As the photo below shows, the rain strips have been fitted on to the roof of the coach. The strips were manufactured by Don, then Don, Dave and Alistair MacPhee screwed them in place. The strips were positioned at the centre of the coach first, then gradually bent downwards as they reached towards the ends of the coach. Twin beads of flexible sealant were applied to the underside of the strips before they were finally screwed down, then the excess sealant wiped off so that the upper side (in particular) was left smooth to allow rain to freely move along the strip without "puddling".
Dave Hall (being an electrician to trade) has been volunteered to do some of the wiring in the kitchen. One of the ceiling flourescent lamps had to be moved from over where the cooker is to go to a position above where the sink will be. This re-positioning move had to be made early on so that the wall vinyl covering could be started.
Chris Smith made a terrific job of cleaning the axlebox covers on the north side of 644. This rather mucky job was a necessary precursor to painting the axlebox covers. It was amazing how nice the covers looked after all the years of gunge had been removed. Now for the covers on the south side.........
Robbie has been busy assembling the chairs for the saloon. The re-upholstered backs and squabs had to be screwed into the newly manufactured stainless steel frames. Looks like a simple job but it was not. Tricky to get accurate alignment of the various components so that all the chairs would look identical. At the time of writing, we did not have a stock of suitable chromed screws for the job, so steel crossheads were used. This allowed assembly and also created pilot holes for the chromed screws when those arrived. The assembled chairs were stored in the west saloon of 461 to allow DS space in 644 to decorate the saloon walls.
