After almost a year of hard work, our volunteer Cyril has finished varnishing one of the passenger saloons of 1888-built GSWR six wheel carriage No.69.
All of the walls have been smoothed, treated with several layers of varnish, and finally scumbled with a comb to give a rich woodgrain effect. In addition, the ceiling has been covered in luxurious embossed wallpaper – the holes are where the lamps and ventilators will eventually go. Given that such a huge amount of work has been carried out by a small handful of volunteers, it’s amazing that this work didn’t take longer.
This contrasts with the “before” photo of the other saloon, which will be Cyril’s next project. Time to do it all over again!
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