DMU Painting Progress

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

Work has been steady with existing tasks being moved along. More investigations to the leaking vacuum system have been traced to leaks in joints in the main steel pipe itself, which is unfortunate but at least something has been found as the vacuum was leaking away slowly. Inside the vehicle, the window units continue to receive finishing attention as have the two passenger doors. Newly varnished planking in the lower part of the door has been fitted on the landward side and looks very nice.

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

No progress to report, though it expected that a further image update is due shortly to update us all on the contractor's progress.

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

This has been a major focus of attention recently with a push being had on some fairly major tasks. The project to rebuild the guards compartment and adjacent corridor has progressed in leaps and bounds with bodywork renewal on the landward side fully completed, which has included two doorways, hanging one of the doors, renewal of all of the floor supports and the fitting of new floor boarding.

Work has now moved over to the seaward side which requires similar treatment. The outside requires stabilising so that the floors can provide a solid working platform to then restore the remainder of the interior and continue building things back up.

Two of the "floating" bulkhead walls are now back down on proper supports again which is a good sign the interior rebuild is starting.

At the other end of the vehicle, the rot in the floors was found to be more advanced than first thought, so the vestibule-to-saloon bulkhead has had to be removed as well so the vestibule is temporarily missing as an entity, the end of the vehicle becoming onw big stripped out shell!

With all walls out, a lot of the floor has been taken up and the tops of the main chassis cleaned up and protected. Floor bearers are all being renewed at the ends where required to strengthen them back up before we again look at refitting flooring.

It is likely we will remove the old toilet water tank from the roof before this end is reassembled.

The outside of the vehicle at the Holt end of the passenger saloon is also being looked at at the same time, with the lower "skirt" being chopped off to repair lower frame sections prior to welding a new skirt back on. Some areas will be replaced entirely below the window with new sheet steel.

All in all a very intensive period of repair on the vehicle at the present time, which can hopefully continue.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (BRONZE)

The remedial attention to the seaward side to prepare for correcting the faded and chipping has been completed so the upper body is now ready for painting.

Inside the coach, all of the lower seat bases have been rotated around from one side of the coach to the other to give some of them a rest from the sun side. The lower door cards have been refixed to the aluminium door frame castings as many of them were hanging around loose. They have also been re-varnished whilst we have the opportunity.

We also lifted the coach off its bogies so that we could change several cracked bogie bolster springs, but unfortunately the spring plank has been found to be seized, preventing us from taking it apart at the moment. We are having a re-think and will have a second attempt after we have explored the best ways of forcing these components apart!

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

Along with 14021, this vehicle has seen a push forwards of late with the exterior painting progressing well. The priming and undercoating of the whole vehicle has now been completed and the roof painting is also complete.

Gloss painting has now started although this week it has proven difficult with temperatures too high for painting of large panels.

Gloss painting of the cab interior also continues to progress.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

The remainder of the brake works to the vehicle have now been completed with all of the flexible hoses and couplings now back onto the vehicle. The system has also been tested successfully, so after many years with an isolated vacuum cylinder, the wagon can finally re-join the braked "fitted" group of BR wagons.

The wagon will shortly be moving to Holt where the remainder of the upper body repairs and repainting work is due to be completed.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

The Fruit D is almost complete, again the team have had to rely on good weather, which they do not seem to get on the Tuesday's and Thursday's they volunteer!

Brian is concentrating on the lettering. Final checks will take place before it is released to traffic, the aim is still completion by July end!

Workshop

Fabrication of some new buckeye coupling release bars to supplement the existing stock is now complete with them being painted this week. These bars will be used by shunters to split Mark 1's and other coaches joined by buckeye couplers.

Gresley TTO Cleared

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

Work has been split between continuing with window framing work and a return to the vacuum system. The windows have seen the first wooden surround fitted round the newly completed brasswork, whilst the hunt for further vacuum leaks within the system has resumed in earnest.

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

No progress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1931 Tourist Third Open E13548E (STORED)

This long term stored resident inside Bridge Road Carriage Sheds was drawn out of its slumber in order to be cleared out as part of an ongoing programme to better organise some of our stores. The future project Gresley coach was tripped to Holt station along with five other stored vehicles with the main aim of transferring spares out of 13548 and into other vehicles. The opportunity was also taken to move lots of seating from other vehicles into the consist all into one centralised space, so for the first time in decades we now have an inventory of all the stored carriage seating we have on the railway. This list will be essential in future planning and ensuring that we have seating in stock for future restorations, both Mark 1 and Gresley. 13548 has now returned indoors awaiting its turn for restoration.

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

Welding repairs continue with the landward side centre vestibule doorway now completed and the door test hung.

Adjacent floor support metalwork in the passenger saloon has also seen a repair undertaken, as whilst we are not tackling this area just yet, the continued presence of the corrosion in this first support would have adversely affected the floor laying we plan to do in the vestibule and guards side corridor.

At the other end of the coach, the former toilet wall has been demolished to again give access for floor steelwork repairs. The toilet at this end will be rebuilt (as a store cupboard) in due course with the wall returning, however the configuration of the toilet and shape will be changed from its original corridor style to an open coach layout, something we have never undertaken before!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (BRONZE)

The repairs to the failed filler have now been completed on the landward side which was the worst affected area. This has involved removing the old unstable material, getting a better key on the original metal surface and refilling as required. The treated areas have been patch primed and further remedial works will be undertaken on the seaward side before repainting is started.

Inside the vehicle, five worn out armrests have been replaced with second hand examples we had in stock, and the remainder rotated round to hide the worn end into the seat back and expose the hidden end at the front to take the next generation of arm wear!

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

The front end conversion to "Met Camm Lightweight" has now been completed with the addition of the replica waist height jumper cable sockets below the cab windows. This has changed the front end appearance noticeably. With the final works complete, this has allowed the cab front to be primed which means it is now all one colour again after many months of looking like a patchwork quilt.

Inside the cab, repainting of the walls is progressing well with the whole area now in maroon undercoat. The gloss work has now started. Smaller items such as the fire bell and lighting control faceplate area also seeing paint prior to being refitted.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

The brakegear has now been reassembled around the newly refitted vacuum cylinder, with the next planned job being refitting all the flexible vacuum hoses.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

No progress to report.

E21224 Returned to Service

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

The recently installed sliding light units in the eight passenger windows are being tidied up with mastic cutting back and further cleaning to ensure their appearance and longevity in service.

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

Some more mundane but nevertheless essential work is being pushed through at the moment. With the vehicle still on stands further frame painting and pipework has been progressed along with brake-gear linkages.

A miscellany of underframe and end parts are being cleaned and painted ready for refitting, this has also included the roof vents.

Finally, the semi dismantled bogies are being worked through and wasted parts identified for repair or in several cases replacement with spares. This will be aided by many of the parts sent from Weybourne.

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

The main focus has continued to be metalwork in the area around the guards compartment. The landward side, where the side corridor is located, is now fairly advanced at the lower end with lower sections of the inward opening door welded in place to the underframe and horizontal sections of framework at the bottom renewed. The current angle of attack is the adjacent passenger doorway which requires whole new door framework to be welded in.

The remainder of the solebar and Sheringham end bufferbeam have now been needle gunned and primed, which completes this initial part of the chassis clean up. The vehicle will be lifted before we progress any further on this front.

Many volunteers have been active inside the vehicle, focusing on the passenger saloon and the Holt end vestibule and former toilet. The toilet is being demolished and will be replaced with a curved "first Open" style toilet, which will house a storage space. All of the fittings and wall panels have now been stripped out of the toilet with the basin and pan a memory! It now looks rather stark in there and sadly much corrosion and rot has been found in the floor around this area. We plan to take down at least two of the walls to tackle the floor before rebuilding upwards.

Inside the passenger saloon, fittings that will be moved or are not required for the coach's new open configuration have been stripped out. Extensive woodwork that used to run down the corridor, housing the heaters, has been removed and all of the passenger communication chains and bowls have been extracted. One of them will be refitted in due course but with the bowls in different locations. Severed sections of bulkhead that once formed the compartment side walls have also been extracted.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (REPAIR)

We quickly completed the works to 21224, finishing off the battery charger and window glass replacement in the toilet and guards compartment. The coach was then moved outside where repairs to the controlled emission toilet were completed and tested successfully. It was then tripped back to Sheringham to be returned to the "B set" for use throughout this summer.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (BRONZE)

The replacement in the workshop for 21224 is TSO 4843 which has been suffering from filler cracking, paint fade and coil spring cracks. Other than these ailments the coach is in good order and does not cause much trouble at all in service, so hopefully it will be a fairly straightforward mission for this one.

Early days yet, but so far an insecure step on the Sheringham end bogie has been replaced with another one, five worn armrests have been replaced with some better second hand examples upholstered in the same material, and some of the worst filler sections have been popped out ready to stabilise/replace. 

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

The underframe and bufferbeam repainting has now been completed. The final tasks were the seaward side of the leading bogie being finished in black gloss and picking out all of the details and pipework on the front in the various colours, it now looks very bright!

After many weeks of struggle, all of the bodyside windows have now received a full replacement set of internal rubbers, so these are now ready to refit at the required time.

56062 has now been moved into the staging where the upper half painting has begun. Other priorities have meant progress has been slow but primer has been applied to much of the landward side.

Meanwhile the final parts of the cosmetic works to convert the vehicle into a Metro Cammell Lightweight vehicle have been produced, the waist height jumper cable sockets, and will be fitted shortly.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Following a further period of the project having been stalled, it was decided to give it a boost and dismantle the brakegear to access the failed vacuum cylinder and swap it out for a newly overhauled example. This was done at the same time as M35148's cylinder swap as we were already all set up for the process. The vehicle now sports its new cylinder and it is planned to reassemble the brakegear and adjust the brakes before we do a test to see if we can finally return the wagon to the vacuum fitted list.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

Brian Ashby has continued rubbing down and applying top coats where possible as, once again, the team have been thwarted by the weather!

It is impossible to paint the landward side without moving the wagon out from the museum awning. Brian is concentrating on the ends and the seaward side until the weather allows further progress. 

Others have been priming ironwork and refixing to the wagon, a slow process but they are getting there.

If the weather improves, they will attack the rest of the painting! If not, they will reassemble the M&GN horse dray and dismantle the now rather scruffy marquee in that area.

Workshop

In amongst all the other work, we have fitted in fabricating some new loco allocation boards for the public information sign up at Holt, and continue restoring furniture for the stations.

Maintenance

Now the season is in full swing repair tasks are taking up some time at Sheringham. We have also prepared suburban open 48001 for daily service in the B set as our delayed programme now means that TSO 4843 (mentioned above) will not be available for the main summer, so a high capacity vehicle is required to substitute.

The main A set brake, BSK(D) M35148, only recently outshopped, suffered a brake cylinder failure recently. The coach was quickly tripped to Weybourne where an overhauled example was fitted and tested. It has now been returned to Sheringham and is back in the train.

A Sneaky Revarnish

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

A milestone has been reached this week with the completion of the sliding top-light fitting. For the first time the vehicle now has eight units fitted and functioning (it only had six when built as a corridor vehicle). Hopefully it will not be too long now before the main glazing can be undertaken.

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

The original wheelsets from 16631 have been returned to Weybourne from Wirksworth and at least two axles are sadly too damaged for any form of operational re-use. The remaining two axles will be stored as spares for the BTO and future vehicles in the proposed LNER set such as the Thompson brake, TTO & TK. The lorry that brought the wheelsets also returned a bent corridor connection faceplate (which was swapped for a spare from a donor vehicle) and picked up the four tyre turned axles from our two spare bogies which we restored some time ago. Finally, four replacement leaf springs, also from the spare bogies, were dispatched again to replace expired examples found on 16631 during the contract overhaul works.

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

Work to the guards area continues. The corroded outer skin on the seaward side has been removed allowing the surviving floor woodwork to be stabilised and the remaining framework is now accessible to be chopped out for replacement.

The areas of chassis temporarily revealed with the floor missing has been built up with protective layers of paint to set it up for the next 50 years. The corrugated floor which lies beneath has also been removed and had paint applied.

New plywood for the resized bulkheads and flooring has now arrived and is being laminated together where appropriate.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (REPAIR)

Our next project now that Gresley Buffet 9128 has been returned to service is a brief visit of old friend 21224 for repairs. This was caused by the new retention toilet pipework bursting out of the roof requiring the coach to be brought inside and under the harness lines for repair. This has now been completed and will be tested in due course.

Whilst the vehicle is with us we experimented with a new cleaner which our colleagues at the Great Central Railway had been using with success. This has lifted much of the filth that had accumulated in the cream sections of the bodywork.

After cleaning, the vehicle has been re-varnished all round despite not being due for such attention. It as completed quickly however and has given it a real boost and shine back.

A host of other, smaller, tasks have also been completed on the vehicle. As part of our battery charging improvement scheme, an in built charger is in the process of being installed in the guards compartment. We have also repaired the first aid kit holder, seaward side guards door and are in the process of replacing a stained window on the landward side guards door. Damaged window signage has also been replaced and various other items cleaned.

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

Underframe painting continues with the bufferbeam in a second coat of red gloss and the underframe now all in black gloss except the seaward side of the leading bogie which is just lingering in undercoat.

Meanwhile inside the cab, some more of the walls have been maroon undercoated. The window rubber replacement for the bodyside windows edges ever closer to completion.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

No progress to report.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

All woodwork is now completed, but plenty of painting is still to complete if the weather allows!

The Sheringham end has been painted and the Holt end is ready for a second gloss coat.

Much de-rusting and priming of all the ironwork, a nice sitting down job, has also been undertaken.

Gresley Buffet Returned to Traffic

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

Window fitting has continued along the landward side with the aim of working towards the fully glazed milestone. There is just one window now outstanding for the top sliding lights.

Further adjustments have also been made to the two main passenger doors.

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

Contract works continue at LS Engineering. Back at Weybourne, a set of four leaf springs have been removed from our two spare Electric Multiple Unit Gresley design bogies for intended reuse on 16631. This was because the originals were found to be in too poor a condition to reuse. We have also received unfortunate news that the journals on the wheelsets of 16631 are in a scrap condition, rendering all the wheels useless. This damage sadly occurred during the coach's many years in storage. The good news is that we have prepared a set of four axles (taken from the spare EMU bogies) ready to go under 16631. The bad news is that the four coming out of 16631 which were going to be returned to our pool and used on one (or both) of the remaining two unrestored Gresley vehicles in our set, are now no longer able to fulfill that role, so we are back to having no spares so will keep our fingers crossed that the wheels under the two future coaches are in good enough order to go forward with! The above is all part of the rich tapestry of restoring 90 year old vehicles of course!

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E (BRONZE)

Star of the show for this update is of course the Gresley Buffet car, which has been returned to traffic after just 47 days in the workshop. Considering the amount of work completed on the vehicle, this quick turnaround is a credit to the team who have worked so hard to undertake the tasks so desperately needed on the vehicle and minimise the time that the operating and catering departments had to suffer without the use of it.

The final two weeks of the vehicle being with us saw us complete the varnishing on the landward side and gloss paint to two vehicle ends. The two corridor end doors received several coats of varnish to build them back up to the expected finish. The interior was deep cleaned in advance of the coach being handed back to Sheringham, in order to give it a head start as its return to service was expected to be quick.

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

The focus continues to be on the guards compartment structural restoration. Several major floor bearers have now been machined from new hardwood, painted and dry fitted to ensure a good fit. More plywood flooring has been cut back to either remove rotten material or access rotten steel supports beneath the wood floor.

Work to the bulkhead walls has progressed, with two walls cut down by a few inches in order to widen the side corridor to the maximum it can be for trays of food to pass through easily. The removal of a seemingly small amount of material has actually made a massive difference to the passageway. Replacement material for both the bulkheads (where they are damaged or missing) and the removed flooring is now on order, as part of our plan to get a secure floor down for us to stand on and conduct the remainder of the restoration in this area.

Other works have included needle gunning the handbrake pedestal back to metal removing the 50 years of BR paint layers. It looks much "crisper" now and can return to it's original 1960's splendor in due course!

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

The cab end repainting has seen the bufferbeam first be primed and then receive a first coat of red gloss, which is really giving the front some colour now. The new front valance has also been painted gloss black. A start has been made on fabricating the cosmetic waist height jumper cable sockets which will eventually be fixed below the cab windows.

Also on the exterior, good progress is being made with the underframe repainting. The landward side is now complete with both bogies and all the "danglies" brought up to black gloss. The seaward side is slightly behind with around 3/4 in primer.

Window rubber replacement in the window frame units is steadily continuing. The cab interior project continues with the first areas of wall paneling starting to go into maroon undercoat.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

No progress to report.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

No progress to report.