Following on from Adam’s post, I just wanted to show some more picture of the work we managed to get up to a few days ago. Having all the old metal off the wagon is a huge step forwards for us!

Above you can see the prep work to get this stanchion off the end of the tank. We didn’t have as much room as the other end so we made sure to be extra careful when it came to removing it and the 2nd strap.

Side on, just shows how close we are to our currently out of ticket steam loco ‘190’. With correct prep work, the actual removal ended up being quite simple. It was getting the JCB started in the cold weather that took up most our time!

Above shows the end now fully accessible and can’t wait to crack on with needle gunning it! Also note the square hole in the side, Adam is due to fix this in the coming weeks.

Upon removing the second strap, I climbed up the ladder to inspect the surface left behind and to see if there was any major damage. Whilst looking under the top of where the first strap used to be, a few small holes were found which will need to either be filled in or patched. Not the end of the world though! (Brush for scale).
See you in the next one!
Ollie 🚂