May News Part 1

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Work has continued to focus on the doors, specifically the lowering droplight windows. These have now all been fitted around the whole coach, but some are too tight and aren't sliding properly so have been back in and bout a few times for adjustments. This task is ongoing.

At the same time the newly stamped up GER lowering straps have been produced and are also being fitted. Again, these have not been trouble free, with some binding up and requiring modifications to achieve smooth operation.

More interior painting inside the compartments, adding further layers to what has already been treated, has been completed. Finally, the vehicle's battery, which will feed the LED lighting and tail lamps, has been installed.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

The last of the sliding top-lights (pictured last time) has now been removed from the coach, stripped down to its component parts and cleaned. This was the last of the six examples that were present in the vehicle. Can we remember how to put them back together?!?

More lighting equipment has been installed back on the coach, including the battery charging sockets.

Inside the shed, much of the re-purposed steam heat piping, taken from a Mark 1, has been split apart and lengthening pieces added to suit the Thompson vehicle. Some sections have been finished and treated to a coat of heat proof paint whilst others are awaiting extending.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The two replacement cupboard doors which have been ongoing for a while now have had some extra framework added into the apertures for them to fix securely onto and limit any warping in the future.

The latest progress with the air brake pipework is the installation of the emergency outlet pipe for the guard's emergency valve. Due to it being compressed air (rather than vacuum) the emergency valve cannot expel into the guards saloon for obvious reasons, so a pipe directs it back downwards under the coach to blast harmlessly downwards towards the track.

Corridor flooring continues steadily. With the supports now in place permanently, the floor panels themselves have been dropped in temporarily, and one-by-one are being shaved and fitted properly to create a smooth and level floor. Once the flooring is in place properly, this will allow interior reconstruction along the middle section of the coach, which will really make a difference.

End crash pillar repairs continue at the Sheringham end. The two middle pillars have now been chopped out. Unfortunately the heavy plate that the middle crash pillars sit on was also corroded and distorted (a fairly common Mark 1 disease) so the affected area is also currently removed for a new plate top be cut out ready to weld in.

The neglected bogie overhaul work has had a few small items attended to this week (we plan to put more resources back onto this when possible) with cleaning down ready for repainting being the order of the day.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

This Silver overhaul is surging forwards towards the home straight, which is just as well as it's been with us for far too long and has been dogged by setbacks.

On the exterior, several roof patches (close together) have been removed and a larger (2 foot square) section of roof cut away to get rid of them all. A replacement patch has been welded in flush using galvanized steel sheet curved to the correct profile, a much neater repair than the three riveted patches that, to be fair, have served the coach well for several decades by the looks of it.

The bodysides have received the remaining paint preparation work (sanding and filling), particularly around the Holt ends which were replaced by new pressed panels bought in from South Devon Railway Engineering. It won't be too long at all before painting work starts.

On the interior, the passenger saloons are now practically done with final re-varnishing work giving a nice shine to the area. The edges of the tables have had their final varnish and all of the seating is now back in place. The luggage racks have been cleaned and any defects in the internal window surrounds carefully touched in.

The Sheringham end vestibule has at last received its replacement lino, which is a nice pattern and suits well with the rest of the coach.

The fitting of the lino has in turn allowed other fittings which were being held up to be put back in, such as door tread plates, the steam heater and the two sliding doors that flank this vestibule. The doors are receiving final varnishing now that they are in place and sliding correctly.

The second store cupboard, on the seaward side, has received its final topcoat - cream. This almost finishes these cupboards, with only a coat or two more of floor paint still to apply.

British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958

This vehicle has seen the most attention the last week or so. After a bit of thought, extra resources were put onto it so that all 16 of the sliding windows could be dismantled, made to operate freely and then reassembled. This was a tall order but in the end all of them were treated. Stiff windows have been a problem on this vehicle for a few years now so it's nice to be able to sort them out properly.

Rubbing down on the exterior continued and was followed up by the re-varnishing work which was completed just in time for the coach to be used for the Bank Holiday Day out with Thomas weekend.

The outer edge of the underframe and bufferbeams were also repainted in a top up coat of gloss prior to the coach departing, but it will be returning to us to allow the two ends to be repainted and for some miscellaneous lettering to be finished.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

All of the repair work has now been completed, there were five areas in total which had rotted and needed replacement. With all new pieces spliced in, the joins and all the areas where the hidden screw heads were visible were filled. This was followed by several days sanding down the whole exterior and interior of the verandas.

The next stage was to coat the exterior in red primer.

Then the first coat of Gulf Red gloss paint.

The roof has also been repainted.

Work is now progressing on the second coat of red gloss.

April News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Glazing work continues with more drop-light glass being fitted into frames this week. Several are now also appearing fitted inside the doors as well.

The next task to accompany the glass will be reproduction leather straps for pulling the windows up and down. As is tradition - these will be stamped GER.

More interior painting has also been progressed this week.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

A slightly quieter week for this vehicle. Another of the sliding top-lights has been dismantled for restoration, while more electrical switch gear for the lighting has been dismantled, cleaned up and reassembled to ensure completeness and reliability into the future...

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The cupboard doors, now suitably stained, have received a few coats of varnish so are slowly gaining an attractive shine.

Air brake pipework is progressing nicely with the new pipe runs under the guards floor now permanently fitted in place.

This has also involved careful bending of the original pipes that came up through the floor to make a better job than BR did cosmetically. The air pipe now follows the curve of the original vacuum pipe and although its still in the initial stages the visible pipework is already looking neater than previously.

The corridor floor supports are progressing well with most of the corridor now refitted.

On the exterior, the side panelling is now complete on the landward side which concludes this side of the coach. Only the two ends now remain to be welded. Crash pillars at the Sheringham end are now the main focus of attention, with several previous repairs being chopped out and redone to better standards.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

After much work, the passenger communication apparatus is now refitted permanently into place on the Holt end of the coach.

Other end "furniture" has included the refitting of the toilet filler pipes. These are no longer used but have been repaired (where they had snapped off on the roof) and refitted to keep the coach externally original.

A start has now been made on doing final bodywork preparation and filling before the vehicle is handed over for repainting.

British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958

This vehicle, painted five years ago, is the replacement in the shed for M51188 (see below). It was due in during October this year for varnishing but an opportunity in the programme has arisen due to other reshuffling which created an opportunity to bring it in six months earlier. The first task was to clean it down as it was very dirty having been in use as a front line coach recently on the main steam set. This was done by a variety of volunteers with a variety of products and a lot of elbow grease! The end result was a clean coach ready for further work.

So far, the seaward side has also been sanded back gently to create a good surface for the varnish.

A small repair to the strip which holds the flexible bellows to the corridor connection faceplate has been made at the Holt end, corrosion had split the old one outwards and a full replacement can't be fitted unless the corridor connection is removed, so this repair will keep the bellows watertight for the foreseeable future.

We have been experiencing problems with the opening sliding windows in the passenger saloons. One of these has been completely dismantled into its individual parts, cleaned and reassembled meaning they open freely now. Unfortunately we don't have the time to do this to the other 15, so some of the less stiff examples have been cleaned as best as possible whilst still in situ, which has also improved some of them.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

A flurry of activity early in the week saw this vehicle finished. Tidying up included fitting the remaining window surrounds back into place on the interior and having a sweep out. Externally, more bufferbeam pipework was colour coded, the replacement foot-boards fitted and painted gloss black.

The vehicle completed a test run on Monday. The C&W completion of the painting coincided with other work by the diesel department to get two DMU sets working together in multiple for the first time in the NNR's history - so it was quite a day.

Both the repaint work and multiple working were a great success, so M51188 has now been signed off back into service, the end of another Bronze level overhaul for us.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

This new arrival has now squeezed into the shed meaning we have five vehicles inside at once which is fairly rare for us. No time has been wasted, with the whole exterior receiving a wash and hose down just before it came in. Having been outside for five years since being overhauled a few jobs are required before it is fully released into NNR service. These tasks are all cosmetic and centre mainly on the exterior and paintwork. It is not anticipated for this vehicle to be in works for long.

So far most of the handrails have been removed (they get in the way) and the seaward side and Sheringham ends have been combed over, with any cracked or loose paint chipped off to reach a solid surface below. Most of the filler which hides the screw heads had also popped so has been dug out in order to be replaced.

Two rotten corner pillars on the cabin have been chopped out ready for new pieces to be spliced in. Luckily, these two pillars are the only serious areas to have rotted - all other defects are small surface examples. This is mainly because the vehicle is being kept on top of after only five years, rather than the more normal practice of leaving it 20 odd years and then having to do a much larger rebuild.

April News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

As hinted last week, the glass fitting has continued through to the moving panes. The two ex-hinged guards windows have now been glazed and are securely in place, whilst the assembly of the drop-lights for the doors is also progressing well. These droplights will be fitted to the doors once they are all fully glazed.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

The hidden body framework in the luggage van area has been the focus of attention, having been cleaned down and protected in several layers of paint, finishing with left-over gloss which explains the multi coloured appearance.

Meanwhile progress continues underneath the vehicle with some painting work on the recently refitted components (dynamo etc) and more chassis painting.

A reduced size pulley for the dynamo has been fabricated and machined which will hopefuully charge the batteries at lower speeds than previously.

Parts of the vacuum brake system are now methodically being removed, inspected for wear, repainted and refitted, with the linkages around the vacuum cylinder around the Sheringham end being the first area to receive this work.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The replacement cupboard doors, for the interior bulkhead which were explained in detail last week, are seen pictured here as there was no image last update.

The floor from the guards compartment has now been fully protected underneath and refitted back into position now that the floor supports are fully sound in this area.

This has allowed the vacuum and brake piping that comes up through the floor to be test fitted once again so that the underfloor pipework can be fitted permanently! However hopefully once all this work is done there will be a much neater space around the guard, as the duel braking conversion BR instigated was ugly to say the least.

Along the corridor, all of the holes through the steelwork which accommodate the bolts that support the wooden floor have been opened out to accommodate the new, larger, bolts. This done, the area that will be hidden by the floor supports has been protected with paint. Hopefully we are now not far away from reinstating all of the flooring down the corridor, making it safe to start the full interior reassembly.

On the exterior, panelwork replacement around the lower part of the luggage van area on the landward side is progressing well, with new metal welded in and the window aperture to be cut out shortly.

Little has been done this week on the bogie refurbishment, due to those particular resources being moved onto M51188, however there is a nice neat pile of parts ready to receive attention!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The gutters which were refitted last week have now been finished off. This involved sealing the joint where the chopped off bits join onto the main section of gutter (which wasn't removed) and painting them in a starting coat of roof paint. The areas of renewed roof above the gutters were also painted at the same time.

Both corridor ends now have their rubber and steel bellows refitted, a long winded task as there are so many little fixings on them that are located with limited access.

The final element of the corridor connections is a flexible "rain hood" that is suspended over the top and held up with brackets. This has been fitted to the Sheringham end but due to a few more areas requiring some painting the Holt end has had to wait till next week.

Final preparations and cleaning to the interior floor have been made so that the remaining areas under the seats can be painted.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The finishing touches continue. The solebars and bufferbeams are now all repainted into black (except the front buffer beam which received three coats of red instead) and all the underframe lettering is now complete. This was completed the same day that the main signwriting (numbers etc) was finished on the bodysides and corridor end.

Also at the corridor end, the exhaust silencers have been refitted back in place.

Two replacement footboards have been cut to replace either damaged or rotten examples on the vehicle.

The final task for the repaint is now in progress, that of picking out all of the bufferbeam pipes and equipment into their multicoloured coding, DMU's have reds, blues, blacks and whites all to denote the various pipes and connectors.

The interior is on the verge of being finished off, with the window surrounds being screwed back into position. All but one window is now refitted. A bit of a sweep out has also occurred as the interior has become quite dusty since being in the workshop.

It is expected for M51188 to return to service next week.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

The gap in the wagon fleet left by pipe wagon 4228 last year has been filled with the arrival of "Oyster" brakevan DB993707 from the Churnet Valley Railway. Fully operational and restored between 2011-2014, it can be used in the demonstration freight set and for works trains and stock movements with unbraked vehicles, making it a useful vehicle - particularly for the Operations Department who undertake many of these moves.

Its ballast ploughs for track renewal work can also be used should the more modern TRAMM be out of service for overhaul in the future.

The vehicle is currently at Sheringham but will hopefully be moved to Weybourne for some remedial work before it enters regular service.

Workshop

Some other miscellaneous items are also passing through the workshop. These include three not-to-be-moved boards which have been fully repainted, lettered and returned to Sheringham. There is also a table being made out of an old cable drum for the commercial department.