August News

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (BRONZE)

Following a deep clean and major exam, this vehicle is now back in traffic giving us six members of operating vehicles for the vintage train for the very first time. However due to weight limits of some engines we will likely continue to operate the set as a five-coach formation. As 853 contains a guards brake, its return allows Pigeon Van 6843 to rejoin the Quad-Art set.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

The main progress this month has continued to be on the roof. The scaffolding was successfully reset in height giving a better working level for the cantrail/gutter. This quickly allowed the edging strips, previously removed for the replacement of the canvas, to be refitted and sealed. Further coats of roof paint were then added along with a few final items of furniture bringing the roof project to a close. Some damaged timber cappings on the end of the vehicle have also been improved and replaced, along with cutting back of excess canvas hanging below. The scaffolding can now be dismantled and this is booked to be done with the contractor shortly.

In parallel with the roof work, door skin production and adjustment has also been progressing around several doors, although we will require the scaffolding to be removed before these can be brought to completion.

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

The beading for the lower sides of the vehicle has been ordered and will be delivered to the contractor's premises shortly. This will hopefully be fitted shortly, over the painted di-bond panels, and be painted bringing the bodysides to an almost completed state.

Roof canvas work has also been progressing, bringing the exterior of the coach ever closer to completion.

London North Eastern Railway 1945 Gangwayed Brake E70621E (SILVER)

This vehicle has progressed really well, with the interior of the larger Sheringham end saloon catching up with the Holt end. This has included roof and wall repairing, prepping and painting cream/white/brown as required. This same repair process has now moved on to the final two aspects of the interior: the inside faces of the doors and the guards booth. Both are now progressing with the sand paper, filler and paint all in evidence!

On the topic of doors, a great deal of effort has been put into both the two guards inward opening and the six sets of double doors, to finish the work started early in the year before the door team were removed to work on E3868 instead. All of the doors on the whole vehicle are now clad externally, mechanically repaired and doorways fettled to allow reliable opening and closing to occur after many years of being swelled shut.

The two gangway end doors have now been successfully rebuilt and fitted back into their frames.

The current focus on the exterior is the fitting of remaining door edge capping strips, which are being cut to size and screwed into place. The intention is still to have the vehicle usable by Christmas.

London North Eastern Railway 1936 Tourist Third Open 13251

The newly arrived Gresley coach has now been fully prepared for storage up at Holt. The older pattern LNER vacuum cylinders have been removed in order to dispatch them to another home as we do not use them. The bent gangway end has been removed and swapped for a spare which is undamaged. The bent example has subsequently been heated up and successfully reshaped so it can be used on another Gresley.

A decent tidy up and sweep out has also been done to the interior so it holds as little damp/mess as possible whilst it awaits restoration. The remaining items which will be used in its restoration have been audited and stacked neatly along with further seating so we have a nice kit of parts when the time comes. This is in contract to many vehicles on the NNR which have been stored in the past, where they have accumulated a huge amount of spare parts not intended for themselves, which have later presented a storage problem when the carriage is extracted to be restored! All being well 13251 will not present this issue!

The coach will now be tripped to Bridge Road Carriage Sheds at the earliest opportunity for storage.

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

All focus has been on the underframe and mechanical systems underneath, with the coach body remaining up on jacks lifted well off the bogies, and great progress has been made. The Sheringham end of the chassis has been needle gunned back to bare metal and painted back up to fresh black gloss. It is clean and shiny under there for the first time in many decades! The next task will be to complete similar works to the Holt end.

The braking system at the Sheringham end has been removed from the coach, freed off, checked for wear, repainted and in many cases refitted back onto the vehicle with silky smooth operation. The handbrake mechanism is now completed, and an additional safety valve added which prevents a vacuum brake being created until the handbrake is released. This has been Tee'd into the vacuum pipe and mechanically linked to the handbrake pull rod, all tucked away out of sight in the middle of the coach underneath.

Both vacuum brake cross-shafts and cylinders have been off, overhauled and refitted. Everything has received the standard clean and paint revival as we have gone. Being a Gold overhaul, the works are comprehensive and there is satisfaction in leaving no stone unturned.

A major step forward has been the installation of a brand new steam pipe system. This consists of a main end-to-end pipe and a subsidiary pipe that feeds all of the individual heaters. Whilst we still need to fit the heaters themselves and connect them up individually, the presence of the main pipework underneath takes us much closer to forming the steam system.

Finally, 24 volt conduits that suited the coach when it had a side compartment have been stripped off and the wiring removed from the main fuse box. This same wiring had been sawn off at floor level in any case during asbestos removal, so will need replacing as part of modifying the electrical system to suit an open saloon vehicle rather than a side compartment.

Over in upholstery, reupholstering of the twin seats continues. A missing folding arm rest has been replaced on a seat where it was found to be missing, which became a surprisingly complex operation!

British Railways 1953 Tourist Second Open E3868 (BRONZE)

Another coach which has progressed well, both inside and out. Internally the steam heat installation is now complete at the Holt end which brings a close to this aspect of the project. This has allowed the Holt end seating to be mainly refitted, with tables etc. to follow. This is still in progress but does not have long left to complete.

Externally, the coach's previous anniversary brown livery has been replaced with Crimson & Cream. All painting has been finished (an undercoat followed by two gloss coats) and lining applied to the top of the cream. The next task is lining the bottom and lettering.

The removed carriage roof board brackets are also complete having been rubbed down and repainted crimson. 

Maintenance

We are braving our way through the holiday season, where the number of cases of damage to the coaching stock rises dramatically. Thankfully there has been nothing too serious, but there has certainly been a steady stream of repairs and faults for us to work through! Mid season "A" examinations have also been undertaken as and when required.

June News

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (BRONZE)

The exterior of the vehicle has now been completed with final lettering and varnish applied. We are now on the home straight with polishing of the brass work and interior deep cleaning now the focus with the aim of finishing the coach and releasing it into traffic next month.

Great Eastern Railway 1897 6 Wheel Saloon Third 37 (BRONZE)

An improved passenger communication valve has been fitted to the centre vestibule, salvaged from a BR-era railcar, as that provided the right type of valve for the desired effect. This was duly piped into the vacuum system, painted red and tested successfully.

On the topic of testing, the entire carriage underwent a thorough C examination to check everything and start the coach on the railways maintenance system. After a few tweaks all was well and 37 was passed fit for traffic. It made its debut at the late May Bank Holiday and also starred at the Mixed Traction Gala a few weeks later. It has proved a popular addition to the vintage set already.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

The roof has continued to move forward with several coats of grey roof paint applied to the canvas and various items of roof furniture. Once the scaffolding has been reset the boards which cap the canvas around the edges will be fully fitted which will complete the roof.

The interior has been cleared out in the passenger saloon of much materials and tooling and the protective plastic layer over the ceiling and wall panels has been removed, giving a pretty good impression of how it will look once completed.

On the exterior of the vehicle, fabrication of modified steel door skins has resumed having been paused last Autumn.

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

No progress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1945 Gangwayed Brake E70621E (SILVER)

Interior restoration has done well with the Holt end half of the carriage now completed. This involved finishing the prep and painting the side walls in cream, along with more picking out of the wooden side window surrounds in brown gloss. The result is very nice indeed and will be finished off in the future after the insides of the doors are treated (held back until door repairs are resumed) and the floor. The latter has been left until last as there is little point having a shiny floor with so much work still remaining in and around the coach.

The small but impressive volunteer team undertaking these works have now diligently moved on to repeat the process in the Sheringham end of the vehicle, which is an even larger saloon given the "centre" guards compartment is actually offset.

London North Eastern Railway 1936 Tourist Third Open 13251

The railway has taken delivery of the final member of the fleet for the proposed LNER design train, third open 13251. The coach was originally withdrawn as long ago as 1961 but owing to its good condition was retained as a seating car for the Scottish Region's Cold War "Control Train". One of many vehicles used for this project, it allowed the vehicle to survive longer than most other Gresley designed coaches and was not put up for disposal until 1980. As it has not be substantially converted as part of its role as a plain seating car, it had retained a remarkable number of original features, sufficiently so for the National Railway Museum to recognise its originality and claim it for their collection. However the NRM did not utilise the vehicle fully and had arguably claimed too many Gresley coaches, so deaccessioned it from their collection to the East Anglian Railway Museum in 1995. There it was stripped out internally and used as an exhibition carriage for a time until declining condition led to it being offered to us last year. It has been transferred into the M&GN Society's fleet and museum collection.

Arriving in early June, the vehicle has been tripped to Weybourne and any alien items have been removed to prepare it for storage until its time for restoration comes. Moving the seating around allowed for a view of the stripped out saloons to be made, which looks fairly sobering sue to water ingress, however the coach's structure and framework appear to be in very good condition, so we believe this will make a fine prospect for restoration and is in better order than several other members of the Gresley train.

When eventually complete, 13251 will provide a much desired high capacity (64 seat) addition to the set, and will also bring the total number of passenger vehicles for the set up to six, which will be useful if a five coach set is required at all times as it will allow a spare to always be out of traffic for repairs, refreshing etc.

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

The final major component on the exterior body has now been put to bed, in the form of the two gangway connections. These have had probably the most comprehensive overhaul any gangway has had in the NNR's history, with full extraction, cleaning up and repainting supported by mechanical overhaul and often replacement of the bolt, bushes and rubbers associated with the "buffing" mechanism. The end result is superb with full assembly taking place over a few weeks. As part of the overhaul brand new hardwood mounts have been painted and fitted to the end of the coach body to provide a good fixing for all of the hoops and bellows. Other than final painting, this brings to a close the work to the bodysides of the vehicle, a major milestone.

With "bodywork" phase completed, we can direct resources toward the next major area: the underframe and running gear. Other than needle gunning and priming the accessible outer edges and bufferbeams, along with repairs to the battery boxes, there has been no work at all on the underside, so there will be plenty to undertake here.

The coach has been moved from the staging area to the front part of the shed where lifting could occur. This done, the Sheringham end half of the underframe has been accessed and all surplus items not desired for the kitchen car conversion works removed. This has included the 24V system dynamo and several brackets and slings for items which were added in the days that the vehicle performed on the mainline as a support coach. This half is now ready for needle gunning and painting of all chassis members to protect them for the future.

Internally the work on fitting a replica FO style vestibule continues.

The upholstery department have also continued to progress with the seating, the most recent focus being batch producing some of the individual bottom cushions.

British Railways 1953 Tourist Second Open NN3868 (BRONZE)

3868 has moved forward markedly since the last update, with the Sheringham end saloon now completed internally! This has involved a huge amount of work, including fitting of the repaired and revarnished window surround woodwork, revarnishing of the remainder of the saloon wall panels and bulkheads and repainting of the ceilings to create a refreshed "shell" to then repopulate.

The next task has been transplanting a superior and improved steam heating system salvaged from TSO 4651 and fixing the pipework and additional under seat heaters in. All equipment has been tested internally, cleaned and repainted in heat proof silver as it has been installed.

With the steam heating connected, reinstallation of the restored varnished seat ends and seat framework was completed quickly. The seat ends have been steadily restored over the past few months and are so much better now in their original and lighter colour compared to the dark brown stained finish that went before!

Following the seat ends were the upholstered seat backs and varnish seat toppers along with repainting of the floor. Only seat bases and tables now remain to be fitted for this half of the coach to be finished.

The installation of the steam system to the (already restored 12 months ago) Holt end saloon is currently in progress, with the landward side now completed and the seaward side to follow.

The outside of the vehicle, which till now has not seen any attention during this works visit, has been rubbed down ready for repainting.

Maintenance

The normal diet of examinations have been progressing well with both the Suburban and Quad sets currently receiving C exams, many doors indeed!

April News

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (BRONZE)

Painting of the lettering of this vehicle is progressing steadily, with completion of the vehicle and a return to traffic expected in June.

Great Eastern Railway 1897 6 Wheel Saloon Third 37 (BRONZE)

Our latest addition to the Vintage Set has now arrived, on a five year loan from Stately Trains (based at the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Railway). The vehicle is a 6 wheeled third class saloon (although its livery suggests first class) and will add 38 seats to the train which can often be a victim of its own popularity when running. Of Great Eastern pedigree and now back in East Anglia, it is a great fit for the set.

Following arrival, the vehicle has been in the shed at Weybourne for remedial works, commissioning into NNR service and a major exam so it can join the fleet properly. After an extended period of running and a brief spell in storage, we had a list of items to get through. The four doors have all seen the handles and locks reinforced and repaired where they were loose, and door edges eased where they had swollen with edges repainted where required.

On the underframe, some buffer packing has been added to firm up the buffers and eliminate play, a spring has been adjusted and a loose bolt on the headstock replaced.

Internally, a lot of loose and/or damaged trim and paneling has been repaired and refixed into position, which is worth it so they don't become problematic in the near future when running the vehicle. A set of blinds used at the E&BAR but not favoured on the NNR have been removed and will be moving to another ex Stately Trains vehicle recently relocated to the Mid Suffolk Light Railway. Any other loose items have been tightened up so the interior is now ready for use.

The vehicle is now almost completed, the only outstanding task being the fitting of a replacement passenger communication valve, after which the coach will be examined and passed to the Operating Department. 

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

Having cured onto the vehicle, the replacement roof canvas has seen a further coat of bedding compound applied onto the outer surface this time, turning it a fetching shade of yellow! Missing roof furniture such as vents and rain strips have also been added.

The next task will be the application of grey roof paint, after which the scaffolding surrounding the vehicle can be lowered slightly to allow all of the capping strips to be fitted around the edges of the canvas.

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

Much like 1866, roof canvassing is the order of the day over in Derbyshire. Around half of the vehicle has been bedded down so far.

London North Eastern Railway 1945 Gangwayed Brake E70621E (SILVER)

The brakes have now been reconnected, joining the overhauled vacuum cylinders to the swapped bogies. As part of this, the brake rods were shortened to allow for the fact that the new bogies are 6 inches longer than the old ones. The brakes have now been adjusted up and tested successfully.

Inside the coach, good work has continued in the Holt end saloon. The walls have received further sanding and filling followed by a coat of white undercoat to highlight any final areas to attend to.

Meanwhile the ceiling at this end has seen the steel supporting ribs picked out in brown, these really set off the ceiling nicely and completes the work required in that area.

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

With the doors of the coach now fitted, pink primer has been able to be applied around the entirety of the vehicle, making it all one colour for the first time in many years. The next major task has been gangway end overhauls. The gangways were removed from the coach which has allowed the clean ends to be painted up to black gloss ready for the replacement woodwork and final end furniture to be prepared and fitted.

Meanwhile, the two gangways themselves have been off the vehicle being cleaned up and re-bushed where required. The front faces of these were in a bad way and have required some work to turnaround, which is currently still in progress.

British Railways 1953 Tourist Second Open NN3868 (BRONZE)

The interior overhaul is progressing nicely. The involved window woodwork for the Sheringham end has now been fully repaired, bleached and varnished up. This allowed all of the window glass to then be refitted with its wooden bars, leaving just the main window surrounds left to fit.

Other work on the interior has included ceiling paint, of which around half has been done. All of the table brackets have been reinforced by attaching them to the steel under the window rather than the wood, a modification we have very slowly been rolling out across the fleet where we can. The tables themselves have been repaired where required, the edges repainted brown and they are now stored ready to refit after the seats have gone back in.

The seat ends themselves have now been bleached and are awaiting varnishing. Replacement seat ends for the Holt end saloon, which are damaged, have been extracted from storage and are in the process themselves of steadily being sanded down. The Holt end is unlikely to be disturbed or progressed until the main repairs to the Sheringham end are completed.

Maintenance

The first A exams of the season are now starting to come around, which are being slotted in between the staggered annual C exams still being completed on individual vehicles.

Workshop

The workshop has benefitted from a big Spring clean to clear the decks and put us in a good position for the main season's activities ahead. We are also looking at ways to continue and step up the yard tidy project which commenced last year.

March News

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (BRONZE)

Painting and lining continues when weather conditions allow.

Great Eastern Railway 1907 Brake Third 295 (ASSESSMENT)

Not a coach that appears in these (virtual) pages very often, if at all, is the hidden and secretive Great Eastern bogie brake number 295. This coach arrived in the railway's very first consignment of rolling stock back in 1967 during the embryonic days along with the Quad-Art set, being a remarkable survivor from the 1907 dedicated "Norfolk Coast Express" rake, running to Sheringham itself from London Liverpool Street. Much like the Quads, in 1967 295 was too elderly and required too much work for the pioneers to be able to afford to restore, and was used instead as the railway's very first volunteer accommodation, its only appearance in the public eye being a filming job in the 1970's, this brief role in Dad's Army being followed by decades of storage, initially under a tarpaulin and latterly inside the carriage sheds at Bridge Road (Holt). For much of its 60 years in preservation, it has looked as it does now:

295 holds the record as the single item that has been located on the preserved NNR for the longest period of time (other items in the 1967 consignment such as the B12 loco and Quads all having spent periods away from the railway under overhaul or on holiday). It is also however the only item from those days that has not yet run on public trains! With a view to looking to change this fact, the vehicle was temporarily taken outside of the sheds, blinking in the light, for a photographic survey which will help funding applications to be made over the coming years. It is accepted that the railway does not have the resources (financial or physical) to restore this coach in-house for the duration of the Gresley train project as an absolute minimum, however conversely we are also committed to not disposing of this unique and cherished piece of "family silver". For these reasons, seeking help is the only option for the foreseeable future.

Observers should not get too excited, this process being merely an assessment at present, with no assurance of success or guarantee that anything will progress quickly. However, there is always hope that a route "may" progress, so fingers crossed and watch this space.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

The new roof canvas has finally arrived after a long lead time after ordering, at least after the wait it is now warmer than it has been which should make fitting more comfortable! There is also the added bonus that the local caravan parks are now open again for the season, which means the team working on this vehicle has near enough doubled in size compared to the winter crew! The new canvas, which smells delightfully fishy compared to the last one we ordered some years ago(!), has been opened out and spread over the length of the vehicle. After a week weighted down with paint tins on ropes to stretch it and acclimatise the canvas, it was bedded down underneath. The roof is now green in colour, for a limited time only.

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

No progress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1945 Gangwayed Brake E70621E (SILVER)

Restoration has recommenced following its winter break. The mains wiring has now been completed, with sockets fitted all around the vehicle's interior and a central lighting strip running down the ceiling of the two main spaces. All have been wired up to a shore-line connector on the outside of the vehicle, with cabling fitted as sympathetically and discreetly as possible in case the vehicle is ever restored to original condition in the future. One advantage of completing this work now is that further overhaul works to the interior can now be done in very well lit conditions. Given the vehicle has virtually no windows, lots of work lights have been required before now to see what we are doing!

The second area of progress has been the conversion of the vacuum brake cylinders from LNER pattern to BR. This offers standardisation across the running fleet at the NNR and will make maintenance easier in the future. The conversion involved sourcing a pair of overhauled cylinders from stock and slightly modifying the mounting brackets, a bush being fitted as the LNER cylinders have larger pivots than their BR counterparts.

Finally, the vehicle has been lifted and its bogies swapped. The original bogies have been exchanged for a pair formerly under (donor) Gresley Buffet car number 9118 which continues to provide spares for the LNER train project. These bogies are actually spares for our own buffet car (9128) but experience tells us that bogies store much better under vehicles than they do outside on their own directly in the elements. Therefore 70621, which will not be used intensively at all in the future, will provide a good home for these bogies.

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

Door fitting has continued with the final two exterior doors on the vehicle, those at the Holt end, now permanently fitted, complete with wooden jambs and weather strips. This brings to a close a huge effort to get the eight doors to this point, slam doors always being a large part of the exterior of the vehicle to get right.

Work on the Holt end vestibule also continues internally, with the metalwork under and around the floor all now cleaned up and protected ready for the floor to be refitted. Now that the doors are complete, work is focusing on preparing the ring of supporting timber that bears the floor for fitting, using repaired original sections supplemented by replacements made from reclaimed hardwood from the luggage area of the coach.

The upholstery team have now also turned their attention fully to the seating so that they are ready in time to meet the rest of the coach. The first "production" twin seater has now been upholstered (except its box cushions) and looks very nice indeed.

British Railways 1953 Tourist Second Open NN3868 (BRONZE)

Window woodwork for the Sheringham end saloon has continued but has not progressed meaningfully owing to having to progress other tasks. However it is hoped to realise a set of window retaining bars soon so that glass can be refitted to the vehicle. The restoration of seat ends has progressed better, with a full set for the Sheringham end (50%) now stripped back to bare wood ready for bleaching.