New two-foot coaches and some more of the gardens

George Sholto under wraps in the locomotive shed

Now that most of the boiler-related work has been done on George Sholto, it has been transferred to the locomotive shed where it is sitting under a plastic sheet. The next task will be to fit the driver's cab and saddle tank before finishing off all the remaining little jobs.

This makes room in the workshops for construction of two new carriages for the two-foot Nursery Line. As Bevan can pull three of Bressingham's five two-foot carriages, a couple more are needed to enable both George Sholto and Bevan to operate together. It also means that if one carriage has to be taken out of service for repair, the operational impact is considerably reduced.

Fixing the frames to the floor

The existing carriages were built in the workshops, and because the new ones will follow the same design, type approval is not required. This makes it much quicker (and cheaper) than having to go through an approvals process, although they will still need inspection before they can be used for passenger service.

Sheet steel is welded to a framework to make the floor. The sides are then built from various sizes of frames that have been fabricated by welding angled pieces of steel together. This will provide a framework to weld the sheet steel side panels onto, to take windows and to hinge doors from. A very simple, yet durable design.

Frames already fabricated

Bracing to add strength

It's starting to come together now

Gardens

Conscious of my omission of the gardens, I made an effort today to walk around them to try and capture some of the last of the summer colour. I'm by no means a plant expert, so I've focused instead on trying to pick out a couple of the highlights.

Swathes of colour

Rudbekia

Agapanthus

Pine cone

Contrasting colours

Not long now and the leaves will start to turn ready for the autumn show, giving yet another perspective for the regular visitor. I'll try and photograph some autumn colour later in the year.

Bressingham Hall B & B