Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853
This week work has focused on continuing the wooden beading repairs, and test fitting the first "W iron" to the underframe. At least there are only four this time to fit, rather than the previous two underframes which have both had six!
British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224
The 20 sliding windows have now all been cleaned up to their original aluminium glory, these have been kept to await the rest of the windows to catch up. In order to achieve this, more of the ten large bodyside windows have been laid out and cleaned up of all their old sealant and detritus so they are nice and flat ready to be refitted. There is a lot more aluminium surfaces within the frames of these windows that will have to be cleaned up in due course.
A few of the exterior doors have now been rebuilt to the stage where a start can be made on adjusting and test fitting the doors back into the apertures on the coach. As bodywork repairs have only been done on the seaward side of the carriage so far, this latest task with the doors can only be done on this side.
The windows on the seaward side have been protected with anti-rust paint in the areas that will be covered up in due course when the windows are refitted.
British Railways 1956 Tourist Second Open W4236
W4236 has been entirely in the hands of the painters. The first part of the week was spent completing the primer coat, with the second part of the week applying the undercoat. Now that the railway has hired a Great Western Railway observation saloon, resplendent in Chocolate & Cream livery, a special request has been made concerning the livery of our next standard Mark 1 to exit the works, to be revealed in full next week!
British Railways 1958 Covered Carriage Truck M94125
The bodywork "freshen up" has now been completed and the vehicle is now awaiting painting which can be done once 4236 has been finished. As a prelude to this however, both ends have already been completed in gloss black.
British Railways 1958 Covered Carriage Truck M94464
This stores van has now been reassembled with the wheelsets removed from M94125. M94464 is needed for the railway's Beer Festival next weekend so a speedy return to Sheringham was required. This was endangered however when alignment problems prevented us getting it back onto its new wheels! Thankfully with some lateral thinking and jiggery pokery the vehicle was persuaded onto the wheels and it has now been returned to Sheringham.
Southern Railway 1951 Parcels & Miscellaneous Van 1476
A new entry this week. This vehicle is more commonly known as the Model Railway Van at Weybourne, and lives in the cattle dock siding at the side of the station. It sits in the sun all year round and is wooden bodied so periodically requires a freshen up. This week the good weather has been taken advantage of and the roof repainted in bitumen to reseal it. The public facing side has been chipped of all its flaking paint and two boards that had rotted have been replaced using some offcuts of timber.
Royal Navy 4 Wheel Flat 269
The newly installed torpedo has been secured properly after a set of securing chains were dug out, painted and positioned successfully.
The end of the load has also been given an additional securing point which will prevent the torpedo moving forwards along the wagon should there be any rough treatment of the goods set. The last thing we want is a torpedo pushing through the wall and into the guard's brake van!
M&GN Dray
No progress to report.
Cromer
In addition to all of the workshop based action, a further milestone has been passed with the successful registration and first public runs this year of the Dining Train to Cromer over Network Rail metals. Despite going to great lengths to run the set last year using West Coast Railway's system, this year we are to be running under the North Yorkshire Moors Railway's mainline systems which are different in several ways. This has consequently meant more "behind the scenes" work on the four dining coaches over the past month or so to ensure they are tip top and conform fully to the new way of working. Well done once again to the small team who are fast making the mainline operations their specialty (the paperwork alone is enough to make a grown man weep) and have succeeded once again in ensuring the coaching side of the operation runs smoothly.
Workshop
In addition to the Axeman's steel frames described last week, he is also modifying a surplus metalworking bench that originated from Chatham Steam, which became available when they joined us here in Norfolk. The original corners, which stuck out somewhat, have been gassed away using pure grit and determination!
The bench will be more suitable than our current welding bench, which is actually wooden with a thin steel top, which is neither as flat or as substantial as we would like.
Continue to be amazed by the work carried out by the volunteers and staff at NNR. Excellent.
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