April News Part 1

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Work has been progressing steadily on all fronts. More door rebuilding, further repairs to the side beading on the carriage body, and more dismantling of the rotten parts of steel from the chassis have all been undertaken this week.

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

This chassis has been returned inside the shed as a small window of space has emerged until the WD locomotive is finished. The carriage jacks have immediately been positioned around the underframe ready for lifting next week. This will allow the refurbished leaf springs, which have returned from the "highly sprung contractor", to be fitted to the underframe/wheelsets.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The corrosion continues to be revealed at an alarming rate, but we are taking it in our stride. More of the brake van area has been dismantled to allow full repairs to be undertaken to any of the framework and outer panels that require it. The welder has started cutting sections out, and repairing framework and re-skinning where necessary. He has started at the Sheringham end and will be working along the seaward side first.

To allow this to happen the paint strippers have been very busy and have now completed the seaward side, with the exception of a small area around the toilet windows which are currently out of bounds until some asbestos has been removed professionally. The same team are progressing well on the same sections on the landward side.

Rebuilding of the doors has continued this week and the first skin has been stripped down and primed ready for building back up again. Some aluminium components (window runners etc) are now in the process of being cleaned as they are all rather grotty!

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

No progress to report.

Royal Navy 4 Wheel Flat 269

It has been decided to do a little more work to this "accommodation chassis" than originally planned. Last week it was mentioned how a through vacuum pipe had been made to fit to 269 and the works have now been extended to a good clean up of the whole underframe running gear (visible sections) to improve its appearance. All of these areas have now been primed in "rust killer" and it now awaits proper paint. The axleboxes have been exposed, inspected and cleaned up. Although yet to be confirmed this vehicle may make an earlier addition to the demonstration freight train than previously planned, once its duty of carrying the underframe for 853 has been completed of course! So far, there doesn't appear to be anything substantial requiring work on this wagon.

War Department 1943 Austerity 90775

This interloper has followed the recently repainted Class 03 as the next locomotive to come in for repainting, as part of its major overhaul.

It has made history by becoming the first NNR steam locomotive to be housed in our staging area.

As most of the preparation work had already been completed whilst it was still in the Loco Shed, the engine and tender only required finishing off before it was being washed down and the black gloss started to be applied. The first coat is currently in progress.

Workshop

Work has started in earnest on loading up the department;'s new mezzanine floor. This week, some donated racking has been cut down to size and is now being installed so that it can house lots of our treasures in the near future!