February News Part 2

It has been a relatively quiet week this week, however progress never sleeps...

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Work on the tasks described in previous weeks rolls on. There was much activity this week on the door reconstruction, and getting most of the assorted brake gear into black gloss. A lot of these bits have now been boxed up and placed out of the way until they are needed. The team has been slightly depleted due to illness, so we wish the Axeman and Bernard a speedy return to all four cylinders.

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

No progress to report.

British Railways 1960 Restaurant Buffet (Refurbished) E1969

As eluded to last week, window fitting continued this week and all of the windows have now been refitted to the coach. The aluminium door edging strips have also been refitted and the remaining doors re-hung. The coach is now substantially "complete" once again.

The two ongoing tasks are now the paint preparation (sanding) work, which has been merrily progressing along the bottom 50% of the landward side, and also filling over the new rivets in the windows and sanding them smooth. The seaward side has been completed in this regard, with the landward side still to tackle.

After all of the windows and doors were returned to the exterior, we were able to put back all of the trim and woodwork which we had to remove from the interior to get the windows out. This has now been done and the interior is back as it was before we started the work. A lot of the fittings had gotten rather dirty, as expected, so a day's cleaning was required to return the tables, chairs etc back to their usual glory.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

Reupholstery of the final three (third class) compartments has progressed.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

This vehicle is now fully in the hands of the painters. The undercoat was finished early on in the week, which was followed by several days of gloss painting. The whole vehicle has now been covered in a (first) coat of BR green gloss. The 2-character route indicator box was then fitted and the roof got a second coat of grey paint. The second coat of green on the bodysides and doors is now progressing and is about half way to completion.

The alloy window frames were sadly found to be in much poorer condition than the powercar we completed in August. Therefore instead of polishing them up we have had to resort to painting them silver, however they do look fresher than they were. The landward side windows have been painted with the seaward side to follow.

British Railways 1959 Class 03 Diesel Shunter D2063

The running plate has been painted gloss black and the windows are being prepared for refitting so that the loco is watertight again. Only the engine room doors now left to refit.

Where's Nico?

In Monkey's temporary absence, Nico, sporting his woolly hat, has appeared subtly in one of the pictures above (Where's Wally style). Can you see him?!? The first person to answer correctly in the comments section receives a free pass to come and volunteer in Carriage & Wagon whenever they like!!