Ceiling

It has been a long job, but the entire ceiling has been painted in brush filler, laboriously rubbed down (thanks for your help Dave), and then the lighting patresses and beading fitted. As I write this, there are 6 pieces of beading left to screw in, the other 43 having been (in some cases quite literally) bent into shape and secured in place.

The vestibules and toilets were particularly tricky, as the angle of the partitions and curve of the roof required 3 different flavours of curved hockey sticks.

As we’re almost there with the beading, Dave and Bob have started throwing more filler about. Once that’s done (I haven’t tried to count all the holes, I thought it would be depressing), we can start to think about showing it a paint brush.

Trevor continues to apply further layers of undercoat to his gangway end door, and James has cleaned up the last roof vent and carefully wire brushed and sprayed the first components of the passenger communication gear.
Mike’s heater installation continues with the preparation of some 40′ of timber moulding to which the heater brackets are secured along the length of the saloons. This has been cut to length, drilled and primed.

The epic tasks of beading the side, and applying the roof vents are almost upon us, help always welcome.

Ceiling Week- End of Week

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Both saloon ceilings are in place. By the end of the second day of panel fitting, we were able to install 5 saloon panels in a day, and we stopped at 5 again on the third session when we ran out of pins.

Sunday saw the last few saloon panels up, and then the vestibule panels were pinned up (just one mushroom per panel with these!). Toilet ceilings were a bit awkward to hang, and there isn’t space for the mushrooms, but we devised a little something with a slightly modified acrow prop and a pointy bit of wood.

The light bases have been machined based on an original that had fallen off 7991, and a quantity of beading made. Next job is preparing the ceiling for paint.

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Ceiling Week- midweek report

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Full set of panels made for the ceiling now, vestibules and toilets included. Small saloon now has the ceiling fitted, large saloon to follow. Dave and I have started refurbishing the bulkheads around the toilet areas, and some new panels are due to be fitted.

Ceiling Week 1

So I’m on leave for 9 days, and it’s….. wait for it….. Ceiling Week!

The main saloon ceiling panels have been cut, shaped and painted with primer, undercoat and gloss over the last few weeks. Fire retardant emulsion is being applied to the top surface prior to fitting. The first pieces to go on have been the new bulkhead panels. Those in the coach were not original, but had been thoroughly chewed and modified and patched up so with the spare from the ceiling we’ve made a new set. These have been fitted, and the holes drilled for the passenger communication gear.

The whole underside of the roof has been painted with the same fire resistant emulsion, and several metres of new wooden conduit manufactured to replace broken and missing sections along the cant-rail. The ceiling springs off this, so it’s important that it fits properly.

Plan- tomorrow, two of us are going to run a covert operation to trial fit the first ceiling panel. 14 big ones, 4 vestibule panels, 2 toilet panels, 4 sections above the luggage racks and gangways, plus around 150′ of beading, 9 light bases, 16 ceiling vent covers and 120′ of passenger communication tube to fit. Best get started!

 

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