August News Part 3

With no tram museums to visit this weekend, it's normal service in the world of blogging...

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

With most of the heritage labour transferred to the Gresley Buffet car, work on 853 has been mainly a continuation of previous weeks. Further work to produce door catch plates from rough castings is being undertaken as not all of the door closing "keep plates" that are located in the door apertures were available as originals.

The woodwork stained in "Jacobian Teak" is in the process of having varnish built up, one coat per day. The ash draught excluders are currently laid out undergoing this process. On the days that the restoration team are not in, Monkey has been standing guard against any passing antique dealers!

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

Work has progressed very well. Both sides have now had all of the old lower paneling removed and the framework below cleaned up and de-nailed.

The next stage has been applying resin to the exposed timber framework. This is complete on the landward side with the seaward side ongoing.

Stage three, nailing on packing timbers to reduce the rebate for the new (thinner) paneling, again is complete on the landward side with the seaward side ongoing.

Finally, a test section of replacement paneling has been trialed on the seaward side kitchen door, just to prove the method of fixing before the main panels are purchased. The surprising part is the panel itself, which is a triple layered aluminium/plastic/aluminium composite and which has been chosen as the replacement for the original hardwood panels. This material is currently used in industry primarily for shop front signs and comes with its own painted protection already applied on both sides.

The original arrangement of two sets of horizontal panels running the length of the coach will be replaced by just one of the new material, eliminating some of the potential water ingress through the joins. Once the panels are fitted, the edges will be beaded as the wooden ones were. Where a joint has been eliminated, "false" beading will be added to retain the original appearance.

The option of replacing the panels with anything other than wood would have been impossible had the coach had a varnished finish, however now it is retaining its Crimson & Cream painted finish these panels are an interesting development. To a certain extent the panels are entering new ground and therefore are an experiment, so it will be interesting to see how successful they are. They may well be a breakthrough for carriage restoration!

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

Our Gold restoration project pleasingly continues to see a good amount of focus. The luggage space bulkhead wall, pictured last week, has reached the next stage and is now in primer. One of the windows between the guards and luggage area has also been scraped clear of paint, as the coach's previous owners had painted over the glass. We haven't bothered with the second window as this is a perspex example so we will swap this for proper glass in due course.

Sticking with the interior, the project for converting the heating system back to steam (from electric) is in full swing and a set of heating elements has been refitted into all of the passenger compartments. This involved plugging holes drilled for the electric heater conduits, and reopening holes which were used originally for the steam heaters, but were themselves plugged during the conversion to electric! We are putting all of the heaters in position now so that when we pipe underneath all of our "destinations" are present.

Underneath the coach, progress on scraping down the metalwork continues with several lucky stars putting in another week of hard graft to see the job closer to completion.

Some of the air brake components have been removed to be looked at and also top aid access for the underframe scrape. The main air reservoir is now removed and the complex distributor valve also removed. The latter has been opened up and is in good condition inside so won't receive any further attention other than cleaning up the outside.

The bogies, which haven't received any major attention yet, had a wheelset inspection and the news, confirmed by Monkey of course, was not good... After a warm cup of PG it was concluded that all four wheelsets are suffering from the flanges being out of profile and severe score marks around the main tyres themselves. Additionally, the tyres are thin and we are unsure whether there is enough metal left on them to turn out the current defects on the wheel lathe.

We have some suitable wheelsets as spares, but not many, so a combination of tyre turning and wheelset swapping may be required to balance out a reasonable set for use once the coach is overhauled. We shall see what we go for in due course...

The battery box covers continue to be cleaned up. The two covers for the seaward side battery box are now fully stripped and in primer.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

No progress to report.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

No progress to report.

Maintenance

Two members have been seconded to the shadowlands (Holt) to apply some wood preservative to the M&GN Society's garage where the M&GN Austin lorry lives. Long term readers may remember this lorry as it was here in the shed some time ago for its initial restoration and repaint into M&GN colours, shortly after acquisition by the Society.

New Members

There may be some new members joining C&W soon, details will be revealed in future postings...

August News Part 2

No update last week as a long overdue visit to Crich Tramway Museum was being undertaken! They are remarkably similar to us in their endeavors, and they are one of the few groups out there who have shared the experience of taking abandoned bodies out of fields and putting them back on rails!

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Our own Bungalow revival continues to progress steadily, with more work tidying up and improving the doors. Some smoothing and filling work has been undertaken this week to several doors, with the set of double (luggage) doors now in a coat of red primer.

Inside the compartments, the ash poles for the luggage racks are now fitted and have been stained in "Jacobean Teak" (our own mix of several wood dyes). These are now being varnished and have received two coats already.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

The notorious "Gresley Buffet" has arrived outside of the shed for remedial works to begin. Possibly the most emotive coach on the entire railway, it has a lot of history with the line since first being restored in the 1980's, possibly because it was the venue for many a volunteer get together and therefore happy memories! Removed from service a little while ago, resources were unavailable to undertake the exterior panel replacement that it badly requires. The decision to pull it from service and not to re-restore it immediately was criticized in some quarters, but the great news is that the Joint Heritage Coach Fund have agreed to undertake the works instead which will have the result of this coach returning to traffic much sooner than originally feared.

They have not wasted any time either, within a few days of being positioned in the yard, the split/rotten beading and paneling was fully removed from the landward side, and is progressing well also on the other side. The panel problems are only present below window height, so all work is focusing on these lower paneled areas.

The revealed framework below, for several years now an unknown quantity, was thankfully in generally sound condition. Rot is present in several places but is sufficiently limited to be able to be dealt with via splicing and patch replacement of required areas. The largest area so far has been a single upright which had rotted away at the bottom and up part of its length. A replacement piece has already been cut to shape and spliced in. The framework has been coated in some resin to give it a top-up form of protection before the new panels cover it all up again.

The framework is currently in the process of having 5mm packing spacers nailed to it as the replacement panels (the details of which will be revealed in due course!) are much thinner than the existing panels which are being removed. These spacers are needed so that the replacement panels are flush with the surrounding body, and so that the replacement beading sits over the whole arrangement nicely and keep as much water out as possible!

Now to engage in some platform end rumor as this question will inevitably get asked! A collaboration of the team undertaking the work plus owners the M&GN Society have advised that during these refurbishment works to return the vehicle to service, it will be retaining it's 1950's Carmine & Cream exterior livery. I await the cries of disgust and support with equal anticipation!

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

This vehicle has now returned from Bridge Road sheds and has been the main focus inside the works this week, as a renewed drive to progress the major overhaul has been instigated. Inside the vehicle, the bulkhead wall inside the luggage compartment has been flatted smooth with a sander and some old cracks and holes filled and sanded to get a good base for repainting.

One of the main components for the adjacent guard's compartment, the desk, has now reached the end of its refurbishment and has been reassembled and all its catches and finishing touches fitted. It looks great!

Toilet preparations continue, the toilet seat is now fully varnished and has been stored ready for refitting once we have a toilet to attach it to!

Also from the toilet, but below it this time, are two water drain valves which empty the whole system of water when they are operated by crew members, this is particularly useful for draining down during winter when the frosts would damage the pipes etc. These valves have been removed from the coach, stripped and cleaned before being reassembled. They now await refitting as always!

The outside of the coach is currently unable to be progressed, so for the first time in NNR ownership the coach has been raised off its bogies on the jacks so that underframe work can commence.

A good start has been made this week of the horrendous job of scraping down the rust underframe members below floor level, it really is a dirty and thankless task. Those who have volunteered to contribute to this task have the greatest of respect! Amazingly, six separate people (victims) have all put in a day this week on this particular task. The brushed up metal will receive paint in due course.

Also underneath, the electric heating system has now been fully removed. The asbestos stripping contractors destroyed any hope of the electric heat system being retained for the future when they unsympathetically ripped out much of the system so as not to risk contamination. This has left us with a chopped up half of a system that is now useless, so we have removed the remaining parts of the wiring, inter connecting jumper cables and electrical conduit/trunking which was attached to much of the underframe. We now have more room under there to both clean up the frames and also to work on other systems in the future, including the brake pipes and also the fitment of a new steam heat pipe so that this coach is able to be heated by our engines! Much of the electric heat system was bolted in positions where the original steam heat system was located, so even of the electric system was in a condition where it could have been kept, fitting the steam heaters back into place would have been challenging.

Lastly, a start has been made on stripping down and repainting the battery box covers. These are in good condition under all the grime, so should scrub up well!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The centre vestibule has received a further coat of varnish as the previous coat was found to be a tad patchy once it had dried. 

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

This coach has now arrived inside the shed having spend many years inside Bridge Road sheds in storage. It is currently being assessed to determine a scope of works.

New Arrivals

We are welcoming two new arrivals of Carriage & Wagon relevance to the railway. Both have been known about for some time but to preserve confidentiality we have had to wait until they actually roll off the lorries before including them in these notes. The first is a 12 ton BR box van, number B784254, the fourth now on the railway and recently transferred from our neighbors at the Mid Norfolk Railway. It is privately owned and restoration work to improve its condition is expected immediately, so depending on the owner's views it may well be featured on this blog as wagon restoration, whilst not completely unheard of, will be something unusual for the department!

The second arrival is a LNER designed Thompson era Corridor Brake Third (BTK), number 1866, recently purchased by the M&GN society from the Llangollen Railway. It will replace the Thompson BG (which has no passenger accommodation at all) in the Society's long term "LNER Mainline Set" but will be operating much sooner than the BG would have, as the BTK has already received a substantial amount of restoration work. We look forward to getting stuck in to finish it off, however it will be heading to Bridge Road sheds for a little while whilst the current projects are completed first.

August News Part 1

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

A lot more work is going into the door locks and catches with several continuing to be the focus of attention this week. Some of the passenger doors have received their locks which includes the internal tongue for opening the door from the inside. These were too easily operated at first so they have had their springs changed internally to stiffen them up so they cannot be operated by accident whilst the train is in motion!

Sticking with the safety theme, inside the guards van some cupboards have been moved from one side to another as it has now been realised that at least one of them was sticking out and causing a risk of head injury. By having the higher cupboard above another cupboard that takes up floor space it should prevent the former from hitting people in the skull...

Inside the compartments, some very expensive ash luggage rack poles are now being test fitted and have been put in position on the two outer walls. They should varnish up very nicely.

Lastly, the first of the four buffer shanks are now in the lathe next door and are being machined down (so they fit the revised arrangement on the coach). This is being done under contract so has had to wait for an available space in the work schedule to progress. Hopefully the other three can follow the first one in time.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The metal covers which fit along the side corridor protecting passengers' ankles from the electric heaters that were fitted in there, briefly mentioned last week, have now all been stripped of old paint and are currently in a polished metal state ready for repainting. Working with a heat gun has been very arduous in the current weather conditions! With the outer covers done, the inner covers which go behind the heaters and stop the vehicle's internal insulation being singed were brushed down and painted in rust-kill primer. These have not had the same attention as the visible covers as not being seen there simply was no need, consequently all of them were easily cleaned and painted in one day. They will have further coats of paint applied in due course.

The alloy window frames for the landward side of the vehicle (currently stacked up in component form at the side of the workshop until 21224 itself returns from storage) are also in the process of being polished up to remove all traces of old paint, so we get no reactions to any etch primers we apply in due course. Over half of the stack have been completed so far.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

A batch of curved hardwood door posts have now arrived for the vehicle which will allow the doors to be refitted properly to the Sheringham end vestibule once labour becomes available to do so. A bit of time did allow a brief test to be made with one of them and a bit of adjustment to the rebate has been required using a router.

The middle vestibule, which still has its doors(!), has joined the ranks of areas which have received re-varnishing to improve its appearance.

As part of the project for "getting everything ready" to refit the corridor connections when the time is right, a set of lighting jumper bases have been machined from hardwood. These are fixed to the outer steel skin and are what the jumper cables themselves and associated covers all screw onto. Their exposed position leads them to rot badly in service so renewal can be common during major overhauls. A set of eight have been made, enough for 4843 and 21224.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

The new kid on the block when it comes to these jottings... E4521 is a "standard" open second identical to many of our Mark 1's we operate. Having been used on the NNR since the 1980's it was withdrawn from service over ten years ago and has been a resident inside Bridge Road carriage sheds. It has long been the railway's ambition to extract it and get it back into service. Due to the Suburban 4 project this has not been possible these last few years but the time is soon coming where we may be able to just squeeze it through the programme. It has been assessed and is quite poor in some areas but remarkably good in other areas. It has therefore been decided to place it on the "Silver" overhaul programme, which is unusual for a vehicle being extracted from storage - they are normally so dilapidated they require a "Gold"!

E4521 remains inside Bridge Road for the moment but will be one of the coaches replacing E3868 & M26012 in the works (see below) once it has been tripped from Holt. In preparation for its move, this week we emptied all of the stores which have been put inside the coach over the last few years, and then filled it with enough seating to reupholster in due course, as the original seating had been removed and fitted to various other coaches, particularly TSO E4641 which we completed back in 2016.

E4521 is now ready for its overhaul to begin.

British Railways 1953 Tourist Second Open E3868 & 1962 Corridor Second M26012

In an extremely rare occurrence, this week we completed two projects at once which has returned the two service rakes of coaches at Sheringham back to full strength. TSO E3868 was completed after its ends were repainted black. Whilst we were there with the paintbrush the two end doors also received a coat of cream.

M26012 meanwhile received a coat of paint on its sole-bar and exposed underframe components just to boost its appearance. The white stars (which denote where the vacuum brake cylinder pull chords are located) were also applied and the emergency lighting point sockets also lettered.

Both are now back at Sheringham and have boosted the proportion of shiny coaches we have in service considerably.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

The department currently has 50% of its paid workforce dedicated to getting the Class 31 diesel back together again. Bodywork and welding is ongoing next door in the loco shed, but five doors have made it into our shed with the intention of making two good ones out of the selection. They are being stripped down, repaired and rebuilt.