A fairly cold day but an early start to pick up the polished handrail knobs from Pickersgill Electroplating.  They have done a fabulous job even if the photo below doesn't do them justice.

No glamorous support though, just a paint tin.   However other work is going on apace.  The plywood for the decency boards had been sourced so we spent a lot of the day mixing glue and then laying the first set of sheets out on the floor of the parcels van next to us.   We laminated three layers of 3.5mm thick ply to make a piece 12'6" long and 10.5mm thick.  Then we had to source plenty of weight to hold it down while it dried.  Carrying chairs is heavy work but they did the job.

Thanks to the MRT people for letting us use their floor.

The decency boards will be surrounded by a moulding and the corners and other pieces have been machined by Tattersfields at Heckmondwike.

Under it are several of the straight pieces.   Paul has taken some home to start assembling them.

After this Jim worked on getting C side window sill correct and varnished and I painted the inside of the mudguards with bitumastic paint.   All in all a good day.

Another piece Sponsorship.

One of the smaller jobs that needs to be done is to put some sort of coating on the old glass in the monitor vents to prevent it falling out if it gets cracked.  We experimented with pouring special resin on the backs but we ended up with bubbles in the resin so that had to be removed.

We are now very grateful to Allan Fretwell of National Window Films who have offerred to put 'bomb film' on the back surface of the glass that will do the job.   This is being done at no charge and we are very grateful for this.  Yesterday I took the 18 vent windows over to their premises at Castleford.

Slightly warmer weather but very wet; fortunately we are now indoors and don't have to have the doors open for light.   Jim and I spent the morning doing various small jobs.  Jim had finished the four mudguards and they now look resplendent in gloss black.   He spent some time making sure they fit and cleaning up A side ready for a coat of interior paint before we put the mudguards and seats in place. He then started work on modifying the window sills on A side as they project a little bit too far and would give anyone sitting there for a long time a crick in their back.  

Paul arrived with the curved bead for B end canopy bend so after lunch Jim and I spent two hours fitting the canvas at B end and got covered in more grey gloop.  However it all fitted well and we got the latts down as well.

Not the best of photos as I couldn't stand back any furher without falling off the staircase but it gives an idea of how the canopy at D end now looks.

Mike Waring came along and spent the day rubbing down the top deck latts redy for painting.   I then started on a bit of sheet metal work, a type of work that I have neither affinity with or love for.  We need to make two support brackets for the saloon end of the platform steps.   Anyway the Middleton crowd gave me some 16 gauge steel and I was then shown how to ue the guillotine and the folder and the end result by 4.30pm was this.

This is the second attempt.  On the first attempt I bent it the wrong way and ended up with a wrong handed bracket.

Another Cold Wednesday but Jim and I set to work this  morning to put the canvas on the canopy at D end. This went well and in time for lunch we got the canvas fixed down with the bead that Paul had made. It looked well. Grey gloop waterproofer got everywhere as it always does and we will have black spots on our hands for the next couple of days. After lunch we fixed the latts in front of the bench seat onto the canvas and screwed down the handrail stanchions. Richard and Stephen then joined us and whilst they attended to various detailing jobs I finished drilling the brass staircase handrails knobs.  These will now be sent for polishing but look well. All in all a good day despite the snow.

A Very Cold Wednesday, to say the least. However quite a bit got done. The first job was to make a template for the glass that will go in the lamps that we are having made for the ends of the tram.  These are again being kindly supplied free of charge by Oakland Glass of Dewsbury and Cyril Isaacs of Leeds. Richard came and collected the template after lunch and hopefully production of the lamps by Roger Mills can then start. More on the lamps in due course. Jim had made two of the mudguards up and painted them in primer and spent most of the day fitting them.  The end result was good and looks like this.

They need a final coat of black paint and also bitumastic underneath them.

Paul appeared and tried the fit of the beading for D end canopy bend.  It now fits in one piece so he then cut a pattern for B end and hopefully next week we can put canvas on the canopies. 

Meanwhile Malcolm had nearly finished the staircase handrail knobs so I was taught various dark arts on the radial drill and this was the final result.

The one on the left is for part of a vertical rail that comes down the inside centre of the spiral stairs and the one on the right is for the outer handrail stanchions on the stairs.  A lot of measuring up also went on and hopefully by next week all the remaining handrail parts will have been drawn and ordered.