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.
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