February News Part 4

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Work on the doors has continued. Four more Great Eastern Railway luggage doors have been picked up from a similar grounded body located in Walcott (on the coat about half way between Cromer and Great Yarmouth) and will provide parts for the same doors intended for 853 and currently undergoing rebuild.

Some reclaimed brake gear has also been brought inside ready to refurbish for the guards compartment in 853. It isn't strictly of GER ancestry but it will provide an authentic "feel" and of course replace the required equipment that was lost when the brake became a grounded body back in the 1920's. Buffers are also being gathered for the project. One of these was attached to the grounded body in the yard that the Pway department use as their HQ, and was removed (by force!) this week.

Lastly, 16 passenger communication cord ends (shaped like cute little trumpets!) have been painted white ready for eventual fitting.

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

No progress, however it did have a wobble up and down the yard on Wednesday as part of the shunting required to swap vehicles around inside our shed.

British Railways 1960 Restaurant Buffet (Refurbished) E1969

An uninspiring update this week for E1969, however it has seen the most work out of any of the current projects. Every day has been spent with several people progressing the bodywork preparation, so the smell of body filler and the hum of sanders remain a constant!

A slightly different task has been the roof, which has had all its loose paint chipped off and these areas patch painted in roof paint to bring the layer level with the sections which are still in place. Once the filler dust has gone, the whole roof will receive a "top up" coat to freshen its appearance. The roof does not need a full strip down, as this has been done already on this carriage when it was fully rebuilt in the 2000's.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041

A landmark moment this week. Early in the week the final seats were completed and brought up from the upholstery department. The sheer size of these seats, and the complexity of the First Class examples, is a real credit to our volunteer upholsterers Keith and Martin who have done a fantastic job these past months on E43041. They have recently been putting in extra work days as well to get the carriage finished, a fact which has not gone unnoticed by paid C&W staff. The outstanding four compartments (three Third Class and one First Class) were rapidly fitted out with the seating which concluded the final main restoration task on the vehicle. E43041 is now awaiting a final internal clean before being released into service.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

The repainting continues. The task of lining out the vehicle, introduced last week, has progressed steadily. The upper (of two) lines has now been completed, which was the final task that required the vehicle to be in the staged area. M56352 has now been shunted out of there and its place taken by E1969. Once out of the staging, M56352,s lower line was started. So far, the black edging has been completed and the first (of two) cream sections of the line applied to the front end and the landward side. This job will continue next week. The lettering has also been started, with the vehicle's numbers and cab door "Private" signs applied in black only (cream to follow).

A start has been made on the half yellow warning panel on the cab front, which has been marked out and has reached the undercoat stage.

Attention has now turned to the chassis area, which is accessible now that the vehicle has left the staging. This will not be getting much attention but a quick spruce up to improve its appearance. Alan Cripps has cleaned down the front bufferbeam and coated it in red, whilst Dave Palmer has undertaken similar treatment to the solebars and rear bufferbeam, but had black as his colour of attack. It is amazing how much of a difference simply repainting the solebars and bufferbeams makes.

The loco department have been back in and have replaced the multiple working control air pipe on the front bufferbeam, this had been missing for a while as it sprung a leak some time ago and had been blanked off as an interim measure. It is now back in position as nature intended.

British Railways 1959 Class 03 Diesel Shunter D2063

The windows have now all been successfully fitted to the Carriage & Wagon shunter, so Monkey won't be getting wet when he has his cab rides during the showery months!

Workshop

No pictures of the Axeman this week as I forgot my camera the day he was in, some would argue that describing him in text only might be for the best? Nevertheless he was busy as ever, assisted by those who are easily led astray,.. The hoist arm for the mezzanine floor has been fitted into position and the hoist itself installed, wired up and tested successfully. This feature will be a great help when we start loading up the mezzanine later this year. He has now turned his attention to a carrier basket to easily hold the items which will be going up and down.