A Day Out in The Sun

Yes we actually escaped today and went out.  Our Friends at Middleton kindly shunted the two cranes out of the way and we were able to push the tram out over their ash pit which gve us access to the underside. A good team turned up of Paul Abell, Mike Waring Jim and I. Paul spent the morning freeing off one of the bell rods then managed to get 5/8ths of them painted without getting any paint on the varnished woodwork or the polished brass handles.  Mike spent the day touching up lining and rubbing down the corner pillars ready for a final coat of vermilion.   Jim turned troglodyte and painted everything he could find under the car.  I spent the morning shiopping mortices and inserting captive nuts to keep the dash pillars and brake columns on.    Then I managed to get the two brackets fitted that stop the brake rods dropping down.   All this on a very hot day with constant stops for liquid.   

After lunch we fitted the two dashes which Jim has painted and gilded then paused for a well earned photo session.

All in all we were very pleased with the rapid progress and are looking forward to the launch in August.