

Clive decorates 5542

Cliff oils up 2807

2807 decorated on one side

 It takes a surprisingly large amount of tinsel to make a half decent job of decorating a steam loco and unfortunately we ran out when only one side of 2807 had been covered.  Phil made a valiant attempt to conceal the undecorated side by putting up a smoke screen, but alas the wind was blowing the wrong way.

You simply can't depend on the weather

 In the end, Steve headed off to Winchcombe to fetch bacon baps and emergency supplies of tinsel.

Steve decorates the hitherto unadorned side of 2807

During the week, drainage has been put into the shed in readiness for the concrete floor:

Hopefully it won't be too long before the concreting operation can start.

At the other end of the shed, Foremarke Hall has got a nice new copper chimney cap in place now:

Looks gorgeous

Once the locos had disappeared off to work the Santa Specials, it was time to start clearing up the area where 2874 will go when she arrives.  In anticipation of her arrival, a shunt had already taken place.  The mk1 coach that was pressed into service as a mess coach during the time of the Chicken Curve landslip when we operated out of Winchcombe has been hanging around in the yard at Toddington for a while and has now been readied for sending on to pastures new:

Surprisingly, the other side is completely graffiti free

The old mess coach

 Part of the tidy-up operation included creating access space for the machines and materials that will be involved in concreting the shed floor.  The saddle tank of Ian's Peckett was one of the larger items that needed to be shifted out of the way.

Saddle tank being raised....

.... and lowered into it's new home.

The operation involved hitting a few items with hammers (no, not the Peckett).... Mark doesn't know his own strength:

Decapitated hammer

After that, it was just a case of shifting things away from the intended new home of 2874:

One of the things that wanted shifting was part of the class 73 Electro-Diesel.  I have no idea what it was, but it was remarkably heavy for such a relatively small item.   It crushed the first pallet that we tried to shift it on.

About to try and roll it onto a more sturdy pallet

Got that sorted

Finally stashed it out of the way on top of a container.

We also needed to move what appeared to be a radiator for one of our diesel shunters. Made by Rolls Royce no less:

Rolls Royce

Not sure that it would fit on a Silver Shadow

 Anyway, the bottom line is that there is now not only siding space, but also a bit of tidy yard space ready for our friends in Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD to get cracking on restoring 2874 when she arrives.

Elsewhere, Tim and Neil had been working on fitting covers over inspection holes that give access to some of the wiring by the ash pit:

Tim gets creative with a hammer and chisel...

...and admires the newly installed cover

Later on, the locos returned from their duties taking 'nice' children to and from Winchcombe the North Pole to see Santa.  Dan moves aside the fairy lights from the smoke box door, whilst I had a failed attempt at light painting by trying to write '5542' with my torch.  I could have sworn I'd worked out how to do the mirror writing, but clearly I got it badly wrong.  I was too slow to get the 2 included in the exposure as well.

Not quite 5542

I'm afraid that I didn't get any photos of 2807's return, however I can attest to the fact that the recent modifications to the ash pan are a considerable improvement, making it much easier to empty now.