M51188 Released

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

This week work has continued to focus on the windows. There were not enough brass internal window surrounds owing to the conversion from side corridor to open configuration so some reproductions have been made out of several pieces of brass cut, bent, soldered and milled into a respectable shape! They have turned out very well and have been test fitted this week and are now out for polishing up properly.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

Applying so much labour to the window frames is starting to pay off, with this mammoth task coming close to an end. All 12 frames have now been fully cleaned back to bare aluminium, including all of the associated separate trim, quite a task in the end. Two of the frames have also been assessed and all the trim test fitted back on, a process that involves much drilling out of old screws and thread tapping of holes. This process is slow and steady so will continue for the next few weeks.

In the meantime, the frames have all had the painted areas primed in special etch primer to protect them, and the outer ring which sits against the steel bodysides have had a first coat of gloss. These layers are to try and separate the steel from the alloy to limit the adverse reaction between the two metals.

With the frames coming to an end, we have moved onto other components stripped off the vehicle. Also aluminium are the luggage racks, which have been salvaged from a scrapped open coach as 14021 wouldn't have had this type during its days as a compartment coach. They are in a bad way cosmetically but by gentle cleaning with great patience they are coming back up very well indeed.

A start has also been made on overhauling the doors, which are a mix of steel (guards) and aluminium (passenger). So far two passenger doors have been stripped down to a bare casting with all their individual components off and being cleaned up and/or repaired ready to put back on. The door castings have been stripped back to metal and one has been etch primed.

The woodwork for the first one has been test fitted and has been sanded down and bleached. The parts are now being built back up again with new varnish prior to refitting. The doors will probably all be at different stages for some time yet before they all drift back together again!

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (Silver)

Good progress is also being made with the other dining coach in the works.The work to repair, sand and fill the lower 1/3 of the vehicle has now been completed, with the seaward side being run along much quicker than the landward as it didn't have the awful varnish on it that had caused damage. The upper sections have now been started, with the vehicle being moved into the staging for better access. Several more windows have now been removed to allow the bodysides to be prepped.

The coach ends and corridor connection, whilst generally in good order, is now being repaired and resealed where required, in order to keep the water out. We found one of the long pieces of wood bolted on the end of the vehicle had randomly rotted on its own, so this has carefully been removed without disturbing any surrounding material and will be replaced. 

The two end sliding doors from the corridor connection have been removed, stripped back to bare metal and are in the process of being painted up. One end is at the primer stage whilst the other is in undercoat.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

Work to fine tune the generator continues.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The exterior finishing touches have been applied, including painting of footboards and various bolt heads and handrails. With the exterior completed, the vehicle has been moved out and is now handed over to the Loco Dept next door for their own mechanical winter maintenance to be done.

We are finishing off the guards van improvements at the same time. The whole ceiling has now been painted so it is fresh white and all one colour! After much head scratching we managed to reconnect the guards lighting which had decided to stop working whilst the vehicle was in the shed. We may well do some more brake van improvements to better hold the emergency equipment before we declare the vehicle fully finished.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

No progress to report.

M51188 Repainted

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

Work has been solely focussed on the interior, with some ceiling panels for the toilet and adjacent vestibule being prepared and painted.

The hardwood internal window surrounds for the oval windows are also being worked on, with some having been test fitted.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

Again, the progress has been directed towards window frame cleaning, with the half way point starting to come into focus. All of the steel stufs have now been extracted from the frames (which is a relief) and work to re-drill and tap sheared off examples and test fitting the trim back on has started.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (Silver)

The lower half of the landward side continues to be stripped and the BR skirt welded up where possible.

The whole side is now in progress and is in different stages with some areas quite smooth again now having been filled. Some massive dents have been pulled out as the previous contractors who undertook bodywork on this vehicle applied filler to a far greater thickness than is advisable.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

No progress to report.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The final touches to the repaint have been applied with the bufferbeam going into red followed by all the colour coded details into their respective shades. This has really brought the cab back to life.

With the painting completed, the whole vehicle received another rub down and has now been varnished. This completes the exterior planned.

Internally, the guards van ceiling repairs are complete and have been patch painted. This has showed up just how discoloured the rest of the ceiling is however, so we will now look to give the whole area a coat of gloss.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

No progress to report.

Maintenance

Vacuum cylinder repairs and repainting continues to give us a small pool of ready spares.

Workshop

The Sheringham platform trolley, which has become practically a new build project, is now taking shape with the framework for the bottom deck now completed.

M3116's Overhaul Commences

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

Progress this week has included machining of woodwork for the remaining guards area toplights. A second woodwork task has been the completion of the new footboard installations. Lastly, an ex Mark 3 sleeper toilet effluent tank has been extracted from store, having been removed off sleeping car 10525 almost 30 years ago. It has had various ports removed, blanked off or modified as required, and is currently being waved under the coach to start to assess the mounting arrangements that will be required.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

An unexciting week which has seen more progress on cleaning the removed window frames. The first one has now been fully cleaned back to bare aluminium with several others now in a part completed state.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (Silver)

Our next overhaul project has now arrived and has been brought into the shed, M3116 being the next vehicle (following E21103) to have a Silver level overhaul. Being a dining car much in demand by the commercial side of the railway, it will be prioritised over the winter so that it does not miss too much of next season. Dining train substitute TSO E4641 will cover for M3116 until the latter is completed.

Although agreed that the coach was cosmetically desperately in need of an intermediate body overhaul, the initial assessment of the vehicle has recorded good news, the later design of window frame has saved the coach and the extent of the corrosion is not as bad as we had feared. The ends and doorways are also in much better condition than most we encounter.

One area that has degraded however is the lower (red) section of the landward side, which has been damaged after a well meaning volunteer applied inappropriate varnish around five years ago. This varnish was attacked by UV light in an unusual way and broke down, also splitting the layers of paint below. In conclusion, the whole section is now unstable and requires stripping off completely back to bare metal to start again. The good news is that the rest of the coach wasn't coated in the varnish so is OK, and more good news is that the steelwork below is not corroded, so following the stripping of the lower half we can proceed as normal. So far, around half of the coach has been stripped and some filling has also occurred. Whilst we have the coach in, we are also doing our test to weld up and stabilize the now-failing British Rail repair "skirt" to the bottom six inches. There will be lots more of this work in the weeks to come.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

The electric box of wizardry controlling the new generator has continued to be built up in the workshop ready for fitting.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

Speed of progress has picked up again on this project, the 16th and final Conveyor Belt vehicle. The gloss painting has now been completed, with the corridor end, seaward side and cab end all being treated this week. We are currently in the process of flatting it off again in preparation for varnish.

On the interior, the ceiling repair has continued, with replacement paneling being cut, painted and fitted into place, followed by the replacement beading. It is now complete again and now just requires further coats of paint.

Norfolk Lights Express Preparations: SO M4372, TSO M4843, BCK E21103 & CCT E94464

Another week has seen further NLE preparations occupying all departments around the railway. Early in the week saw the two main generators loaded into CCT E94464 followed by the fitting of the newly designed exhausts. This was followed by E94464 & TSO M4843 being tripped back to Sheringham where they formed the final vehicles in the main NLE set. All of the cabling was then routed through the new floor hatches between the two vehicles successfully.

Other works have been assisting the contract company in building speaker mounting boards for the in coach sound systems, and changing the seat numbering above the seats on BCK E21103 and SO M4372 to reflect the NLE and Santa Special pre booking ticket system now in use.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Progress on chassis cleaning and painting continues but is becoming hampered by the increasingly poor weather. Inside the shed, a replacement vacuum cylinder has been needle gunned and will eventually be fitted to the wagon.

Maintenance

During the pre-NLE works trains, a problem was reported with the brakes on the SR brakevan. This was investigated and the brakegear was found to be partly sticking on one axle. The problem was unable to be fully eliminated but dismantling, easing, lubricating and reassembling got the system working correctly again.

Following steam testing of the two sets of coaches in use this winter, a leak was found under Gresley Buffet E9128E. This was in an awkward place above one of the bogies and was coming out of where an old radiator had once been blanked off. A new blank was fashioned and drilled/tapped into place and we will await the result next week.

A spare vacuum cylinder has also been overhauled ready for next season, this will give us a quicker changeover time when the next one on a running coach fails.

Workshop

The wheel chocks have now been completed having been brought up with two coats of gloss yellow.

Getting Ready for Lights Express

It's been a busy week progressing restoration projects and getting things ready for the Norfolk Lights Express.

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

One extra day of vacuum leak testing has been undertaken this week, with the system hooked up to the compressed air supply to try and detect the all important leak.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

It has all been about the recently removed window frames, with the majority of attending volunteers put onto the task, which is fairly long and tedious so it makes sense to not dump it onto one single person. All eight of the large saloon window frames have had all of their aluminium trim stripped off and quarter-light glass removed. The sliding lights are now also separated and boxed ready for further restoration. Seven out of eight frames have also had the main glass securing screws heated up with a torch and extracted from the frame. The steel screws into aluminium combination has created dissimilar metal corrosion so we were really fortunate that 95% of them extracted successfully with heat.

With most of the frames stripped down fully, a start has been made on cleaning back the frames to bare aluminium, something we do on most Gold restorations.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

A control box to house the remote start electronics has been repurposed from elsewhere and is now prepared on the bench ready for fitting to the new generator soon.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

Not quite as much progress as hoped however resources were needed elsewhere. The gloss painting is spreading and the landward (drivers) side of the vehicle is now painted. More glossing is planned next week.

Inside, the water damaged supporting woodwork in the ceiling has had replacements machined and let in as a repair. New beading has also been produced ready for when it's been paneled out again.

Norfolk Lights Express Preparations: TSO M4843 & CCT E94464

As part of this year's Norfolk Lights Express train, there was a requirement to move the generator van (CCT) from the Sheringham end to the Holt end of the train, as the lighting control equipment wouldn't fit inside E21103's accessible brake area leaving sufficient room for any visitors in wheelchairs. This hasn't been a problem before as we have previously always used (now withdrawn) BSK W35148 which has a larger accessible brake area.

The revised arrangement required the use of TSO M4843's redundant toilets which are now store cupboards. The coach was moved to Weybourne where a removable hatch has been cut into the cupboard floor, which will be where the cables are routed. Whilst in works, the opportunity was taken to repair two door faults on the vehicle, refix a door grab handle which had come loose, and finish the vehicle's latest A exam which included vacuum testing.

With M4843 complete and ready to receive the lighting cables and control equipment (by contractors next week), CCT E94464 was next for modifications. A corresponding hatch was cut into one corner to match that on M4843, to take the incoming control cables.

Two "ports" were then let into the floor which were subsequently connected to two flexible exhaust pipes bolted to the underframe.

The above modifications will allow us to end the practice of temporarily rigging up exhausts onto the generators each year we run Norfolk Lights Express trains. The previous years have used special rules exemptions with the CCT's end loading doors secured in a half open position, to allow the control cables and exhaust pipes to pass through and wrap round either to the adjacent coach (also through a door secured slightly ajar) or down to the chassis. Whilst the previous method did the job and was agreed as safe, it was also time consuming to set up and messy from a rules and regulations point of view. So the semi-permanent modifications this year will turn the installation of the generators, wiring and exhausts from a one day job to closer to one hour, also ending the practice of running with doors not fully shut, so better all round.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Cleaning and painting of the underframe continues steadily. The first of the damaged wooden planks on the body has also been cut back ready to receive a repair block. These wood work splices are very much in the tradition of BR wagons, which would often be patched here and there during overhauls!

Maintenance

A steam test was undertaken on the Norfolk Lights Express set to ascertain what repairs are needed this year. Most coaches performed well, but newly refurbished BCK E21103 had a severe leak in the pipework under the centre of the vehicle. This has been removed, repaired and refitted curing the leak.

A Bogie Bolster wagon which hasn't moved for something in the region of six or seven years was given a look over, as the boiler which is stored on top of it was required elsewhere in the yard for an inspection. The axleboxes were checked and the wagon moved with no problems!

Three of the removed vacuum cylinders are still being prepared to act as on-the shelf spares for next season. They haven't been overhauled yet but the exteriors have been chipped back ready for a much needed repaint.

Workshop

The lifting stands mentioned last week have progressed with two coats of yellow gloss applied. They look excellent and have now been returned outside.

A set of wheel chocks have also been painted from primer into a first coat of yellow. These will receive a second coat next week all being well. 

M51188 Starts in Earnest

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

This week has seen existing projects progress with no major milestones reached. Fooboards in particular have continued with a mixture of new ones being machined and second hand ones reused.

London North Eastern Railway Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

The four wheelsets are now finished in black gloss and are now awaiting tyre turning.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

Stripping has continued with all of the woodwork surrounding the doorways now removed, except one floor section which unfortunately extends under a sheet of asbestos insulation, which we understandably cannot disturb until the coach receives its planned asbestos strip by contractors.

With the doorways essentially prepared for steelwork repairs, the final tasks stripping the Holt end vestibule have been achieved. This involved removing all of the floor supports and floor panel itself, exposing the top of the underframe.

If this were not enough, we have continued stripping out the guards compartment. The guards seat has been removed and, somewhat drastically, part of the walls have been removed including the emergency equipment cupboard. This is because for the coach's new role as a kitchen we have to widen the corridor past the guards compartment, involving re-siting parts of the wall and losing the cupboard. It does mean that, temporarily at least, there appears to be two doorways into the compartment from the corridor!

Inside the luggage/kitchen area, the final ceiling panels are now removed, which pretty much concludes the strip down of this area. In a fairly short space of time, we have almost reduced the remains of the "top half" of this vehicle as low as it is going to get, before starting the much more complicated task of actually restoring the components and then building it back up again.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

With generator installed, some of the missing features are in the process of being reinstated. This week has seen progress of transferring the remote start function from the old to new generators.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The 16th and final conveyor belt vehicle has now been fully rubbed down ready for the repainting works. In addition to this, all of the exterior aluminium window frames have also had steam smuts removed restoring some form of a shine. Localised corrosion has been chipped back, treated, filled, sanded and patch painted up to gloss.

With exterior repairs completed, it was time to repaint, starting from the top. Two leaking roof vent patches were resealed, following which a coat of roof paint was applied to the roof.

This done, just towards the end of the week, the upper bodyside/roof strip was given its green gloss, giving a hint of what the rest of the vehicle will look like in due course.

Inside the guards van, the damaged ceiling panels (from the roof leak) have been cut back neatly ready for new panels and beading to go back in their place.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Cleaning and repainting work has recommenced with some of the rust inhibited areas now sporting red primer.

British Railways 1953 20 Ton Lowmac TDB904093

This vehicle will take a break from these notes now, as winter is slowly setting in and it has been recalled by the Permanent Way department for it to fulfill its duties cutting back vegetation along the line-side for the closed season. It will likely be finished off next Spring when things start to warm up again.

Maintenance

A examinations continue, and this week we welcome our newest employee Chris Wells, who joins the team as Dan Broughton's replacement, primarily tasked with the running maintenance and examination of the coaching stock fleet.

TSO M4843 has been removed from the running set and brought to Weybourne, for modifications to its flooring to allow electrical control cables to pass up through the floors, in support of the imminent Norfolk Lights Express trains.

Workshop

Several workshop projects have popped up this week. The first is the destruction of a large wheeled trolley from Sheringham station, which needs major surgery and component replacement.

Another project is giving some of the carriage and bogie stands some attention, as part of an ongoing programme of improvements following an internal H&S inspection recently. So far, around half of the stands have been chipped back and primed in (grey) primer. The intention is for them to emerge in highly visible yellow, replacing the inconsistent and dirty colour schemes they were previously in.

Finally, a small improvement for some of our tiniest visitors! The C&W shed has long been a haven for small birds, who sometimes nest in the shed itself, or nearby. A small army of Sparrows in particular visit regularly at tea breaks as they have learned where to supplement their usual diet in the station public picnic area! An off-site volunteer recently donated a home made bird box so this has been immediately fixed to a nearby building. We hope to see a resident or two next season.