September News Part 5

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Yet more body filling and sanding has been the main exterior focus this week. Despite this being one of those jobs where one doesn't feel like progress is being made, this week has seen the bulk of the preparation declared complete on the landward side.

Whilst it will receive a final fettle after the undercoat has been applied, for now the whole side (considerably flatter than before) has had a full coat of primer and attention will now turn to giving the two ends of the vehicle the same treatment.

On the interior, some painting of the insides of the doors has been done to get them started, and the remaining lock plates for the three passenger doors (one has already been completed as a trial) continue to be produced and/or adjusted as part of their fitting.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

The landward side is now very well advanced, with all the new beading now fitted and sealed into place. This side is now completed as far as practicable before painting happens.

Due to access issues, the replacement "Di-bond" lower panels cannot be fitted to seaward side until the coach is swapped onto the adjacent road, so this side remains the same until shunting can be arranged.

The two corridor end doors pictured last week have progressed with their repairs completed. Varnish is now beginning to be applied, a photo will follow once I have caught up with them!

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

This week has seen good progress on several fronts. The "rust-kill" priming, pictured last week, has now been completed so the whole of the underframe is rust free for the first time in many years! This has given us the stable base we need to apply the remaining normal coats of paint. The first is the primer which is now being applied at the Holt end of the vehicle heading towards the Sheringham end.

The Sheringham end bogie is now complete sporting a coat of black undercoat.

Meanwhile, off-coach components continue to be restored. A set of footboards for the seaward side of the coach have been stripped, primed and undercoated this week.

The luggage racking continues to be stripped of its netting to allow the aluminium to be cleaned and polished up to its former glory. These are steadily going through one-by-one and will be well worth it once completed.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

Not so much to picture this week, but both the welding at the Holt end, and the fitting out of the doorways at the Sheringham end vestibule, are both progressing. Inside the vehicle, most of the heater covers under the passenger seats have been repainted, receiving a fresh coat of black gloss as they had not been so treated for many years.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

This interloper continues to dominate the staged area, as we try to get it as cosmetically advanced as possible before M&GN Members Day in a week's time. The most obvious change has been the paintwork.

By the middle of this week the entire loco made it into undercoat, as previously various parts that were being worked on were lagging behind in terms of how many coats of paint they had had.

This has allowed the application of the first coat of gloss to start. So far, the Holt end cab and 2/3rds of the landward side have been treated, so we are beginning to start to see the final colour/configuration...

Whilst all this is going on there has been lots of paint preparation work to the grills that will be attached soon, as well as fitting of lots of smaller components.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254

Due to the onset of winter, work will be temporarily stopped on this vehicle for a while, but we hope to feature it's progress once again in these notes at some point.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open 726631

In contrast to last week, we have had a much better run of weather this week which has allowed rapid progress to be made on the repainting of the wagon. The entire outside (body and chassis) has been fully painted into primer so it has taken on a rather pink appearance!

Inside the body, the rusty floor has been rust-killed and grey floor paint has been applied in an attempt to slow down some of the surface corrosion that was evident on the floor which of course has a lot of rain sitting on it throughout the year. The floor looks about 1000 times better than it did!

Next Week & Members Day

Due to a trip away to Essex to play with someone else's Diesel Multiple Units, there will be no Blog next week, during that weekend which coincides with M&GN Members Day on Saturday 6th. A reminder that this day is in fact is open to all, not just members, and that tours will be running at Weybourne sheds throughout the day. This is therefore one of the best opportunities of the year to see the subjects featured in this Blog for yourself, so some on down and have a look round! Additionally, the railway is open at normal fares, which is a great deal considering there are five steam locomotives and a diesel all running!

September News Part 4

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

More body filler on the sides and sanding down this week, followed by some further painting.

A start has been made on sizing up and getting ready the window frames for the brake end of the coach. Two of these originally opened on hinges, but were screwed shut at some point in their lives so will remain so in preservation service.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

Dramatic progress this week after the Di-bond panels were fitted to the landward side of the coach. The first panel closest the Holt end has also had the top and bottom strip of beading added.

Further up the vehicle, preparation work to the flaking paintwork has commenced.

The two corridor end doors have now been removed for repairs and re-varnishing. Split woodwork has been chiseled out and replacement sections let in. Other splits have been glued up to seal them and much of the beading has been resealed into place to add extra water resistance.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

More painting of the underframe, with the first coat of rust-kill primer almost fully applied.

The bogies have started to be painted in black undercoat,. no rust-kill required on these as they were in much better condition than the underframe.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The new pressed steel end from South Devon Railway arrived this week and has been clamped in place on the landward corner. It is now in the process of being welded into position and first impressions are that it fits really well!

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

We have been advised that due to the presence of too much rolling stock in and around the sheds/yard at Weybourne, that E4521 could no longer be accommodated. It has therefore been returned to storage at Holt for the time being. We may welcome it back later in the year once more space becomes available.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

This week the remainder of the Class 31 was signed off for painting after bodywork reconstruction reached an advanced stage. This allowed the Sheringham end cab and seaward side to follow the rest of the loco into primer. Meanwhile the Holt end cab and seaward side body has advanced into undercoat.

There is still a lot of work to do to the rest of the loco and the grills and louvers are now being tackled so in due course they can be painted and attached to the loco later.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254

The vacuum cylinder has been reassembled this week with its new seals and has passed its NNR test for cylinders which is good. It now awaits further testing to check if it passes all of the tests that BR had for such cylinders.

Elsewhere on the vehicle, all of the rusty bolts have been knocked out of the roof hoops, bringing the vehicle one step closer to getting its new roof.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open 726631

The plate wagon has returned from Sheringham where it was in use as a bandstand for the 1940's weekend. Its return coincided with a downturn in weather conditions so we are waiting for drier weather before continuing with the repainting work!

September News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Progress this week has mainly been confined to the application of more body filler to the sides and consequent sanding down.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

Due to logistical issues the Di-bond panels were unable to be delivered this week and have been delayed into next week, which means there hasn't been any leaps forward with repaneling the vehicle. However in preparation for their arrival, the half-round beading strips delivered last week have all been coated in resin to prepare them for fitting once the main panels are in place.

The underframe, which was gloss painted last week, has had several of the detail pieces painted in white/red etc. Items have included the emergency couplings, battery charging sockets and the clips for the underslung equipment boxes.

On the landward side, the replacement teak cant rails have now been fitted, so hopefully any water ingress from the roof will be prevented.

Finally, the bottom framework repairs are now also completed. There was a large section replaced on the landward side, and the smaller section on the landward/Holt end corner has also been completed and boxed back in where end framework had to be removed.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

This week saw progression of the two current main tasks; repainting the guards area and the underframe restoration. The latter is currently being hoovered of all final dust and a start has now been made applying the first coat of paint to the main frames. This is a reactive paint designed to apply onto rusty surfaces.

A plan has now been made of the new steam heating pipework, and several components that will be used for the refit have been gathered ready. This pipework is due to be fitted once the Class 31 project is complete.

The bogies, which have hitherto been untouched, received a steam clean this week has has revealed they are in excellent condition. Once dried out, the frames will require little more than repainting which will save a lot of stripping work.

The battery box covers mentioned last week are now safely stored ready to refit.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The framework repairs to the corridor end are now completed and we are now awaiting delivery of one of the South Devon Railway's new pressed Mark 1 ends which promises to be an exciting and time saving development for us. Whilst we have the skills to fabricate Mark 1 ends individually, they cost us hugely in term of labour cost, so we are hoping for a positive result using the ready-made South Devon examples as we may well be using them regularly into the future as we have a succession of Mark 1's awaiting end repairs.

In the meantime, the toilet area on the seaward side has been stripped of all its panelwork to allow repairs and removal of the framework below. It is therefore looking quite skeletal at the moment!

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

No progress to report.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

Bodywork is now nearing completion with the Holt end cab and landward side reassembly completed early this week. This in turn has allowed the same area to be painted in primer, meaning 50% of the loco is now primed in "Kermit" green...

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254

This week it has all been about the vacuum cylinder which was defective. It has been removed and stripped down into its component parts. The exterior bowl has been needle gunned and repainted gloss black, making it the nicest vacuum cylinder on the railway by far! Other components such as the main piston have been thoroughly cleaned but the cylinder cannot currently be reassembled as the replacement rubber rings and seals are still on order.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open 726631

As explained last week, this vehicle is currently away at Sheringham where it is in use as a dance/band stand for the 1940's weekend, a function it performs twice a year. This will be the last event (for a while) that it appears at in a shabby condition!

Workshop

We are still handling a lot of station refurbishment work, particularly at Weybourne. A second platform bench is currently in for repairs and repainting, which has best been done in a dismantled state.

All of the bicycles that have been cosmetically restored are now also back "in saddle" on the platform once again, just in time for the 1940's weekend.

September News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

The biggest achievement this week was the complicated task of constructing an effective door lock catch plate (located on the vehicle itself in the doorway as opposed to on the door), which was successfully created on the Sheringham end landward side passenger door. This was the trial version and now a method has been established it is expected more can be done for the other three passenger doors more quickly (no pressure!). Sadly I forgot to take a photograph of the item in question!

Other work on the vehicle has been limited to some further rubbing down of the exterior ready for more painting when the time comes, and the fitting of a cover plate over the luggage door mechanism - as this will be a wheelchair accessible area it was felt the open mechanism would be better boxed in to avoid any chances of finger injury!

In other news, my statement last week that I suspected that 853 didn't originally have doors that clicked shut themselves when a passenger slams them was wrong - I am informed that this vehicle was fitted with such luxuries from new. So there we are, we are simply reinstating what should indeed be there!

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

The Di-bond sheeting for the lower panels is now in production and is scheduled to be delivered late next week. Speaking of deliveries, the new timber for the half-round beading has now been delivered, ready for machining to size/length to go over the edges of the Di-bond once fitted.

Outside, the first rows of securing tacks for the Di-bond has been fitted, to the landward side. The sheets will be tacked as we have been warned the lengths we are using will expand and contract quite a bit, so they will be clamped in position rather than being fixed too rigidly. Also outside has been the completion of the underframe/bogie  repainting, it now looks much fresher with a top up coat of black gloss.

The cantrail strips mentioned last week have now all been machined to size from quality teak.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

Boring as it sounds, the big push to scrape down the underframe has been the main priority this week, with the same poor faces putting in many more days of work to complete this task. The good news is, this mission is now complete, including the bufferbeams at the end, so it will not be long before we can get the paint out to protect what we have spent so long preparing! This work will give the underframe another 50 years so well done to all involved with this truly thankless job...

Related to the underframe are the battery box covers, which have now made it into black gloss and look really fresh. More experimentation has been done to the air brake pipework, which is being moved to accommodate a new steam heat pipe in the future. This is being done by a mixture of cutting and bending so the two systems can co-exist through some tight points along the underframe.

Inside the carriage, the same volunteer who progressed the luggage compartment bulkhead has moved into the guards area itself, with two out of three walls sanded, filled and primed in just one week. This work has been interesting with the vehicle on jacks, as he has been completing these duties 10 feet above everybody else in the workshop!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

After what has felt like an age, metalwork repairs to M4843's Holt end has resumed! The rotten crash pillar on the seaward side corner has been cut away and a new one welded in this week.

The Holt end reassembly has also seen some further work, with wooden door jambs being prepared for fitting (there;'s a lot of adjustments etc to do with these) for the two doors at that end.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

Still no progress, however it was useful as a source of reference when measuring up the routes of vacuum brake and steam heat pipework for E21224!

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

Bodywork is now pretty much concluded so we are fully into the reassembly and paint preparation stages this week. All of the doors are on with the exception of the landward side at the Sheringham, end as this one is proving particularly troublesome. The bodysides and Holt end cabs however are now in an advanced state of prep and it won't be long before the paint brushes are coming out.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254

The floor has been properly hoovered out this week. Other tasks have included slackening off the bolts and brackets for the vacuum brake cylinder so the latter can be removed for overhaul. The Holt/landward buffer has also been removed and taken inside the shed for investigations as to why it has been leaking oil. At least two other buffers are slowing similar signs so they will all need dealing with in due course.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open 726631

Rapid progress this week on this particular project. Starting with mechanical matters: the defective handbrake was purely down to poor adjustment, after an hour or so's adjustment and testing it now has a very effective handbrake crossing that particular problem off the list. The next task was to deal with the alarming "wobble" which has caused the vehicle to be on the "restricted use" list for so long. This required a little more work, as one of the "W irons" had been bent in an accident many years ago, and despite being partially bend back in the wagon's early days at the NNR, it was found that the W iron was wedging the axlebox of the Sheringham end wheelset in one position, preventing the suspension from working. The solution was to tension the W iron back into parallel with he axlebox by chaining it to the opposite side of the wagon, then gently heating up the four legs of the W iron and then cooling them back down again, to "relax" the metal into its new position.

It stayed there as well once the chains had been removed. Advice for this was sought from our colleagues next door in the engineering works, as this sort of heavy bending is very much "their thing". It worked so well that the owner of B784254 (see above) would like the process repeated on his van which is exhibiting a similar problem...

The swift actions of the W iron benders allowed us to take advantage of a test opportunity. The wagon is needed as a bandstand for next weekend's 1940's event, so we always knew our restoration would be interrupted by this requirement. However the movement of the wagon to Sheringham to fulfill its duties allowed us to check that the W iron was the true cause of the wagon's "wobble" problems. It was carried down on Friday using the visiting Class 14 diesel in a "baby freight train" and very pleasingly when operated at a full 25mph it behaved perfectly for a 4-wheel wagon, meaning that all being well the 15mph restriction will hopefully be able to be lifted once the rest of the restoration is complete.

Before the vehicle left for Sheringham, the outside of the body and the underframes were brushed down of any loose rust and some rust-killing primer applied.

Several hands were involved in this process and they did really well with the whole wagon treated in just two days. When it returns from Sheringham in a few weeks the repainting can progress immediately.

September News Part 1

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

More minor tweaking this week. The door lock catches mentioned last week have progressed but it is fiddly precise work. One has been fitted to the Sheringham end passenger compartment but requires some more work to allow the door lock to click into place nicely when the door is shut. I may be wrong but I suspect the GER door locks would have originally been non self catching, i.e. if you slam the door shut it can swing open again unless you actively turn the handle shut. Our revised design mirrors more "modern" practice (by modern we mean the early 20th century onwards!) where the door locks self lock so when you slam a door shut it catches into place and stays shut. They will however look identical from the outside.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

The application of resin and the addition of small packing pieces to the exposed lower framework is now complete around the whole vehicle. It is now ready for its new "Dibond" sheeting to be fitted (thanks to one reader who pointed out what this material was called). This is currently in the process of being ordered, there was a small delay as the original supplier was limited as to what sizes they could supply the material in. By using standard size sheets there would have been a lot of waste material and we would have had to alter the locations of the beading strips as the Dibond was not available in the lengths that the Gresley teak panels were typically produced to. However by using an alternative firm who offer custom sizes, we now have panels on order that will be pre-cut to the width required for immediate fixing to the Gresley bodyside, all we shall do is cut the required lengths. The off-cuts will be used on the four doors. Pleasingly, the custom Dibond sheets are also longer than the longest wooden panel currently fitted to the vehicle, meaning that we can now keep the same layout of vertical beading retaining original appearance. Before investigating the custom sheets, the standard 10ft sheets would have meant altering the beading arrangement slightly, as we would have required 5 sheets per side instead of 4.

Elsewhere on the vehicle, other remedial jobs are progressing. The wooden cantrail strip above the windows was found to be completely rotten so will be fully replaced. The old one has been removed from the landward side and the seaward side one is in the process of also coming off. Also found on the landward side was a 6ft section of ripped canvas which had been letting water in. So as not to disturb the rest of the roof, a replacement section of canvas has been carefully layered on top and covered in bedding compound, which should seal up the offending area.

Rot has also been found in the ends of the vehicle toward the bottom. This has been chopped out and new sections spliced in after a small area of end paneling was removed to facilitate access.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

This week has seen a continuation of jobs already in progress. Inside the vehicle, the luggage bulkhead pictured last week is now complete as far as primer, and looks much smoother than how we came to it. The remainder of the luggage cage framework has been sanded back and it is now ready for the steel mesh to be reinstated. This is as far as we can go in this particular area until the bodysides are welded so attention is now turning next door into the guards compartment, which is now starting to receive the same treatment of sanding to improve the walls ready for repainting.

The last of the steam heating elements have now been fitted to the interior, the final examples being two extra heaters in the guards area. This is because when we received the coach the original heaters were missing and we have no spares to fit to the original design. So the guards are not cold, we have fitted two heater elements intended for other areas inside the compartment where there was space for them. This included an old heater out of a passenger compartment on one side, and a heater out of a toilet on the other. Hopefully the two combined will provide enough heat for this fairly small area!

The challenging and filthy underframe clean up is now getting close to the end with only a few small sections left to clean up.

The air brake system continues to be refurbished, with a choke/isolation valve being stripped and cleaned this week. The air brake valves won't be refitted until the underframe has been repainted.

The battery box covers, pictured last week, have progressed and both sides (four doors) are now all in primer.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

No progress to report.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521

No progress to report.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

The Class 31 has now moved inside the shed and apparently is in our hands for the next three weeks.

It requires completion of bodywork, paint preparation and painting in this time. The first two are already well advanced and is being progressed by up to seven people each day so progress is swift. Welding work and the additions of the various strips and finishing pieces to allow it to be painted has been a priority.

The Holt end cab (the end which has not been rebuilt as it was done during the last overhaul) is in the process of being repaired where required and prepped for painting.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254

The restoration of this newly arrived van has started at Weybourne. The first task has been to remove all of the old spare parts which had been left inside it by its previous owner so they can be collected. This has revealed the floor for the first time which is in remarkably good condition considering the van had sat at the Mid Norfolk for some time without a roof! Now the area is clear that paves the way for restoration of the roofing hoops to start.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open 726631

This little used wagon has been brought down from Holt as a volunteer project. It is in tired condition cosmetically and has been on a limited use list for many years due to perceived scrap sized wheelsets and a tendency to wobble at speeds over 10mph. Its only use currently is twice a year when it is used in Sheringham's platform 3 as a bandstand. Its wheelsets have this week been measured thoroughly and are in fact well above scrap size so that particular issue has been removed. Now it is at Weybourne, on an as-and-when basis, it will be looked at mechanically to remove the "wobble" at speed. It also requires its handbrakes adjusting as they are ineffective at present. It will also hopefully receive some cosmetic attention also to improve its appearance.

New Members

The new members mentioned last week have been settled in, but there's little sign of hatching or life just yet...