London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866 (GOLD)
Toplight window frame fitting continues well, with the halfway point almost there. All four of the frames along the seaward side are now fitted into place, with three of these also with their sliding lights fitted.
London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)
A brief visit to the Ecclesbourne Valley was made last week and progress on 16631 was able to be glimpsed. I use the word "glimpsed" as the coach was visible during a quick tour around their shed on other business, so 16631 was not the main focus. It was however an exciting preview of what is in store for the future.
London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E (BRONZE)
With our normally operational buffet car in the shed at Weybourne as well, it is worth repeating that no less than three members of the future LNER mainline set are currently being worked on, great news for pre-nationalisation fans! 9128 has been a flurry of activity over the past fortnight as we are under pressure to return to vehicle to service, owing to the fact that 35148's longer-than-anticipated overhaul has pushed 9128 out of the closed season and into the 2024 cream tea calendar. We have therefore halted all paid staff work on most other projects and directed maximum resource to the repairs found to be required on 9128.
The roof repairs have been going well with a lot of treatment and filling of any weaker looking areas of the canvas to seal it before water gets the chance to penetrate through to the interior. The majority of these are now complete and the focus now is on the ends where the canvas meets the corridor connections, areas that have been found to be poorer than the rest of the roof. Some wood is being spliced into these areas and rotten material removed and replaced. It is planned that these areas will soon be completed which will allow us to repaint the roof.
The carriage boards that fix onto the roof have been removed and cleaned as best and gently as we can, which is quite a challenge as these are getting to be in poor condition. There is not enough time during this overhaul to repaint them, so they will be revarnished and do one last tour in service which will finish them off!
The two corridor ends have also seen a lot of work with the teak end panels patched in several areas at both ends. The beauty of the ends being painted and not varnished is that we can now join and patch and fill over the repairs which will give a seamless finish without the costly and more skillful joints required if it were a varnished vehicle. This has allowed the ends to progress as quickly as the roof has. The Holt end is now complete and ready for painting, whilst the Sheringham end, which needed a whole replacement vertical panel fitted, is slightly behind but still almost done. Some new beading has been fitted over the replacement panel and all screws and joins filled. Removed electrical connections have been refitted but without their outer cover bowls.
Moving onto the sides, the seaward was by far the better of the two, so this is much further ahead than the landward. The entire woodwork has been rubbed down ready for repainting, and two localised areas of rot chipped out and patched. Just one section of beading had rotted on this side so this has been chopped out and a replacement section spliced in and primed. The good fortune of this side has allowed it to become the first area to be made ready for repainting, so a start has now been made on this. The upper section has now been undercoated and the first 1/4 glossed.
The landward side has had the split paneling round the kitchen area stripped out and the wood below dried out and primed ready for replacement with aluminum composite panels, repeating the process done six years ago to the lower (red) panels. The new panel has now arrived so may even be fitted next week.
The remainder of the side has seen much removal of chipped and water damaged paint along the upper panels, which are struggling now in certain areas. A lot of beading had also taken on water on this side and has been chopped out and is being replaced and painted up. The high resource allocation has however ensured that this work has been swift so beading repairs are now all done, so it won't be too long before this side is also brought to the stage where painting can start.
The interior is now seeing some electrical maintenance and rationalisation that was not possible whilst in service. The last few years in service has given us a better idea of which electrical systems are (or aren't) useful. A broken UV water sterilizer light in the kitchen has been replaced and tested out OK. The 110V lighting in the saloon has been converted to run on 240V as opposed to the 110V previously. This means we now only have 240V and 12V lighting on board, rather than the previous three voltages. We intend to swap the bulbs for LED ones before 9128 returns to service to reduce the load on the generator allowing more power to be used for kitchen equipment. We have also removed some complicated detection systems which had been stealing a large amount of power from the generator, something we can ill afford now because the power needed to run the Cream Tea services is greater than what was envisaged when the coach was re-restored some years ago to operate as a simple buffet counter.
British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)
Arrangements are being made to resume contract welding works to the Holt end and more steelwork for the sides is being ordered.
British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)
Work on the cab front continues with paint being applied around the window apertures in readiness for the refitting of the windscreens.
Restored battery box doors, already completed some time ago on the landward side, are now being replicated for a second time in order to do the seawards side.
British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918
No progress to report.
British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)
No progress to report.
Workshop
The latest upholstery project, a large station bench, is now nearing completion with renewed cushions and armrests being finished on the previously restored framework.
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