Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853
The buffers extracted from the mineral wagon store have been primed and undercoated. More importantly however, Monkey has discovered that if you hit the buffers with the buffer head itself on the floor and the long shanks extending skywards, then they act link tuning forks and make chiming noises! Unfortunately our ex foreman Mike Biss was the musical man and the rest of us don't have the same musical instinct, so after five minutes of repeatedly hitting them and trying to work out what notes they were we got bored and gave up - so readers will unfortunately be denied the pleasure of a video featuring the buffers recreating Big Ben's chimes!
London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74
Once again, the Quad Arts have been the main focus for the department in our efforts to get them finished so we can get rid of them! No image of the O.C.D. progress grid this week, but it is now pretty much full in terms of ticks. The differences between the Sheringham end and Holt end pair of coaches are now dwindling as they are all catching up with each other having almost reached an equal level of completeness. All compartment ceilings and been repainted and all of the lighting bowls refurbished and refitted. The vents have also all been secured shut now as these were thought to be part of the cause of the mold on the ceilings growing in Bridge Road sheds. What this has meant is the conclusion of all interior works. The only outstanding tasks have been a general check up in each compartment to remove and paint splashes and give the seats and windows a clean prior to service next month.
On the exterior of the bodies, a final push to complete the remainder of the teak panel rubbing down has been completed, so all four coaches are now ready for varnishing next week all being well. One of the most awkward sections, the ends between the intermediate coaches, has also been rubbed down as these have never been re-varnished since the coaches were reformed after restoration 10 years ago.
Described in previous weeks, we have also been working on the repainting of all the metal "door furniture" and escutcheons etc that are steel and painted brown. This job was much larger than we originally bargained for so has required several people on the job. We have even had a director of the NNR no less painting these - nobody can say we don't have jobs for everyone in this department! Three out of the four coaches are now done with just a bit more second coating being required on the brake vehicle.
Sticking with the same brown paint, the two end bufferbeams have also been repainted improving their appearances.
The underneath work on the two Holt end coaches had lagged behind the other two because the former were obscured by the platforms that form the staging area. This week saw the set drawn out of this area for three days (being put away again each evening) allowing this work to progress on an intensive basis. Bogies, wheels, battery boxes and footboards were all cleaned, undercoated and black gloss painted over the three days.
The wheels themselves were brown with white tyres being picked out on the final day. Getting the set dragged out each day was a real mission at times but had to be done to get the work done on time and I'm pleased to say we were successful in the end.
The two remaining bogies were also re-brake-blocked and adjusted, a hard and dirty task indeed...
Thursday saw the set outside for the day, but no pictures until they're varnished and look fully complete!
British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843
More chopping out this week around the toilet side, although we have now reached the end of the chopping for the landward side at least. Now the focus will be on cleaning up and metalwork renewal followed by refitting of panelwork.
British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51192
We have upholstered some spare seats in the same material so swaps can be made if there are any catastrophic acts of vandalism on any odd seats in the future. This now concludes the project from an upholstery point of view, however the seats themselves still require refitting in many cases. The good news however is that as part of the continued shunting the vehicle itself is now located right outside the C&W shed so access will be easy to see it finished.
Maintenance
Mark 1 TSO 4958 has had a damaged window for some time (one of the smaller sliding windows) and following the failure of a second, a pair of replacements have been prepared ready for a swap in due course. As this involves partial dismantling of the interior to get them out for swapping, the coach will have to be removed from service for a short time. It is planned for this to happen soon as we would like the coach repaired well in time for the summer holidays when both Mark 1 sets are out in daily service.
Workshop
Although I failed to take a photograph, readers must be aware that we do occasionally do tasks for other departments, and the Axeman has been busying himself with just such projects. Machine shop welding has been the order of the day, so I await the complaints coming in from the machinists!
Finally, after more repainting it is looking like both of the platform barrows are now complete.
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