October News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

More boring filling, sanding and repainting work this week, which is slowly making the body more and more presentable for its final unveiling. Some of the steel paneling which the doors are clad with have had their screws ground down flush as before they were sticking out proud which didn't look particularly neat.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

Still awaiting shed space. However the rot to the Sheringham end described last week has now been finished with internal match-board paneling replaced, as the latter had to be removed to instigate the repairs to the exterior.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

A new addition to these notes, the M&GN Society's recently obtained Thompson era brake coach, which when restored will become the second member of the proposed LNER Mainline set. This set is intended to become unique in preservation as being the first full rake of LNER designed coaches preserved externally in their 1950's BR condition, unless someone gets the paintbrushes out first and beats us to it!

The coach itself remains in storage at Holt for the time being, however a replica LNER pattern gangway cover has recently been extracted from storage and rubbed down and repainted for use on this coach, as it will be on the end of the set eventually.

Up at Holt, the coach interior has been emptied of its seating and spares which it arrived with, paving the way for interior repairs and restoration work when the coach is tripped down to Weybourne.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

This one has been the main focus in the workshops this week, with a healthy selection of volunteers involved in the various tasks. The underframe repainting continues, and we now have it coated in undercoat along its entire length.

The process of checking and re-greasing all of the pins within the brakegear of the Sheringham end bogie is now almost complete, we are just waiting for some more split pins to arrive which will allow this task to be finished off.

Moving inside, the store cupboard has progressed really well with the remedial touching in now finished, the door frame fitted and the door itself hung in place. This door is one of the first varnished items to be refitted to the coach so is a bit of a milestone for the restoration. The light and ceiling ventilator grill have both been refitted which I believe now only leaves the blanking plate for the window vent to complete.

A start has been made on fitting out the five passenger compartments which was penciled in for this winter. The first angle of attack is to sand down and repair where required the ceilings before repainting. So far, compartment number 5 (closest to Holt) has had the ceiling sanded.

The luggage rack restoration is currently on hold whilst several of the aluminium brackets are removed and sent away for specialist welding to repair the breaks in them. These are a bit of an experiment and we don't yet know if the repairs will be a success but we shall see...

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The passenger communication apparatus has been refurbished, repainted and refitted to the Holt end on the seaward side this week.

British Railways 1960 Brush Type 2 D5631

The remaining roof sections were painted through primer, undercoat and finally gloss this week.

This signals the end of our involvement with the loco at present, and a day was spent gathering all the parts for the loco which had become distributed around our shed during the time the loco has been with us. It is planned that the loco will return next door for further mechanical and assembly work next week.

London Midland Scottish Railway 1947 22 Ton Plate Open TDB726631

This vehicle is now extremely close to completion. The remaining lettering is now complete along the bodysides which signals the completion of the repaint. Later in the week, the brand new through vacuum pipe was fitted underneath. All that remains now is for the pipe to be painted and for the vacuum bags to be fitted the ends, after which the vehicle will be released for service.