The main event last Wednesday was the installation of the drain for the kitchen in the new mess hut. Contrary to those offering pessimistic predictions, the weather wasn’t too cold and it was a welcome surprise to find that Alan Vernon had kindly excavated a trench with the JCB the previous day. However, it soon became clear that there was no time to waste as the only person on site who seemed to unaware of the plan to dig a trench in front of the side gates was Mike MacArthur, who had ordered a delivery of oil for Thursday! So John Dixon got to work with his drill, assuming that the wall of the manhole chamber could be penetrated with an 8″ long drill. However, once the 8″ had been reached it was necessary to attack with a chisel – and then an even longer chisel before a breakthrough was achieved at 12″ into the chamber. 
Thereafter John soon had the drain pipe installed and the trench was immediately filled in with the JCB.
Friday saw John doing the delicate task of cutting out the hole in the work top for the double sink to be fitted.
Work has continued on the RSR’s TPO where the initial assumption that the bodywork was in relatively good condition has been somewhat contradicted by the fact that Tim has now applied the best part of two large cans of filler and a can of fibreglass – and he hasn’t yet started on the south side of the vehicle!
Paul and John Davis have just about finished their works on the south side double door and are seen here fitting a new retaining hole surround.
Meanwhile Roger Benbow has continued to paint the bogies and frames.
Adrian, Howard and Alan have once again been busying themselves with jobs on Caliban whilst Alan Ogden and Anthony Jolly have done further work on Fluff.
Fred filled the shed with dust on Friday as he cleaned up 5643’s superheater header ready for some machining.
Keith and George spent Saturday cutting and trimming metal for the top of the tender frames for Wootton Hall whilst Derek recorded their work on video for posterity.
Further serious work on the tender frames will now have to wait until the appearance of a coded welder a week on Friday to stitch the new front sides to the existing frames.
And finally for this week, David spent Saturday painting a signal post which will shortly become an exhibit in the RSR museum.