Wednesday 11th April - JE (continued...)

The dado rail and skirting board has also been fixed in the VSOE. The partition on the shop side has been painted in dark red. The weather today was sharp showers which turned into a triple rainbow!

(JE) The current state of the info centre

(JE) Three rainbows overlook the GBLV and the RVR

Wednesday 11 April

Wednesday 11 April

By about 10 am this morning, both girders for Bridge No 1 had been put in place over the stream, and work was beginning on bolting in the cross-members and walkways. Elsewhere rails were being laid out ready for welding up. After fixing a tarpaulin which was slipping off the Maunsell coach roof in recent winds, we emptied the ancient LNER box van in preparation for its imminent departure to its new owner. Inside we found lots of stored goodies including ancient brass luggage rack brackets, and the racks themselves, plus coach window blinds, numerous 1920s/30s coach light fittings, and some spare carriage doors - all relocated. After a bit of shunting the van is now ready to be pushed to the loading pad area for collection by lorry.  We also demolished the small shed by the main gates and mended the useful four-wheel trolley.  SG

Wednesday 4th March - JE

The VSOE made reasonable progress today. Bob has almost finished the cupboard, just the doors to go. While I started fitting the raised dado rail and skirting board which was specially made by Peter French's son. Finally, Helen continued with making the bookcases with some teething problems which she persevered through. Some of the bookcases are almost ready to assemble now.

(JE) The new dado rail and skiritng board. Where's the fire exit! A second door has been put over the existing one so there can be a continuous wall of pictures and exhibits.

(JE) Bob's new corner cupboard

Otherwise, it was quiet elsewhere around the site because everyone else replaced all 300 or so track clips at Junction Road which needed replacing.

Sunday 18 March - JE

The VSOE upgrade visibly made progress on Sunday. I did some wallpaper stripping on the the rear wall of the information centre side (a fiddly but rewarding job at the end of the day). Bob completed the task of cladding the partition on the info centre side with MDF while making way for electrical cabling which Helen was doing more to.



(JE) Geoff after his soaking

Geoff probably had the most eventful day. He tried to remove the stopcock from where the tea/coffee machine was connected to and the water gushed right through. The building interior might have got soaked if Geoff wasn't in the way. As a result he was dripping wet! The water inlet has now been fixed and new plumbing will be repositioned onto the partition wall where the coffee/tea machine will be moved as well.

Weds 22 March

22 March - SG

Arrived today to find the new (secondhand) prefab toilet blocks have been delivered, one large and one small. We inspected these inside - they're not too bad but will need some work to spruce up and sort out the flooring.  We removed algae from the outside and flaking paint - first job will probably to perk up the outsides to make them more presentable once installed.  Meanwhile the tramways club have begun dismantling the protective structure over the tram bodies, so that these can be readied for the move.

Sunday 11 March - Jack Evans

Just a quick intro about myself for those who don't recognise my name. I am 16 years old and I have been an RVR volunteer since Spring 2009. Trevor Streeter has asked me if I would like to contribute to the volunteers blog and I said yes.

A lot of progress has been made yesterday with good attendance. Me and my dad Bob built the studding for the new partition wall which will separate the museum/information centre from the shop. This is part of the refurbishment of the VSOE building.

(Above) The frame of the new partition wall

Also in the afternoon, a majority of us helped David slide a new tarpaulin onto his Maunsell coach after two attempts.

(Above) David, Geoff and Bob pulling hard

Trevor and Geoff fitted two new PC monitors for the GBLV office.

It is anticipated that Bridge 1 will be lifted in place in about a week or two. I'm just eager to walk over the bridges straight to Northbridge Street.

Wednesday 7 March -SG

Non-stop rain today, but will that head off the predicted drought? We got ahead with preparations in the VSOE visitor centre for making up and putting together the new display units, which will also be used in the shop. A lorry load of MDF sheets arrived and had to be unloaded. Each will be cut up to form the sides and shelves in the units. Two heavy sheets of ply are for the mess van, to be cut to fit into the sides when we finally get around to narrowing the door frames so as to fit the 6 remaining doors we need to replace. One pair on the west, and two on the east. The ply will be routed to look like planking. I rescued a couple of very old iron rail chairs from the big heap that I spotted, probably for sale in due course.  The new office space in the mess van got a coat of paint and some coat hooks.  SG