May Workday

It might appear early to have completed the workdays for the month but there will only be one this month due to other events. We hope to have one or two in June but even they may be difficult to fit in. Keep an eye on the calendar at the left for the latest information.

Paul and Kevin arrived early and a start was made on cleaning the heritage items. After Jim arrived they stopped for a morning tea. There was no time wasted though as we made plans for the display of some of our heritage items while taking our break. Kevin and Jim then moved onto car 547 leaving Paul cleaning and refinishing.

Our plan for the day was to clean and paint the metal items on each end of 547. The end platform has metal railings and uprights plus there are numerous pieces bolted to and through the headstock. The headstock is the large piece of timber that hold the buffers and couplers on each end. Actually they pass through and bolt to the frame but you get the idea. Rusted pieces were to be removed and where necessary repaired and painted before being replaced. There was no need to remove the couplers or buffers but they would be repainted. Some damaged railings had already been done and were ready to go back on, thanks Kevin. It was planned to clean up and repaint the headstock at the same time. Some nuts and bolts are being replaced as required.

We removed much rust and there was one panel we decided to remove completely. It covers the couplers and is part of the walkway between carriages. The bolts through the headstock were heavily rusted as they are vertical and the water just runs down them. It took some time and much applied muscle power to remove them. By that time it was nearly lunch time so by universal agreement we took a break.

The barbecue was lit and we enjoyed a well deserved repast of hamburgers with bacon and salad. We have the lunch almost down to a fine art now as we were better prepared than last week. There was an overabundance of BBQ tools this time. We need to work out a system for covering the costs of these lunches but as lunch for 3 or 4 is little more than we were each spending on takeaway it shouldn't be difficult.

Nora asked us for help loading a tram body and that took over after lunch. We managed to remove several parts for the Tramway Museum. Steve arrived while we were busy there. He was returning several items he had been working on at home. After finally getting the tram on the truck we decided it was too late to start back on 547 so called it a day.