Rainy days

Back on board for the first time in six weeks.  Dave was around and we had a look at the three portholes which he had now restored back to their brass (removed a ton of paint) and they look fantastic.  I now want him to take off the rest and do the same job on the others.  Dave the steel fabricator was jokingly titled Dave the window cleaner today but only briefly (sorry Dave).

I had my first near death experience today though.   The fog horn amplifiers that were on the wall of the radio room needed to be taken off.  I thought they were just circuit boards and so did not bother to check inside.  They weren't.  They were in fact about a ton and a half of transformer.  When I released the last nut from the 4 bolts holding the thing on the wall, nothing happened.  So I tried to lift it.  Nothing.  So I got the crow bar and gave it a shove and it face planted off the wall onto the floor with an enormous bang.  Gulp.  I tried to lift it and could not shift it.  Had I been in front of this as it went I would have been flattened.  Oh well.  On to the next three. 

The easiest way to remove the others was gravity.  A set of seat cushions on the floor and I watched them one by one swan dive from the wall like a crashing acrobat.  Job done.

Then cleaning off the remaining wall behind the amplifiers, stripping off the batons on the ceiling and the room was ready for Dave to clean off.  With only the battery room and the radio room left for Dave to tidy and then we are ready to start the rebuild (well, apart from the portholes which still need to be sourced and fitted).

Photos

The 4 fog horn amplifiers.  No idea how to shift them from here.  They cannot even be lifted by two people.

This is how it was.  The amplifiers mounted on the old ply wall

The back wall now cleaned