MAY WORKING SUNDAY PROGRESS

Sunday the 3rd of May saw several of us at the signal box, despite the unpromising start to the weather.

Soak away filled with rubble

I cracked on with fitting out the Cowley Bridge building (more in a minute).
Ben put some more paint on the level crossing gates.


Colin relaying the slabs

Jamie dug the soak away pit for the new building and collected gravel and rocks etc from around the site. Tom broke up the larger pieces with a sledge hammer (and now has larger muscles!).
Neil did various gardening things and spent time clearing out more rotten wood/rubble from the old crossing gate post holes.
Colin continued his work on replacing the paving slabs to the rear of the box and has now got around the corner.  It's looking good Colin!
Gavin tidied the large shed which is use to store tools and artefacts waiting for restoration. James helped various people throughout the day, including me inside the new building.

During the morning it dried up and the sun appeared, which even made it quite warm.

Tom took advantage of this and cut the grass.

Things are progressing inside the Cowley Bridge building, as you can see by the following photos...

Two of the windows have had "hockey stick" edging fitted around the reveals.  This covers the edges of the ply wood and gives a very neat finish.

Not all the work shown above was carried out today (I'm not that fast!).  To date the two uprights have been installed. These are to create a division between the Southern and GWR parts of the building.  All the dado rail has been fitted.

About 80% of the tongue and groove boarding has been installed, as has about 80% of the skirting boards.  I need to buy a little more T&G boarding to finish off (I never was any good at estimating!).

The next visit should see all the initial fitting out completed.  T&G boarding, window edging, skirting and corner quadrants should all be completed.  This means that the priming of all the wood can be finished.  It's then on with the colours, which will make a big difference.

Dave