30 May 2022

May News Part 2

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866 (GOLD)

Progress continues steadily on the areas already in progress. The ever advancing guards double doors have had further adjustments and are now up to black undercoat, with several coats being applied inside also.



At the opposite end of the vehicle, the toilet area continues to progress with the door now fitted. The varnished corridor end doors also have had further work and many more coats of varnish.

London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74

Conveyor belt coaches 10 to 13, or the Quad Art set as it's more normally known, has progressed well, with the seaward side varnishing now completed.



Also done at the same time were the two ends.



The landward side remains in patch varnish as we have had to build up five layers where the sun had damaged vulnerable areas. This tedious process has thankfully just been completed and we are now ready to varnish the whole side which will complete this work.



A start has now been made on some cosmetic subsidiary tasks including a coat of paint on the footboards.



We are hoping that tyre turning of the set will start after the Jubilee Weekend and accordingly we have arranged for the former museum coach (Thompson BG) to come to Weybourne form Holt to have two of its axles also turned at the same time, which in due course will be substituted into the Quads to replace two odd wheelsets that it has been running with for some time.



British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

Shortly after the last update the coach was lowered back onto its two bogies which we have now finished with. This work has been supported by a clean down and repaint into gloss black of all the visible underframe sections, which has really smartened up its appearance. The bulk of this work is complete with both sides finished and both bufferbeams at the end of the coach cleaned down and in undercoat.



The guards door handrails have been test fitted to ensure they still fit after the steelwork and woodwork had been renewed, this being seen as a good idea before much more paint was applied.



On the interior, the troublesome door cards have continued and are now all in place with final varnishing to complete. The two store cupboards are now also complete apart from final Formica cleaning. They have been trimmed out, painted where required, the lighting installed and revised locking arrangements fitted to make it easier for cleaners and staff to access.

In the wheelchair accessible saloon, all of the woodwork is now fitted meaning a start can be made soon on final rubbing down and repainting. Of note has been the refitting of the corridor end walls and sliding door with associated cover panels. There are now few parts still to physically refit to E21103.



British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958 (BRONZE)

Upholstery continues. It is now reaching the stage where a final audit will be made and the last spare cushions from stores selected to become the final "new" seats to form a set for the vehicle.



London Transport 1955 20 Ton Ballast Hopper HW426

The hopper project has progressed well now that outside work has recommenced on it. Several securing brackets have been fitted to the vacuum through pipe which are in turn welded to the chassis meaning the pipe is now fully secure. The flexible vacuum pipes (or "bags") have also been fitted onto the ends bringing this aspect of the project to a close.

Under-frame cleaning continues and has now progressed to some of the inside sections of the frames, although not a great deal more of this is likely to be attempted as it is a law of diminishing returns now that most of the visible sections are done. As each section is completed, rust inhibiting grey primer is applied.

For the rest of the wagon it has been a case of paint paint paint. As previously reported the outside of the hopper tub itself and the solebars have been primed before the vehicle left the shed, since then the outside of the running gear and under frame equipment has also been so treated. This has allowed the undercoat stage to commence, with the tub now in a coat of red undercoat and the seaward side solebar sporting black undercoat. It is starting to look smart and the eventual colour scheme is beginning to emerge.



British Railways 1953 20 Ton Loriot DB904093

No progress to report.

Hurst Nelson 1944 4 Wheel Petroleum Tank 5304

Final preparations for the tank repaint have been concluded following a few days of dusting, cleaning, applying rust inhibitor and wood hardener to relevent areas. The timber saddles at each end have cleaned up and subsequently filled ready for painting. 

Then the primer came out and quickly both the tank barrel and solebars were completed. Priming the tank with a roller was a time saver.





Maintenance

A exams have continued with the Suburban set being next in line. One of the coaches failed its passenger communication test, which became a problem as it was booked in service that day for a school charter with 300-odd children and no substitute coaches available. The pass-comms were fixed during the day in time for the return charter!

Additional door locking has also been fitted to the toilets on two dining train coaches, to allow them to be locked out of service for the Sheringham-Cromer section of mainline dining trains.

Workshop

A few items that have passed through the workshop for use elsewhere on the railway include the replacement Kelling Heath Park station sign and two purple headboards for use over the Jubilee Weekend!


15 May 2022

May News Part 1

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866 (GOLD)

No prgress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74

The jewel in the railway's crown, the Quad Arts, have arrived at Weybourne for their refresh, becoming coaches 10, 11, 12 and 13 in the conveyor belt programme. One important difference is that we are swapping paint for varnish this time of course! It is fair to say that since their arrival they have dominated the labour allocation which is why several other projects have slowed or been paused for the duration of the Quads' stay. The first task after shunting them in (they take up two bays in the shed, one whole road) was a thorough clean as they were thick with steam loco oil. We had never come across them this dirty before, which is no suprise as they covered a much greater mileage during the "Covid season" when they ran all of our services.



With a thorough scruib down completed, and some semblence of varnished teak revealed once again, it was time for a rub down of the surface to prepare the bodysides for varnish. This has to be extremely thorough as the coach is a complicated mix of beading and alcoves, all of which have to be explored with the sandpaper. A large team of people spent five days completing this phase.



It was during the preparation works that we discovered that whilst the seaward side had survived well, sadly the summer of intensive use had taken its toll on the landward side and the sun had unfortunately destabalised the varnish in lots of areas, particularly below the windows and around raised beading. This meant we have had to split the set into two: land side and sea side, with the latter now declared ready for its full coat of varnish. The former is instead having the localised damaged areas stripped back to bare wood and new varnish built up, for which several layers will be required. This work is about half way to completion at present, and will continue next week.



The final job to be tackled was a damaged door striker plate which had split out. This was repaired with fresh wood and the door lock mechanism refitted and tested.



British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

What little resource which is not dedicated to the Quads has been directed towards E21103. Externally, the final section of bodywork, the Sheringham corridor end, has now been completed with the jumper cable mounts and data panel also fitted which completes this end and makes it ready for painting.



Painting of either end has however been postponed as it is much easier to do them when the vehicle gets a space in the satgaing area (currently occupied by the Quads). Instead just the two main bodysides have been progressed using portable platforms. The primer has been applied to both sides with an undercoat also added to the landward side.



On the underframe, the Holt end bogie has been targetted to bring it closer in line to the overhauled Sheringham end bogie. It has been steam cleaned and all the outside faces repainted into gloss black to smarten it up. All of the brakegear has been removed, the bearing faces all cleaned up and regreased followed by reassembly. The misshaped brake pull rods are now out for the same adjustment treatement which the first bogie received, but other than that both bogies are now ready to return under the vehicle.



On the interior, work to fit the replacement lower door card panels continues steadily, with three out of four now sucessfully trimmed and dry fitted. They have sadly proven to be more troublesome than predicted but we will get there! Beading out and painting of the two former toilets, now store cupboards, also continues. The wheelchair saloon is also going back together again, with much replacement beading, trim, panels and door surrounds being created ready to fit back in place.



British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958 (BRONZE)

With the Quad Art takeover, only the steady reupholstering of the seat cushions has been continuing.

London Transport 1955 20 Ton Ballast Hopper HW426

Other than attaching two "swan neck" vacuum pipe ends to the new through pipe, the hopper has been waiting outside for its team to return to it.



British Railways 1953 20 Ton Loriot DB904093

No progress to report.

Hurst Nelson 1944 4 Wheel Petroleum Tank 5304

The main barrel of the tank has been jet washed following the spraying of a traffic film remover like substance. It has worked very well.



The team are now rubbing down the tank before they attack the solebars and running gear.



Maintenance

The main "A set" have had their A exam completed and returned to traffic. Shortly afterwards, a table was pulled off the wall but this was quickly repaired with the help of the facilities at Sheringham generously provided by our friends in the Signalling department.

The dining set was prepared to run to Cromer but sadly this was cancelled. The set did at least run a "normal" diner from Sheringham to Holt however.

Two leaking air pipes on BCK E21224 were tigtened up, so we await with bated breath to see if this has cured the problem of the brakes not quite functioning 100%.