January News Part 4

We start with the fantastic news that your author is now £5 richer after Dan bet that it would snow last Friday and lost. Admirably, payment was made and the occasion recorded on camera!

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The end is finally in sight with the ceiling paint stripping, with only one of the fourteen sections still to complete. The doors have been progressing in a similar fashion and there is only one door still on the vehicle itself, all of the others having been removed and paint stripped. The doorway wooden frame repairs (described last week) have also been worked on along the landward side. Meanwhile, the Axeman has continued with his steps for the brake end, with a large (double width) centre step having been fabricated. Each step is now having a chevron-like pattern welded onto the top to replicate the original grips to prevent slipping off.

British Railways 1962 Mark 1 First Open M3116

All of the seating has now been sent away for contract re-upholstery. This is the last carriage of the dining train to have been recovered so we can now present a “corporate image”, the entire dining train being trimmed in the attractive BR Blue and Gold “Oak Leaf”  material. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder of course; however we have always had excellent feedback regarding the use of the Oak Leaf so it seems to have been the right choice when choosing a popular and quality pattern for the railway’s flagship Mark 1 set.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

Progress both inside and out this week. Starting on the exterior, the door weather strips have had their countersunk rivets filled and sanded flat. The two doors which weren’t painted prior to fitting have been etch primed inside and out. Both corridor connections have had the “hood”, which sits on the top to keep the weather out, removed and the area cleaned up, inspected and repainted. Several small holes have been found so will have to be repaired in due course. One of the pair of toilet filler pipes has had its lower section cut off and a new section attached. This strange repair was required as when the coach’s toilets were decommissioned many moons ago, expanding foam had been sprayed up the pipes to stop guards filling the disconnected water tanks! Needless to say, both pipes will need reinstating before the coach goes back into service with a working loo.

The shortened toilet filler pipe mid-repair

Moving to the interior, the alloy window cleaning/polishing is now complete throughout the whole coach which has improved their appearance greatly. The bulkhead varnish stripping in now well into the Sheringham end saloon and will soon be completed. We have also taken the opportunity of the interior panels being removed to make provision for speaker cabling to be added unobtrusively which will allow the carriage to take part in Murder Mystery trains upon its completion. We will show more details of this as the job progresses. The sanding of the bulkheads in the Holt end vestibule and toilet area has now been completed and so far two coats of varnish have been applied to all the woodwork in this area.

The glory of preservation: rubbing down varnish between coats 

The toilet tank has also been filled with water and checked for leaks, a test which it thankfully passed. The smaller flush tank for the toilet pan itself is now secured in position and piped up. We have even had a ceremonial test; and I must say the team were flushed with success!

An overall view of the coach whilst it was outside having the toilet tank tested

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

Welding repairs continue in a similar vain to those described in previous updates. Much of the flooring framework has had a protective coat of anti-corrosion primer as well.

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

The coach has been lowered back onto its bogies (Monkey got involved at this point...) and the vacuum brakes have been connected up, adjusted for the final time, and tested successfully. The coach is now technically completed below floor level, so is mechanically suitable for service for the first time since the 1980’s!

Monkey carefully reunites the coach body with its bogies

Above floor level, all 18 of the plastic compartment air vents have now been fitted into position, another finishing job which we were unable to do with the coach elevated on jacks.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

More floor protection has been undertaken under the seats, with black gloss now being applied as a topcoat, which is more suitable from white as it is just about visible if passengers look through the mesh of the heater grills which sit under the seats.

Maintenance

Our seating upholsterers, who have slowly been suffocating in the upholstery workshop due to lack of space, finally managed to escape our cold grasp and made haste to Sheringham. The reason was to do a large seating swap between two TSO vehicles. The reason behind this was that some years ago the railway had three identical vehicles upholstered in the same colour material: 4236, 4641 and 4651. 4651’s seats wore out quicker than the other two and by last season had become visibly threadbare and due for replacement. However due to its inferior bodywork and doorways, it was 4641 which was brought in for major overhaul (and therefore regularly features in these Blog updates!). As part of this overhaul, 4641 is due to have its seating reupholstered, despite it having pretty good material extant on the seats. Therefore it was decided to take the worn seats from 4651 and reupholster them for 4641. 4641’s good seats in turn will be fitted to 4651 which is expected to complete at least another season before it sees any workshop attention. Fallen asleep yet? Taking advantage of the railway’s “closed season” therefore, our two valiant upholsterers have been inside 4651 at Sheringham removing worn seats (to reupholster later this year) and substituting them with mid-life examples. Just one of the many tasks required to keep the carriage interiors looking reasonable from year-to-year.

Workshop

Inspired by the pole donation last week, a further two poles have moved in from a Pway hut in Brundall of all places... Both have been identified (we think), one was a jack handle and the other a hammer handle, possibly a wheel-tapper’s hammer judging by its extremely long length.

January News Part 3

A new feature for 2016... Monkey does welding!

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The ever faithful ceiling strippers continue to trudge their way through the most unpleasant of jobs. The two-thirds point has been reached with more than nine (of the 14) of the ceiling sections now back to bare wood. Staying on the wood theme the two doorways on the landward side of the coach, the first to receive repairs to the lower sections of the door pillars, have had more progress made, with new sections appearing to be spliced in and glued effectively. The Axeman, evidently feeling left out, has produced more metalwork to join the wood, but it may be a case of one step forward and five steps back... These five steps have in fact been produced from steel and these are destined for the brake (Holt) end of the coach on the outside to provide crew access to the roof.

Four of the end steps mid way through construction

Two more horizontal handrails have also been made (joining the other six made a few weeks ago) as although not marked on drawings, evidence on the body itself suggests there were two handrails bolted on the outside of the guards/luggage area.

British Railways 1962 Mark 1 First Open M3116

A side project worthy of mention is this dining coach, which is having an interior upgraded at Sheringham during the closed season. The seating has been removed and will be collected shortly for contract reupholstery. Whilst the seats are out, the legs have been sanded down ready for a quick re-varnish to improve their appearance. The plan is to also take the opportunity of the seats’ removal to replace the carpets throughout the coach.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

This coach has continued to be the main focus for this week’s volunteer input. The Holt end saloon has now reached the stage where all of the interior window frames have been fully cleaned up and polished to improve their appearance for passengers. This single sentence masks a massive and mundane task which has been undertaken by a dedicated team over several days.

Dan cleaning sliding windows

Bulkhead varnish stripping continues, the Holt end saloon is complete and the first bulkhead (out of four) inside the Sheringham end saloon has been started.

Sheringham end saloon bulkhead varnish stripping

About half of the Holt end vestibule area (where the toilet/store cupboard is located) has had the walls final-sanded and a protective first coat of varnish applied. The sore cupboard, mentioned last week, which is also located at this end of the carriage, was completed this week. The final tasks were the fitting of the lino flooring and skirting boards, fitting of the exterior door/lock, installation of the glass in the window and its surrounding woodwork and lastly the fitting of the light to the ceiling.

A poor image of the glass fitted

 The door has now ceremoniously been closed as this (albeit modest sized) area needs no more work at all. This is the very first part of the coach that can make this claim!

Completed shelving inside the store

Opposite the store is the toilet, the reinstatement of which was 90% completed about 12 months ago. A window of opportunity has arisen to complete the last 10%, and some of the outstanding plumbing is being attended to. So far, the hot water tank (for the sink) has been assembled on a test rig and is being tested to monitor its power consumption and reliability.

The flush tank for the toilet pan itself has also had a leak cured and is currently awaiting reassembly and fitting. Progress on the water feeds to these two components has also been made. These have had to be made from new components as the originals had been stripped out of the carriage and lost long ago, when the toilets were first taken out of use presumably.

Externally, all six doors have had aluminium weather proofing strips riveted around the door apertures and the doors hung and adjusted for the final time. This represents  another milestone in the coach’s restoration.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

The framework welding repairs on the landward side have been completed this week, with the seaward side not far behind. A start has been made on the Holt end of the coach, the last section to receive attention to the framework.

Progress spreads round the corner onto the Holt end

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

No progress to report.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

No progress to report.

Gloucester RC&W 1955 Ballast Hopper HW426

Although moved out of the works a few weeks ago, it was worth including this image of the hopper "in use" for the first time in a good few years. It has been loaded with ballast and is currently undergoing track settling runs inside the station at Weybourne which has recently been relayed. Thanks to Bryan Toovey for providing the image.

Maintenance

The rake of four dining train coaches have been ultrasonically axle tested, which is a requirement for their derogation for running on Network Rail metals between Sheringham and Cromer. This involved a nice man coming a long way with a posh screen and probe, to do impressive things which I do not understand!

Testing FO M3116

What is understandable though is that the “spike” in the photo (which has been loaded upside down for some reason...) is of the correct calibre and that there are no problems with any of the axles on the stock which we propose to use on the Cromer specials, which is good news indeed.

Workshop

The last item is this update, but still in "pole-position" (ah ha,...!!) for the most exciting, is the donation of three large and historic wooden poles. We think two of them are pinch bars (used to manually move carriages or wagons along without the use of a locomotive) whilst the third is possibly a crude re-railing lever. Apparently, one of them is from the tram depot in Norwich. They have been treated for woodwork upon their arrival.

January News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Progress has been in a similar vain to previous updates, peaking on Thursday with four male strippers in action at once inside the coach!

Paint strippers that is... The result of this dubious activity is that the half way point of stripping paint off the internal ceiling is now within grasp.

The grab handles fabricated last week are now also in undercoat.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

This coach has seen the most people working on it this week. On the exterior, all of the door catches have been fitted to the new steel door pillers and the wooden door jambs also fitted. All of the main window frames have been sanded, filled, and coated in aluminium primer. Good inroads have been made on the massive task of dismantling and cleaning the sliding windows and their surrounding aluminium frames and runners. This last task alone consumed several people for several days.

Moving on to the interior, the ceiling paint preparation has now been completed, but it will be after the bulkheads have been varnished before the painting is actually done. To facilitate this, approximately a third of the bulkhead walls have been stripped of their old varnish, with more to follow next week. The store cupboard, which occupies one of the old toilets, has come on leaps and bounds. All panelling was quickly fitted, and has now also been primed and undercoated. Three shelves have been made, fitted and painted, to carry the proposed cleaning equipment. These were an interesting shape to say the least, with 5 sides at different angles in order to fit into the corner of the coach. Skirting boards and the lino flooring have both been cut to size and will be fitted once painting of the walls and ceiling are complete. The door for the store cupboard has been stripped of varnish, sanded and given a first coat of varnish. Hopefully, the store cupboard will be complete next week, less than two weeks after the area was simply a metal shell.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

The coach remains in the sole custody of the two welders with progress continuing apace. Both sides are motoring closer to the Holt end, more skin and corroded framework being cut away and replaced with new. The coach will soon be a completed "skeleton" at the current rate.

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

The lino flooring has been delivered for the coach. We are now attempting to find a contractor to lay it.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

Work on the interior continues. Several areas under where the seating will be fitted have been painted in gloss white to protect the flooring.

January News Part 1

2016 has now started properly for the department, with the workshops reopening and good progress being made already.

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The paint stripping continues on the interior, with two (of 14) of the ceiling sections now treated. Two walls, one at the Sheringham end and the landward side of the guard’s area, have also been stripped. It is interesting to see the layers of scumbling-effect paintwork and other colours emerge.

Three and a half exterior doors have also been stripped of old paint to the stage where they can be further dismantled for the inevitable woodwork repairs. The repairs are also being further prepared with three steel strengthening bars extracted out of stores and an identical forth example made from new. These attach to the sides of the wooden door frames and help keep them in profile after the wood has been weakened or has rotted slightly.

A great number of grab handles have also been made by Axeman Collier. Four have been produced to go each side of the two guard’s doors on the exterior with a further two fitted on the inside of each doorway. These are made by cutting salvaged handles from other vehicles in half and welding an extension piece of the correct length into the middle. Two large curved handles have also been made from an old Great Northern Railway coach which will go on the brake end of the vehicle and were used to climb up the steps to access the roof.

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

The New Year has brought a new opportunity to make progress on this vehicle, mainly due to Suburban W46139 taking a backseat whilst we wait for materials to be delivered. All six of the exterior doors have been hung into place. Whilst there are some minor adjustments to make to one or two of them, they are practically now in position which has allowed the “bump stops” (rubbers on the vehicle which prevent the door hitting the side of the coach when it is opened fully) to be bolted into place and the captive nuts for the grab handles welded to the inside of the body. Most of the door catches have also been fitted into the doorways so that the doors have something to latch into. The next task in this area will be the fitting of the wooden door jambs into the steel frame of the vehicle in each doorway. Also on the exterior, a concerted effort is being made to sand and fill the exterior window frames, hiding the rivets used to attach them in place to the body. Three quarters of the windows have been completed.

Moving onto the interior, varnish stripping of the woodwork continues, with bulkhead veneered panels being the focus this week, three of which were completed. There are still plenty more of these to be tackled however, as only the Holt end vestibule has been fully stripped so far. Several days have also been spent preparing the ceiling in the two passenger saloons for a repaint. A lot of flatting back has been done and various holes and cracks plugged to bring the ceiling to a presentable level for repainting. Also inside the saloons, all of the sliding windows have been removed and are in the process of being stripped back to aluminium and super-cleaned. The frames in which these windows fit will also have to be treated. In order to refit the main glass to the windows, the supporting timber (which screws to the window frames and hold the glass in) has had a final sand and been varnished ready for fitting when the filling on the window frames in complete.

At the Holt end of the vehicle, the interior of the store cupboard (ex toilet) is beginning to be reconstructed. So far, the bulkhead which was removed for welding work has been refitted, and the other five sides of the “cupboard” has had its framework reinstated ready to take new panelling. This process has just started, with the ceiling being the first panel to be installed.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

Good progress continues to be made with the welding repairs. On the seaward side, the framing replacement has well and truly passed the half way mark and progress is now in the sixth and seventh compartments (out of eight) so the Holt end of the coach is certainly within sight.

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

Little progress to report due to the coach being in limbo until ordered materials arrive on site. However we did manage to refit the compartment lights back into position, after they had been removed and repainted last month.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

No progress to report, with the weather taking a cooler turn there is currently little point in working outside if there with lots to do on the vehicles inside the shed.

Gloucester RC&W 1955 Ballast Hopper HW426

The bracket for the centre ballast door was welded in over the Christmas period completing the initial work required on the wagon. It has now been shunted back into the yard where it will remain until it is required to spread some ballast as part of the winter shut-down task of relaying the two platform roads here at Weybourne. Plans have been submitted to undertake further (cosmetic) work on the wagon, but a decision on whether this is viable or not within the 2016 work programme remains to be made.

Maintenance

A rather posh buckeye coupling basket has been made from steel, to facilitate the swapping of these extremely heavy couplings using a jack and trolley at Sheringham away from the workshop. Several of these buckeyes need changing on the coaching stock which is being upgraded for use on Network Rail infrastructure as far as Cromer. So far, two have successfully been changed.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2015

We hope readers had an enjoyable Christmas, so in the lazy period between then and New Year, with the workshops closed, here is a summary of the year 2015:

A total of five vehicles have entered traffic this year, following either major restoration or light overhaul. The first was Container wagon AF65970B, which took its place in the freight train during March after a 12 month rebuild including building a steel replica of the original (wooden) container which was too dilapidated to salvage. It had originally come to the NNR in 2012 but had been in storage until 2014. It was launched in full “Birds Eye” white and blue livery, representative of the slightly different “AFP” containers which were heavily used locally to transport frozen goods from Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. The container was restored entirely by volunteers from the M&GN Society’s Coach Fund team.

In May, it was the NNR’s turn to shine, with the completion of the first of the Suburban 4 project: Brake Third number E43357. This coach had been on the NNR since 1977 and had also run the most miles of any suburban coach on the railway. Its major overhaul had been in progress since 2013 and included comprehensive bodywork repairs/repaint, full interior restoration of the seating and panelling in the compartments, and the back conversion of the brake area into original condition after it had been converted in the 1980’s into a generator compartment to power the NNR’s early dining trains. It was re-launched into service during the Diesel Gala event and is now patiently waiting for the three other suburban coaches on the NNR to be completed so they can run as a dedicated set.

Just in time for the summer season, “Fruit D” wagon 92097 received a light overhaul and was used on passenger trains for the first time in many years in July. It had been operating in the freight train but was looking decidedly shabby, so in an intensive few weeks saw the vacuum braking reinstated, the brakes adjusted, the doors made to open freely again and finally, three sides repainted and one side varnished. The light overhaul allowed the vehicle to be used on the second rake of coaches for the school holidays, carrying buggies and bikes during our busiest time of year.

Late August saw the trailer car of the railway’s DMU set, E56062, released from the workshops after receiving bodywork repairs and a full repaint. The interior and mechanics had been restored five years ago so required no work, however the paintwork required attention so it was repainted in order to match its partner which had had identical treatment in October of 2014. Sadly the vehicle has not yet carried passengers since its “intermediate overhaul”, due to problems in returning its partner powercar to service, however it is hoped to resolve this during 2016.

The fifth, and final, vehicle to be completed during 2015 was also the most spectacular. Midland & Great Northern Railway Saloon No 3, built as long ago as 1886 and returning to traffic for the first time since 1932! It had been salvaged by the M&GN Society in 2002 from a garden in Briston the and was stored until 2010 when a full five year ground-up restoration was undertaken by volunteers. An underframe was salvaged from a scrap Midland Railway brake coach then adapted and fully restored for passenger use. The body was stripped down and the skeleton was extensively repaired where required following which the sides and windows were built back up. Doors and a reconditioned/re-canvassed roof followed and perhaps most impressively the luxurious saloon style seating, interior panelling, bench tables and toilet compartment was reconstructed from scratch piece by piece. The vehicle was finished off with a resplendent repaint into Midland Railway Crimson. The vehicle then took its well earned place in the railway’s vintage train.

Vehicles in the workshops which received a lot of major restoration work during the year but aren’t yet finished include Mark 1 TSO E4641, Mark 1 Suburbans W46139/E48001/E43041, a replacement underframe for M&GN number 129 and the commencement of the restoration of Great Eastern Railway Brake Third 853.

We also got up to plenty of smaller projects over the year. In January, a grounded-body number DB975129 (an old Mark 1 BSK) was scrapped in the yard at Weybourne and dining coach E4372 received replacement vacuum cylinders. The 1965 built petrol tanker 53083 (in use by the Loco Department as a water carrier) was also fitted with a through vacuum pipe.

February saw us repaint over the graffiti on stores coach M81114 to freshen up the appearance of the vehicle and also make it watertight. This coach had been a new arrival from the Churnet Valley Railway. Conflat wagon B502824 was re-varnished in preparation for loading the newly restored AF container onto it. We also heard of the passing of our Chairman Clive Morris, who had been instrumental in the project to restore the Quad Art set.

March saw a handbrake repair undertaken to the Wisbech and Upwell tramcar coach to allow it to run some charters, and the disposal of our spare suburban E48004 to the Llangollen Railway.

During April we had to undertake an emergency repair/wheelset swap to dining train kitchen car M81033, which was involved in an incident leading to the coach getting severe wheel flats.

May saw the 6 wheel underframe of Great Northern Railway 46 scrapped to provide the required parts for the project to return M&GN 129 to an original 6-wheel configuration. The month also saw a lot of maintenance on the second set of Mark 1 coaches down at Sheringham, to enable them to run during the busier summer months.

In June, future restoration project, Mark 1 BCK NE21224, was extracted from storage and asbestos stripped before being returned to Holt. The National Railway Museum’s DMU, M51192, also received a historically accurate 1950’s route indicator box on the cab end, replacing the 1990’s headlight it previously carried.

During July, the department entered the Cromer Soapbox Derby and had a great time racing our steam-engine styled soapbox “Snowy”, named after a much loved volunteer who had passed away shortly before. We won second in our class! Four Mark 1 coaches also had to receive replacement vacuum cylinders after a strange series of failures in quick succession.

To follow up the soapbox in the Carriage & Wagon’s endeavour to provide a rolling advert for the NNR, three C&W members plus another two from the Engineering department went to Aldborough (south of Cromer) in August to join members of their own club for a game of Cricket and amazingly, two of the C&W members won!

September saw a works hooter fitted to announce the commencement of tea breaks!

October into November was chaotic as the 4-coach Quad-Art set was brought into the workshops for revarnishing, being completed in record time. A replacement set of access steps were also fabricated for one of the stores vehicles at Sheringham, M81269. Another session was also required on brake adjustments to keep the fleet at Sheringham moving. Amazingly, dining coach SO E4372, was required back again at Weybourne for replacement vacuum cylinders, repeating the same job that had only been done in January!

Finally, December included many trips to solve steam heating problems with the operating coaching stock, as well as the mechanical resurrection of ballast hopper HW426 ready for planned track renewal work in January 2016. We also said goodbye to Andy Phillips, who retired from the department after a long involvement which started as long ago as 1979.

So, an action packed year certainly with many, many vehicles receiving attention, both day-to-day coaching stock and rarer vintage items. It is also worth noting that the Blog celebrates its first birthday, as it was New Year 2015 that it was launched to provide free information and updates of the department to anyone interested. The pages have received a magnificent 26,400 visits, so thanks to you, the readers, for coming back and making the effort of producing the reports worthwhile. All that remains is to wish everybody a Happy New Year, updates will continue into 2016 where all being well we will hit the 50,000 barrier...

December News Part 3

The department held its annual Christmas meal on Friday at the Dunstable Arms in Sheringham and a good time was had by all. This is the only time when many of the staff and volunteers who come in on all different days can actually be seen together in one place at one time! It is also the only time the C&W manager offers free drinks! Unfortunately due to illness and other commitments we were a few short, but the picture gives an idea of the size of our team.

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Not a terribly exciting update this week – the mammoth paint stripping task continues as described in previous weeks, with a good deal of progress on the interior stripping, including some of the insides of the doors.

Paint stripping the interior of a door

British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641

With the underframe painting of W46139 completed, several volunteers have been working on preparing the ceilings in this coach for repainting. These ceilings were in reasonable but not perfect condition. The decision has been made therefore to leave them alone and repair any loose beading before repainting them to freshen their appearance. Almost half of the carriage has now been sanded to key up the surface (and also remove any old stickers etc) ready for paint.

On the exterior, several of the aluminium surrounds for the sliding windows have been cleaned back and repainted in primer to match the bodysides which have already been so treated.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

The “announcement” last week that the last three doors were complete was slightly premature. In fact they were only painted and partly assembled, so this week the various mechanisms and fittings have been added into the three doors, bringing them to (true) completion. Welding work continues to progress and a delivery of more steel framing will allow this work to continue into the New Year. The end steps have also been fabricated out of steel angle. These steps fit to the end of the coach and allowed staff to climb onto the roof to attend to the toilet pipework. They were however removed in the 1960’s when lines received over head electric wires, but we have decided to reinstate them for historical accuracy.

Nico TIG welding the end steps

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139

As hinted last week, the underframe gloss black painting continued this week and was completed on Wednesday, which heralds the end of the underframe repainting project on this coach. With everything painted, vacuum and steam pipes were fitted to the bufferbeams and the steam heaters were connected to the main steam pipe which runs under the coach from end-to-end. The battery boxes have also had their covers and “interiors” painted (black/white) and these are now fitted.

Dan painting the inside of a battery box cover

The only underframe components outstanding now are two fuse box covers which are slighting lagging behind but will be finished shortly.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Third Lavatory Open E48001

Progress on fitting the wooden window surrounds has continued with one end now almost completed. Also in progress is the restoration and polishing of the various alloy fittings that go in the toilets, on the interior doors and on the ends of the seats. These items are being worked on off-site currently. A set of door cards (which hide the scissor mechanisms that operate the windows within the doors) for the Holt end saloon (a total of 8) has also been selected and varnished ready for fitting. These will all require individual tailoring in due course to match each door which is slightly different!

Gloucester RC&W 1955 Ballast Hopper HW426

Our thanks are with the Locomotive department who very kindly have accommodated the ballast hopper inside their shed this week, allowing us to access the centre set of doors from below using their inspection pit.

The ballast hopper, behind Ring Haw, shortly before entering the shed

This centre door was found to be very stiff and the problem was being caused by a rotating pin which wasn’t rotating as easily as it should. The whole assembly had to be cut of the wagon so the pin could be removed using a press in the workshop. The cut-off bracket, with pin, now awaits welding back into the wagon.

HW426 inside the Loco shed

Maintenance

The Santa coaching stock continues to absorb our time and effort, batteries requiring topping up this week with deionised water.

Happy Christmas

On a final note, a very Merry Christmas to all the blog readers. There should be one more update before the year is out, in that lazy week between Christmas and New Year; however as the works is shut down during this period, this will consist of a review of 2015.