Tuesday At The Shops - Meeting More of the Guys

It seems as if I've now settled into a regular routine here in Sheringham.  Up in time for breakfast at 8:15, read my e-mail, update the blog, wander over to the library just in time to miss the 9:45 train up to Weybourne.  But that's okay 'cause the 9:45 train is the diesel and I prefer to catch the 10:15 train 'cause that one's my 0-6-2T Great Western Railway steam locomotive.  The guys on the platform are starting to recognize me with their "Going up to Weybourne, eh!?" greeting which doesn't require me to explain that I'm going up to Weybourne and that I won't be paying any fare (volunteers ride for free any time of the week).

Arriving at 10:30, the guys were sitting down for tea.  I signed in but decided I should skip tea and get to work.  There were a whole new crew of volunteers on the job in the C&W shops working on the M&GN brake van - Bernie, John, Mike.  With introductions all around, we all settled back down to work.  I started to pour some paint out of the paint can into a 750 ml plastic container - verrrrryyyyyyy carrrreeeeffffullllyyyyyyy - as I had had the experience, twice no less, of dumping paint onto the floor.  As the guys were working all around the brake van, I decided to put the paint away as any of my paint work would end up on their coveralls.

Bernie was struggling to install the drip edge that I had painted the day before so I gave him a hand.  After we had worked out the easy way to install the drip edge using clamps and wood blocking, things started to move along quite nicely.  With tea-time in the morning and tea-time in the afternoon, lunch tends to be delayed by at least an hour-and-a-half until 1:30 - 2:00.  My stomach has finally started to adjust to this time delay in addition to the time change between EDT and GMT.  Volunteers at Weybourne get sandwiches, drinks, etc for half price at the station buffet so lunch has been costing me about £5.

By the end of the day, Bernie and I had about 1/3rd of the drip edge installed.  The rest will be installed when they return next week.  Or, now that I know how they want it installed, it is probably something I can do myself.

The guys started wrapping things up at 4:15 so I decided to do the same so that I could catch the 4:30 diesel  train back to Sheringham.  As I sat down on the bench in the sun to wait for the diesel, #5619 came steaming up from Sheringham back to the locomotive sheds.  It had to run past me and I took a deep whiff of the steam, coal, and oil smells as she went by.  A nice way to end the day. 

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