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!
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