January News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Another week of progress on both body and chassis. Starting with the former, the white primer has now spread around the whole vehicle, with both of the ends and the landward side treated. This has made the remaining imperfections more obvious to the human eye, which helps volunteers who are undertaking the next "round" of filling and sanding.

On the underframe, a set of four extra supports have been produced and painted to hold the lower boards either side of the axleboxes. These extra supports are required as the new boards cannot cross over the front of the axleboxes like the originals did, so they are being done in separate pieces witha  small gap over the front of the axleboxes.

On the vacuum system, the special valve which prevents vacuum being made if the handbrake is on has been fitted into position on its bespoke brackets. It has also been "plumbed in" to the vacuum piping and now awaits the mechanical part to connect it to the handbrake mechanism.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

Sole progress has been inside the store cupboard this week. It was a week of beading with some new quarter-round being produced from scratch using stock timber and routing tools. Some of these have now also been cut to size and positioned in the corners where they are needed. Some of the angles are quite unusual, especially where three separate pieces of beading all meet up in one location!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

Another week of good progression with the Sheringham end seaward side corner. The corroded door pillar has now been replaced with a brand new example which means we have a full doorway again! The steel which has been cleaned or replaced has also been protected with an underseal-like product where it will be hidden, before the new steel outer panelling is welded over the framework.

The Sheringham end interior saloon reassembly also continues.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

Re-upholstery continues. It is hard to judge accurately based on a large pile of fresh seats awaiting refit, however there looks to be enough reupholstered examples to say that approximately two out of the three passenger saloons have been completed ready to refit, so we are certainly getting there.

Inside the vehicle itself, further seat dismantling sessions mean that the entire coach is now devoid of all of its seat cushions and backs, with just bare frames remaining in situ. Given this situation, the opportunity has been taken to give the seat frames a "top-up" coat of blue gloss to cover some of the chipped areas that were letting some of them down. We simply didn't have the time to do a proper strip down and repaint, however they look much improved. Over several days, all of the seat frames inside the vehicle were completed.

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464

Once again, this vehicle has probably seen the most progress overall this week. The finishing touches are being applied to the ceiling and walls inside the vehicle. The metal cages which surround the light bulbs to stop them getting broken are in the process of being refitted. On the sides, the light switch faceplates have been refitted, window bars returned to the windows, securing chains refitted to the doors and the lower vent grills repainted into gloss black. The sides are now complete, so we can now turn our attention tho the floor.

On the outside, we discovered that the some of the vehicle's doors/doorways have distorted when it was lifted, so two out of the four sets of double doors required major adjustment. This done, we have been able to progress exterior repainting. So far, 90% of the vehicle has been coated in primer, with just one set of doors unable to be painted this week as they were having the work described above applied to them.

Now that the vehicle is in the staged area, the roof was able to be cleaned down and given a quick coat of roof paint to boost it. As expected, its appearance is quite transformed.

The framework for the Sheringham end set of folding doors (which haven't been forgotten!) progressed to the stage where the doors (without panelling) were able to be dry fitted to the steel strapping on the vehicle itself, just to ensure that they are all the right size. They have now been removed again for further work, hole drilling and panelling out.

Southern Railway 1939 Parcels & Miscellaneous Van S1359S

Now also in the staging with E94464, this allowed its roof to also be repainted, in the slightly cheaper "bitumen spec". Giving the vehicle a black roof has improved its appearance greatly.

On the inside, the ceilings have received a coat of white gloss which makes them look so much better than the chalky flaking mess that they once were. Fueled by the success of the ceilings, the same treatment is now being given to the side walls. No picture this week sadly, as painting E94464 was too much of a distraction for me!

Maintenance

C Examinations continue. The main set (A Set) has now been reformed into a train again and is presumably in the format in which it will be used for the next trains, over the February half term week.