Asbestos Stripping Completed

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

The brass windows have been examined for size variation to ensure that the new glass being ordered for the sliding lights and quarter lights will fit. The glass is now on order.

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

The coach has continued well over the past few weeks, with part of the new cant rail fitted kicking off the major woodworking repairs nicely. Other woodwork has included screwing down many of the roof boards.

On the exterior, the second of the two gangway ends have been removed, along with the "buckeye" couplings and the buffers after the latter were found to be seized. If that were not enough, the underframe has also been needle gunned.

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

The asbestos stripping has continued well this week with the lower half sheeted up and the steam heat pipework all removed and disposed of.

This then allowed phase three of the work to be completed at the end of the week, the stripping of rope pipework in the toilet compartment and guards compartment. This done, the coach has now been handed back over to us for restoration work to start proper.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

The new lighting in the accessible saloon has now been wired in and the panelling replaced in front of the lights. The lighting levels are, as expected, much improved.

At the other end of the coach, the toilet water tank has been dropped for testing, which was completed successfully.

The previous water leaks had however corroded some of the roof framework, which has been caught fairly early and now quickly welded back up again.

Three out of four passenger doors have had their varnished wooden cards removed and stripped back to wood ready for varnishing up again. More window surround woodwork, intended for the windows which were removed some time ago, have also received two further layers of varnish.

On the exterior of the vehicle, the fitting of the passenger communication apparatus at the Holt end continues and has run into alignment complications which have required some packing pieces to be made.

The next window has also been refitted and bedded down back into its frame. This leaves three left to refit.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

More steel sheeting has been cut to shape ready for further body repairs.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

No progress to report.

British Railways 1950 12 Ton Box Van B755094 (Maintenance)

Not a full restoration, but the repairs to the failing sliding door which is regularly used on this stores van have progressed nicely. The door is now substantially back together and has been hung loosely back on the vehicle, ready for further adjustments and for more furniture to be added back on.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

The finishing touches mentioned last week have been largely done, with final painting and lettering progressing along with sealing the stove pipe back into the roof. It just needs some more lettering completing along with the side lamp brackets returning to the four corners and then the vhicle will be released back into traffic.

Maintenance

Maintenance continues to be varied, this week has seen some extra woodwork in the form of TSO 4236 requiring a repair to a window glass retaining bar which has rotted away with condensation and damp.

Asbestos Stripping Starts

Hopefully everybody enjoyed the last gala event of the year last weekend, Showcase, which included the Vintage, Quad Art and Demonstration Freight sets along with a few dining cars that are only available to sample by ordinary ticket holders a few times a year. Sadly we now settle down to more mundane timetables as we look towards Winter and the closed period.

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

No progress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

No progress to report.

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

The asbestos removal contractors have been visiting and have completed the first week of their work. There are three phases of removal and the first of these has been successfully completed. This involved sealing off the former passenger compartment areas and removing heater insulation.

By the end of the week the coach had been lifted up into the air for phase two to commence: the stripping of the steam heat pipework underneath. This has only just started with around a third of the area being sheeted up ready. This will of course continue next week.

Whilst the contractors have been working, for obvious reasons no further work has been attempted on the coach!

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

The corridor opposite the guards compartment has continued to progress with the newly installed side panelling panted up to cream gloss. The window glass, retaining bars and outer wooden trim were then subsequently fitted. Some adjustments have been made meaning further painting is required to finish off, however the area is now looking much more complete.

Inside the accessible saloon, the new LED lighting bars have all been fitted into place and are being wired up. The wiring has been simplified so that the whole compartment comes on with one light switch, rather than the previous four. This has been done mainly because the previously intended feature to be able to light up one side only, or one end only, is never used.

On the exterior, corridor connection bellows refitting has been coming on at the Holt end. This end includes the passenger communication vacuum gear which hit complications when we found further areas of corrosion that needed attention. These repairs are now being undertaken after which we shall be finishing the bellows.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Both door pillars on the doorway currently being repaired are now rebuilt with new metal replacing the extremely untidy British Rail patch repairs. These have now been primed with a view to start refitting the door, hinges and jambs next week.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

A very productive day was had coating the underframe in its entirety in a coat of black gloss to protect it in time for the upcoming winter weather.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

The van made a temporary appearance to the Showcase Weekend and has now quickly been returned to Holt Museum for finishing touches. 

Maintenance

The control switch box to improve the changeover from generator power to shore supply on RBR E1969 continues to be built up and is now ready for testing.

Gold Projects Progress

This weekend is the Showcase event which features regular shed tours at Weybourne Works including the carriage shed. Do come and see in person what we have been doing if you can!

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

Work has continued slowly on some door adjustments but many resources have been directed elsewhere recently.

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

Work is progressing well at Lee Sharpe's workshop, the coach has been stripped back with all the rotten wood and woodworm affected areas removed. The scale at the end between the underframe and body has been removed, all the corner brackets on the frame have been removed and a start has been made fitting new corner brackets.

Around half of the frame work has been de nailed sanded and painted in Aluminium wood primer.

The three lower roof boards have been removed both sides to allow new stainless steel tie bars to be fitted replacing the rusted originals. One corridor end face plate removed, the hand brake column removed, plus the guards cupboard removed plus all doors removed.

This restoration is being funded by the late Keith Porter’s legacy, but at present it looks like the estimated cost of the restoration is going to exceed the allocated £75,000, so any donations towards the restoration would be greatly appreciated by donating to the Joint Heritage Coach Fund.

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

The all important asbestos contractors are booked in on Monday morning in order to make a start. As part of this, the former passenger compartment end of the coach and the guards compartment have been cleared of all loose items so that they can do their work and dispose of any contaminated materials.

More good news is the arrival of the replacement steelwork required to repair the coach ends and all the doorways. These are now set aside for when we can deploy a suitable contractor to do the works.

John Howard continues to chip away at the battery boxes. Now that the landward side is complete, the seaward side has seen further stripping for both metalwork and woodwork replacement and repairs to start in earnest.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

Much interior work has continued on the vehicle. All of the compartments have had their ceilings repainted which completes this task.

Two of the four have also been completed in terms of re-varnishing. The remaining two are in the process of having the window glass and surrounding woodwork refitted before these can then have final varnish.

Inside the guards compartment, the walls have been prepped and are being repainted. The corridor opposite the compartment, which had water damage below the window, has been replanked. 

The accessible saloon now has the sliding door at the end and associated cover panel refitted. The covers for the uplights have been varnished but are awaiting the LED light conversion before final fitting. This saloon is now the most advanced and will most likely be the first main area completed fully. 

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Work on the body has restarted on a limited basis with repairs to one of the seaward side passenger doorways progressed.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

The underframe is now ready for gloss black, which will hopefully be applied before winter sets in.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

The second coat of bauxite paint has been applied but the running boards and remainder of the chassis are still to complete. The van will temporarily be in sue for Showcase weekend before being returned for finishing off. Nevertheless the vehicle is certainly now on the home straight!

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B783071 (Maintenance)

Not a restoration, but over the summer a project to repair and renew the doors on one side of one of the box vans used for storage has been ongoing. Much wood repair was required but it is now completed and coated in "good enough" brown! The same group have now moved onto similar van B755094.

Maintenance

The control switch box to improve the changeover from generator power to shore supply on RBR E1969 is now being constructed and is coming together nicely. Hopefully it will be installed in the vehicle before too long.

The project to repair the door 

Workshop

A set of ramps which have been generously donated by Greater Anglia have arrived recently. There will be more official publicity concerning them and their impact on the railway soon, but for now they get an honourable mention here. They will most likely be deployed on brake coaches in the months ahead.

The Blog Returns

Regular readers will have been disappointed with the lack of updates over the past two months. This was due to a sabbatical being taken to push through the final stages of the restoration of Class 104 DMU trailer car M56182, a very personal project which hasn't been included in the main C&W blogs. Much time off was taken and midnight oil burned but the endeavour came to a conclusion last Saturday with the vehicle being launched into service. Aside from the time taken away from NNR duties, mentally organising the concluding parts of the restoration and of course the launch day itself demanded all concentration as well as time, so by the end of the day there simply wasn't any energy available to writeup this blog! However the good news is that we can now return to normal and regular updates are planned to resume, starting with this week!

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

The centre passenger doors continue to be a focus to modify them into a better fit. These have proven challenging and time consuming with further repairs being required using framework from a donor Gresley door.

All the droplights for the vehicle, expertly made by Ian Starks of Northmark, have now been glazed and are getting their first coats of varnish. On the guards doors, handrails have been fitted to the outside of the coach.

The plumbing on the control emission toilet tank is now all but completed, but there is still a leak on at least one joint so repairs will have to be undertaken. Regretfully the volunteer leading this area is a seasonal one and now that we are into autumn it may well be next Spring before this job is finished off.

London North Eastern Railway Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

Further conversations have been had with LS Engineering who are getting an increasingly clearer picture as to how rotten the BTO actually is under the panel work. Revised quotes are being prepared and it is certainly hoped for work proper to commence soon.

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

Completely coincidentally, the last blog update two months ago recorded that M14021 had been paused and tripped to Holt for temporary storage. Interestingly, this very week has seen the same coach return and shunted back into the workshop ready for the restoration to recommence. Further updates can therefore be expected!

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

This vehicle has been the main focus for us over the last two months, with both paid staff and volunteers making it a target to push forwards the task in hand. The Holt end corridor connection and seaward side, both areas which were outstanding, have seen intensive welding repair works undertaken in order to get the whole vehicle up to a point where metalwork is complete. Several more repairs to doors have since been found which have also proven time consuming.

Several window frames have been refitted to the seaward side and preparations are underway to get the remaining examples fitted to the landward side.

We undertook a water tank test on the toilet as in its latter years in traffic the vehicle was suffering leaks when the tank was filled up. We found a broken air breather pipe which appears to have been the cause but there are also supply issues further down the pipework as water was not able to get to the toilet or taps very quickly suggesting a blockage. More investigations will be required.

Inside the vehicle, the most progress has been made inside the accessible compartment. This has had several cots of varnish and now glows again. The ceiling has been repainted and much of the furniture such as tables below the windows refitted. We are currently in the process of renewing the lighting in this area with LED replacement tubes.

Moving down the vehicle, the guards compartment was in pieces receiving wiring modifications for the accessible saloon lighting, which has now been completed and simplified. There are now two switches (for the guards compartment and accessible salon) rather than the consuming five switches that there were before. It has now been reassembled to a point where the walls are receiving filler in old holes and a smooth down ready for repainting. The ceiling has also been refreshed. We plan to undertake several emergency equipment improvement features to bring this brake compartment in line with E21103 and E21224 which have already been so treated.

The side corridor is slightly behind everywhere else but it has been rubbed down on the landward side ready for varnish. The seaward side requires more work as it has suffered badly from sun damage. Again, the ceilings have been repainted.

The compartments are all at different stages with some having been varnished and other's not. Some have ceilings repainted whilst others don't.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Work has focussed on the interior with several damaged Formica panel being re-glued onto new plywood. This has been successful and several of the rejuvenated panels are now back in place on the walls.

Midland & Great Northern Railway 1881 4 Wheel Tool Van 12 (REPAIRS)

The two replacement wheelsets were refitted o the vehicle which has now returned to traffic.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Progress over the summer has been modest with all the underframe fully cleaned down and primer and undercoat applied. The top half has seen a start made on a few woodwork repairs.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

Painting work has progressed well in the warm weather and is now substantially complete. Recent work has been centred on the underframe and the vehicle was shunted out from the museum platform to facilitate this. 

M35148 Half Way There

As we are now in holiday season the workshop hasn't been as busy as it could be, but things are still moving along...

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

The two centre doors (the only passenger ones) have been removed from the vehicle and all the internal door cards and furniture have been removed from them. The brass hinges have been removed and their old steel screws thrown away. In turn the outer steel panels (Thompson doors are wood frame with a steel outer skin) have been painstakingly removed to allow access to assess what needs repairing.

In the guards area of the coach, the lozenge shaped upper window surrounds have been finished and painted.

Inside the guards compartment itself, the postal rack has been fitted complete with a quick release mechanism to allow cleaning of the window behind.

London North Eastern Railway Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

Parts are being gathered for the Gresley BTO currently off site at LS Engineering, now that there is a more complete picture of what is missing from the vehicle.

A further milestone is that four replacement wheelsets intended for the vehicle have been turned on the lathe and will be prepared for dispatch to the Ecclesbourne Valley to be used on E16631E.

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

As explained last week, 14021 has been moved to the sheds at Bridge Road for the foreseeable future.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

The main milestone this week has been the completion of welding repairs to the landward side of the coach, following steelwork being put into the compartment side-corridor section of the vehicle. The piecemeal nature of the progression makes it hard to judge things but we are well over the half way point with corrosion repairs now. The next challenge will be the Holt end corridor connection and end which has so far been fairly untouched and needs a lot of work.

On the interior front, we decided to freshen up the guards seat and reupholster it in "Trojan" moquette to match the passenger seating elsewhere in the vehicle.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Bodywork has slowly continued, with the welding now completed in the middle saloon area on the seaward side, including all new window bottoms. These have all been ground smooth this week and painted in a holding coat of grey primer.

Internally, the reassembly of the rear saloon on the seaward side continues with around half of the removed Formica paneling returned to the wall after all of the supporting timber work had been refitted.

Midland & Great Northern Railway 1881 4 Wheel Tool Van 12 (REPAIRS)

Preparation of the two replacement axles for 12 is going well. The wheelsets and all four axleboxes have been rust treated, primed and given a coat of gloss black. The axleboxes have additionally been extensively cleaned out before the painting process began. The photos show the process of moving the wheelsets from one road of the shed to another to clear the way for shunting out the staging area and come courtesy of Richard Coleman.

Southern Railway 1939 Parcels & Miscellaneous Van S1359S

The shelving and lighting has now been fitted to the PMV in the platform at Weybourne which is now completed as "The Sidings" bookshop extension. Be sure to make a visit if you spot the doors open at Weybourne on your next visit!

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

A small amount of de-greasing has continued on the seaward side of the underframe equipment.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

Hopefully there will be a larger update next time, but reports suggest that the vehicle has turned a corner and that the bauxite brown paint has started to be applied.

Workshop

The shunt to move E56062 and remove M14021 allowed the staging area of the shed to receive a good clear up and hoover, the fight against dust being eternal of course!

A new drivers seat for the B12 steam loco has also been upholstered.