October News Part 4

As Halloween approaches we have been scaring ourselves with the ongoing tasks of restoration. I give you...the horror in carriage form...

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

A modest amount of progress on our oldest project, with the end handrails now in undercoat and the new vacuum pipes painted up to gloss.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

No progress other then continued varnish preparation on the five sliding compartment doors, and more coats of varnish added to the mixed stack of interior trim and paneling.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The Sheringham end metalwork, which featured heavily last week, has progressed well, although there has been some of the horror as mentioned above! With the corridor removed, further stripping of corroded outer panels revealed the rotten framework below... This cancer had sadly spread over the top of the adjacent doorway and also into the lower sections of the roof.

Much of this was chopped away this week and new framework has now been fitted above the doorway, down the side of the doorway and around the corner. The area is still looking very "skeletal" but hopefully the tricks will soon be looking like treats!

The bodysides have generally  fared better this week. The last sheets of glass have been fitted to the seaward side, which now has all eight of its main panes in place.

Attention has now turned to the landward side. The four windows which were removed have now had the apertures cleaned up and protected in rust-kill primer. The area around them, which is bare steel as that was the section which we recently replaced, is also having filler applied so it can join the other 3/4 of the coach in being  ready for painting when the time comes.

Interior reassembly has now started as well. With the whole Holt end passenger saloon now fully glazed, one (of the two) areas which was disassembled for repair access has been put back together.

We are aiming to have this half completed soon so that it can be "sealed off" and a top up coat of varnish applied to the wall panels to seal them back in and give the coach a slight freshen up inside.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

Several more seat backs have been reupholstered and now await fitting.

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464

The Holt end wooden goods doors, which have been in component form for several weeks now, are finally all finished and are currently in the process of being reassembled following their repairs. The first (of the four) was successfully fitted just at the end of the week, and looks so much better than the old ones!

Prior to the doors starting to be refitted, the rotten floor that was below them was permanently fitted in place, after replacements were made (pictured last week).

A start has been made on cleaning up the outside (visible) edges of the underframe of all the years of brake dust, old paint and grease so that we can give it a repaint to boost its appearance. The Sheringham end buffer beam has been stripped, primed and is currently in undercoat.

The seaward side has also been partially cleaned, work on this will continue next week all being well.

The two wheelsets which have been removed are now all cleaned up of old paint and the usual detritus. The first one has been sent next door for tyre turning as these ones were out of profile and had recently failed a routine gauging exam. Sadly the results were not great: the tyres are so badly out of shape that they have had to be turned down to just above scrap size to get the profile back to the correct form. What these means is that it will allow them to be used in service again, but just one case of wheel flats or further wear will render these wheels scrap. Let us hope that will not happen!

British Railways 1958 GWR Designed "Fruit D" W92097

This van was last in the workshops for restoration work two years ago, when were were preparing it for operating in the main service sets as a bicycle and buggy carrier. We out-shopped it in June 2015 which was featured in this Blog. Sadly it has not fared too well and earlier this year it was decided to retire it from the main trains (which was always a temporary measure) and return it to the occasionally used demonstration freight train. CCT E94464 is being prepared to replace W92097 for the 2018 season onwards.

W92097 was brought inside so that the storage contents inside E94464 could be moved into W92097, freeing up E94464 for bike and buggy carrying. This was completed quickly with a nice open area appearing inside the latter.

Whilst in for a week or two however volunteers have agreed to quickly spruce up the vehicle before it is sent to Holt for further (freight) service. The wood was causing the paint to peel practically all around the vehicle, so all of the bodysides have been coated in resin to seal it in.

Problem areas have been sanded back and all loose paint removed. The landward (GWR chocolate liveried) side has been patch painted as this was the worst side. Some small areas of rotten woodwork have been chopped out and quickly repaired, prior to the painting.

The Sheringham end has also been repainted black as this had also suffered.

Royal Navy 4 Wheel Flat 269

You could say that the M&GN Society volunteers have sunk to new depths... The depth charges, which someone correctly pointed out so seem to be a "polite" version of the real things (how big are they supposed to be?!?) have now been gloss painted and fixed onto their carrier which will adorn the Torpedo wagon 269.

The warheads have been similarly treated.

October News Part 3

Quite a lot to report this week, although spread over numerous projects!

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

This week has seen holes cut into the floor of the body which will be accommodating the handbrake mechanism and vacuum piping (to serve the guard's brake gauge etc). It is remarkable how sturdy some of the original Great Eastern Railway wood still is in the areas where it has not rotted during all those years!

On the end of the body, work on the end handrails has progressed and these have been trail fitted and painted in primer.

The underframe has also continued to have parts added. Brake linkages continue to emerge, and end steps have been welded to the guards end corners.

One of the main areas of progress however has been the bending of the brand new vacuum piping which will be fitted soon to the underframe. It is not very often a vehicle gets a whole new pipe from end to end!

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

No progress to report.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The refurbishment of the doors is approaching completion. As mentioned last week, internal painting is now completed, and this week has seen the varnished door cards permanently fitted in place and the "do not lean out of the window" signage added.

A start has been made on the metalwork replacement on the Sheringham end of the vehicle, which was badly corroded. This proved to actually be a real pig, and what normally takes just over an hour turned into two days, as this one did not want to budge...

In the end, after various methods were tried and tested, the Axeman had to step in to apply some serious heat but even then the connection refused to comply to our demands! However we always get our way in the end and the following day it was finally off!

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

The National Railway Museum's DMU trailer car has been selected as the next vehicle to receive reupholstered seating, which will hopefully be completed before the start of the 2018 season. The first six seats have been loaded into the upholstery workshops, and upholsterers Keith & Martin have made a swift start in working out how these seats are to be tackled.

The first seat back has now been produced, and looks a million times better than the damaged, holed, faded old examples!

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464

The vehicle was lifted into the air this week, a task which has been delayed as we have required extension brackets manufacturing for our lifting jacks to properly lift it. which in turn required input from "management"!

With these fitted and the vehicle successfully skyward the two out-of-profile wheelsets were rolled out and the axleboxes removed. They are now ready for transferring next door for tyre turning, but as the volunteer who undertakes this comes in on Thursdays (6 days away), we took the opportunity to make a start on stripping all of the detritus off them so they can be repainted in due course. So far the first wheelset (being a 4 wheel vehicle there is only two to do!) has nearly been cleaned up.

All four of the wooden end doors have now been repaired and all have now been painted in primer. In order to fit the doors, the rotten floor at the same end of the vehicle (which was removed several weeks ago) has been remade from new timber, test fitted, and also primed. All of these components (including the doors) can now be brought up to gloss paint together prior to actual fitting!

The interior sanding of the walls has also been finished so these are now also ready for paint.

Royal Navy 4 Wheel Flat 269

This vehicle, the latest wagon to be added into the demonstration freight train, is having a few "extras" added to it to increase the Naval theme. A box of warheads has been produced, complete with fibreglass tips, and are in the process of being painted, along with two depth charges!

The cradle for the depth charges has also been produced from scrap timer and has already been painted.

Maintenance

The two TSO coaches which were selected to go on hire to the Churnet Valley have had their final checks, which included some last minute lighting modifications to E4651!

They both were picked up on time and made an interesting sight on the road lorries.

Other maintenance continues, with a batch of Direct Admission vacuum brake valves having Dan's magic overhaul touch, and very nice they look too!

October News Part 2

Member's Day has now been and gone, and as far as we know everybody enjoyed their tours around the workshops.

This week has seen a reduced presence on the ongoing restorations as a fair amount of time has been spent getting two of our open coaches ready for going on hire to another railway for the winter/Santa Special season. As is always the way with these things, the nominated pair required more work than originally envisaged but the job list was getting smaller by the end of the week!

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The modifications to the hand brake mentioned last week have continued, with a link bar having been cut and shortened to suit the new arrangement. The holes for the new buffers at the Holt end of the vehicle have been successfully drilled and the two remaining buffer shanks bolted into position. All four buffer shanks are now in position and painted.

Work on the sanding, filling and wood repairing on the wooden bodysides is also progressing in its usual ongoing manner.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The end of the long and arduous task of scraping the roof clear has been reached, with the last vents and central sections scraped back to bare metal this week. The stripping of the roof has highlighted a few odds and sods up there that need to be attended to, but nothing serious has come to light thankfully!

Work on sanding and varnishing the interior woodwork continues like a reassuring heartbeat. Compartment doors are the main bits being sanded at present, with more trim work and beading having increasing coats of varnish applied.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The refurbishment of the doors continues. They have had a second coat of "wood effect" brown gloss and the varnishing of the timber door cards has also been completed. With these two elements ready the cards can be reattached to the doors themselves.

Four out of the nine window frames which were removed have been refitted top the coach side, on the seaward side, there is just one more on this side to complete. This is a good visual milestone, given the length of time people have been working hard on the stripping down and repainting of these frames.

The 1/4 steel re-skin is progressing well, with new panelwork now more than half way along the section we're replacing.

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464

Work on rebuilding the wooden end doors continues. Slower progress this week, however three of them are now repaired and painted into primer.

Work on sanding the interior walls has been completed with just a few of the inside planks on the doors still to receive the same treatment.

Other Projects

The latest quality project has been the building of a cage specifically designed for volunteers who show signs of working in another department, or worse another railway...

...or so we thought. It is actually a paper storage bin for the bookshop who occasionally have to dispose of items to the paper bank for recycling. Being able to store them in here will increase their space and reduce the number of trips to be made to the paper bank.

October News Part 1

The workshop was thoroughly swept down towards the end of this week to make it a suitable venue to host workshop tours during Saturday's M&GN Member's Day. Hopefully everybody who attends these will enjoy the close examination behind the scenes. Monkey is located somewhere in the workshop - will any of the tour participants spot him?!?

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The handbrake mentioned last week has been further tested and found to require a slight modification to increase the gearing on which the wheel acts upon the brakes themselves. The team have got straight onto it, introducing a further lever in to the system.

As ever, the Axeman assisted but do not fear, the handbrake will be exhaustively tested now that we know he's been involved!

Elsewhere on the underframe, more buffer shanks have been fitted, with the Sheringham end now complete. Specialist oval holes are being drilled into the frame at the Holt end so that the London North Eastern shanks can fit into the Great Eastern apertures.

Body repairs continue on an ongoing basis.

The Royal Norfolk Regiment

The third nameplate from recently dedicated WD steam loco 90775 is being mounted on a commemorative board which will also carry information and images about the dedication ceremony and the engine.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

Not the highest prioritised vehicle this week, nonetheless the roof scraping work has continued with the centre section of the roof chipped clean for about 1/3rd of its length. This is by far the hardest section of the roof to scrape as it contains all of the awkward crevices such as the toilet filler pipes and roof vents.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

Another good week's progress with this vehicle seeing the most attention. The window frames which have been removed from the coach have had their hidden edges protected with several layers of paint to try and separate the steel body reacting with the aluminium frames. These are now resting and await refitting to the coach.

The light refurbishment of the six doors continues. They have all received a first coat of brown paint on the insides, and the wooden "door cards" are now being varnished up.

Body filling and paint preparation has turned to the landward side, now that the seaward side is finished. This is progressing nicely from the Holt end towards the centre of the vehicle.

The biggest visual transformation has however been the rapid progress on the Sheringham half of the landward side. We decided this needed re-panelling as the distortion and filler was just too great on this section.

In just one week all of the old panelling has been removed and the framework below all repaired where required. We were lucky in that the framework was in overall good condition.

With the framework all painted, a start has already been made on the new steel panelling. It has gone so well so far we almost wished we'd re-panelled the whole side now!

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464

The end doors mentioned last week have progressed. The first two (there are eight in all) have been rebuilt and the wooden framework reassembled and painted in primer. They will receive further coats of paint when more of the doors have reached the same stage.

Sadly, unlike M4843's framework, these doors have been much, much worse than they originally looked. Several have even fallen apart just being handled! It would seem heavy replacement of woodwork and a lot of time consuming joinery repair work is the only solution! The bins have gotten significant fuller since we started repairing these doors! The steel hinged straps that hold the doors on have also made it into undercoat.

Work on sanding the interior walls of the vehicle ready for repainting has also continued steadily.

Maintenance

We reported on overhauled steam heating valves last week but there was no image. They look so good that we have included an image this week, at the request of the " man behind the magic" who was quite rightly disappointed that his fine work was not illustrated!

The maintenance works continue to be heavy again this week. Aside from the usual carriage faults such as changing seats etc, there has been interesting lighting faults to attend to this week on the suburban set (lights do not switch on and off using the normal buttons) and the sleeping coach at Sheringham, whose corridor lights seem to be dropping like flies. Being a sleeping car, this is one vehicle where the internal lighting is actually used!

Lastly, but by no means least, four new brackets have been produced which will attach to our lifting jacks and allow them to "reach" further and lift vehicles more effectively that have previously been very awkward to lift as the limited reach jacks had to be positioned in certain places on the underframes, which was not conducive for the work being done on them. Inspection has of course been made and its a Yes from Monkey!