It has been a hugely active month and an extremely busy one for the department with many more vehicles than usual being involved, this being a correspondingly large update as a result. No doubt things will settle down as we pass through Autumn and hide in the shed as we head for winter!
London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)
Externally work has been solely focused on the production of door skins. These have proved very problematic with neither the doors nor the doorways being particularly straight or square, which is causing problems with the new door skins which are square (or at least starting out so). The clearance gaps are all over the place so much readjustment and remaking has been the order of the day to slowly get each example something like suitable. The skins are being produced in two halves, so when "finished" the final act will be welding them together, which will be a careful task so as not to distort them. A tricky job all round...
Inside the vehicle, it has been decided that the end wall where the large wooden sliding doorway dividing the passenger and guards areas will not look correct in a cream laminate finish, so a varnished wooden wall, to mirror the aesthetics of the original surviving vestibule at the opposite end of the vehicle, will look more appropriate. This has been cut, stained and is now receiving layers of varnish.
London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)
The vehicle's future bogies have been extracted from E12493E ready for work to commence on them at some point (more of which later).
London North Eastern Railway 1945 Gangwayed Brake E70621E (SILVER)
A huge amount of progress has been made on this vehicle, with a big push to get it completed in time for receiving Christmas presents in November, which is its first booked use as a revived vehicle in traffic. Starting with the exterior, the undercoated finish on the bodyside panels was brought up through two coats of BR Crimson gloss, followed by sign-written numbering and lettering, before a varnish coat to seal things in.
With the bare exterior now completed, the finishing touches and furnishings were ploughed through, and there were many! Imitation top light windows have been painted in the relevant places, followed by cosmetic lines, mainly horizontal to replicate the original planking that lies beneath the latest protective sheets, with a view to finally returning the general "look" of the vehicle back to how it should be, from a reasonable distance at least! These lines were done in black for the crimson sections and dark grey for the black ends.
With the flat elements of the body complete, all the fixings which sit proud were prepared and fitted. These included painting the door handles, fitting bump stops, two parcel clips and mounting boards on the corners of the vehicle and cosmetic lighting jumper cables and retaining sockets. These features certainly go some way in making the vehicle look less like a bare box!
Mechanically, the two fairly poor attempts at Gresley style gangway connections (themselves ex-1866) were removed and scrapped, being replaced instead by our own two spare genuine Gresley gangways, which can sit on this vehicle safely and be pinched/swapped if we ever have need for them on one of the fully restored passenger LNER coaches in future. The buckeye couplings were then refitted (the originals were removed during the period we envisaged the coach to be leaving the NNR) and the steam heat pipe ends capped to make them look a little smarter.
Also on the underframe, black painted areas which had been spoiled by other works were freshened up with a further coat of gloss and all the remaining footboards were fitted, painted or both.
On the interior, the repainting of the luggage doors and guards compartment interior has been completed, which allowed the floor to be painted as the last job. It looks extremely smart inside and a credit to those involved. All of the doors have had their new bolt locks fitted and tested so that the doors stop coming open at random times, which has been somewhat of a hazard during the time the restoration has been ongoing!
The guards area has seen the most work in the last month, with the remade emergency equipment cupboard door having its mesh, hinges and bolts fitted and the contents populated. A better handbrake wheel, ex Mark 1, has been fitted and the threadbare guards seat remade and reupholstered in a suitably heritage moquette, left over from the Quad-Art set.
The compartment was then finished off with a full set of guards equipment such as fire beaters, fire extinguishers, spare vacuum pipes etc. to allow the vehicle to traverse the line in a train proper. Some snagging was then completed to tidy up odds and sorts that weren't quite working correctly.
Following an exam, the vehicle was then officially returned to the operating fleet after many decades. It will be a relief for carriage enthusiasts that the threat of scrap has now finally been lifted from E70621E and it will have a good use again going forward. Being the last surviving "Austerity" Thompson brake coach, it is also the oldest surviving Thompson carriage, so a worthy item to keep. Look out for the vehicle being used for special events and exhibitions in the years ahead!
London North Eastern Railway 1931 Corridor Third E12493E (REPAIR)
As part of our wider scheme to tidy up our static coaches and future restorations, it became the turn of ex-Childrens coach E12493E which had spent many years at Sheringham in platform 3. The coach spent a few weeks at Weybourne to be prepared for storage at Holt as it will be the final vehicle in the future LNER set and so has a long wait ahead of it. It was first lifted (for the first time in preservation) to inspect the centre castings and pins following a minor collision and pleasingly there was zero damage.
We also swapped the bogies for a temporary set of accommodation bogies that are dregs in the collection formerly under E70621E. This allows E12493E's own bogies to be worked on at leisure and away from the coach ready to be installed under Brake Third Open E16631E when it returns from the contractors.
The gangway connection was removed and straightened before refitting for safekeeping (no other restoration being done at this point).
The final task was to clear the interior of a large amount of surplus storage items from Sheringham, creating a large space to become our seating store for the next few years, as the vehicle previously used for this purpose will be leaving the railway next year to create some space. With all this done, E12493E was transferred to Bridge Road, Holt, for storage as part of the big pre-Steam Gala shuntathon.
British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)
The two bogies have remained a major focus with both being fully needle gunned and repainted in black gloss. That one sentence covers many weeks of solid work and has been a major step forward! Remaining work includes the refitting and lubrication of the brake gear and the extraction of the wheelsets for horn-guide gauging/cleaning and repainting of the axles whilst there is better access.
Inside the vehicle, a great start has been made on fitting flooring, with the kitchen area being the first to be treated. This area is having a triple-thickness floor so that the heavy kitchen equipment will not flex the floor in any direction. Various sheets of plywood have been measured, cut, painted underneath for protection and then layered on each other as required.
Fixtures and fittings are also coming together nicely, with all of the steam heating radiator elements now overhauled and painted up silver ready for fitting in due course.
The lighting boxes above the windows/tables have also been completed, with each component now painted up to gloss and all of the electrical light fittings, dismantled, cleaned, repaired and refitted setting them up for the next 50 years.
British Railways 1953 Tourist Third Open E3868 (BRONZE)
As suggested last month, the vehicle was returned to traffic in October, returning to the staging for a coat of varnish, cleaning of windows and refitting of handles etc. The roof was also given a fresh coat of paint. This finished off the exterior nicely.
The final job was to lift the vehicle and replace the two axles with wheelflats with some spares that were removed from BG M81114. This entails lots of swapping of jacks so that the bogie can be dismantled after being removed from the coach.
The coach was suitably examined and given a steam heat test, which revealed several leaks in one pipe and half a dozen drains and joints. These are now being worked through at Sheringham in between days in traffic as the nature of fixing steam leaks requires regular tests to see if things have settled down or not. What has become evident is that the upgraded heating system transferred into the coach during the overhaul (donated from TSO E4651) has worked a treat and E3868 is now one of the warmer coaches.
The coach performed at the Steam Gala where a few more teething issues were highlighted which are also being fixed. However the coach is now back in the operating pool.
British Railways 1957 Mark 1 Tourist Second Open E4641 (BRONZE)
The replacement for E3868 in the workshop is our other Crimson & Cream TSO, E4641. This had been suffering badly from paint degradation on the landward side so has been brought in for a quick-turnaround Bronze overhaul. Extremely seasoned readers may remember (or probably won't!) that E4641 was a major feature in this blog when it was first launched over a decade ago, as we undertook a comprehensive Gold overhaul on the vehicle. This work has clearly paid off, as the coach is simply in excellent order other than the paintwork, with no metalwork corrosion or major interior works to even consider looking at. Given how long-winded E3868's overhaul turned out to be, it is refreshing that E4641 appears to be the opposite!
The failed paint on the landward side has been very quickly removed, over about a week, with most of it being returned to bare metal.
The rest of this side is currently being sanded and prepped with filler ready for its repainting later in the year. The window frames are taking as long as the rest of the coach put together, mainly owing to how good the rest of the coach is in condition.
Given that E3868 has been changed to Crimson & Cream, in order to balance the fleet, the plan is for E4641 to revert from Crimson & Cream to Maroon. This will give us four maroon TSO vehicles (the others being E4236, M4843 & M4958) to form the high-capacity backbone of our main service Mark 1 set in 2027.
British Railways 1961 Restaurant Kitchen Buffet M1569 (BRONZE)
The vehicle has now been cleared out of any Carriage & Wagon themed spares that were located inside it, which gives a clean sweep for other departments (such as Catering and Buildings) to take on the vehicle in the effort to ready it for static buffet operations up at Holt. The vehicle has been located in platform 3 at Sheringham to make this work easier. From a C&W standpoint however, our works have been completed.
British Railways 1957 Corridor Second W25189 (REPAIR)
At Sheringham, the emergency paint repair to the cream section of the landward side has now been completed, which has smartened it up temporarily ready for the festive trains next month.
British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033 (REPAIR)
The quick-n-dirty repaint/refresh to the ailing kitchen car has now also been completed. A few weeks of good weather allowed for excellent progress on completing the prep, patch undercoating and even glossing of most of the vehicle, with the rains coming in abundance just before the final day of the project could happen, the cream gloss on the seaward side. This had to wait two weeks but was eventually done and the vehicle looks much better for it, just don't look too closely at it or prod it aggressively!
British Railways 1958 Gangwayed Brake M81114
M81114 saw a very quick turnaround at Sheringham, being lifted and its wheelsets exchanged for slightly more worn examples from our spares pool. It was so quick I don't think anyone even got any photographs of the actual process! We also undertook all the other preparations to ready the vehicle for sale and transportation away from the NNR, which will happen next year. We cleared out the interior as good housekeeping prior to presenting it to the new owners (the coach has already been sold) as there was much detritus following its use as a support vehicle for the Sheringham resignalling project. The coach is now empty, returned to Sheringham and ready for departure.
Southern Railway 1951 Parcels & Miscellaneous Van 1476 (REPAIR)
Part of the team usually engaged in E1866E's restoration have recently been upgrading the interior of the model railway van in the bay at Weybourne. This has involved stripping out the careworn previous interior, fitting a replacement floor and adding insulation for the first time as the van had been suffering from condensation etc. given it is not really used for the purposes that it was originally built for.
British Railways (SR Design) 1948 25 Ton Brakevan 55167 (BRONZE)
After less than three months, the repairs and repainting of the SR brake have been completed, with the vehicle back in service in time to star in the demonstration freight set at the Steam Gala. The bulk of the work was a full repaint, the interesting vehicle retaining its SR livery.
