November News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

With the Gresley Buffet vehicle moving into the "painters only" zone, labour has been able to be transferred back onto our oldest coach in the workshop. The big step forward this week has been the sort-of fitting of the buffers. As mentioned last week the machining had been in progress under Richard's watchful eye, which was great to see as the machine shop is currently understaffed so we are grateful to them for being able to fit our work into an already stretched system.

We offered up Monkey for the recently advertised position of Machine Shop Supervisor, but whilst Monkey does qualify being a member of the primate family, he lacked the experience in standing upright which is unfortunately an essential element when using large machine tools. However every cloud has a silver lining, so whilst Monkey was knocked back on this occasion we do get to keep him in Carriage & Wagon!

Anyhow - once the buffer shanks had been machined down to the correct size (via human endeavor) they were able to be painted up to black gloss to protect them.

The next day they were fitted into position loosely but have yet to be fully tensioned and have their securing pins fitted on the inside. Once they can be fully compressed the pins will be fitted.

On the body, work to construct a set of droplight window glasses for the doors is ongoing, as is the final fitting of the door catches now that they have all been braised together. The braising has changed their shape ever so slightly, so each one is requiring further cleaning and "fettling" to achieve the final smooth fit.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

I have been guilty of being sent photographs taken by other volunteers and forgetting to include them in previous Blogs. Therefore, if me may, we shall return a week or two when the sides of the buffet were being sanded, filled and prepared for the paintwork.

On the paintwork side of things, progress has been very obvious. The roof is now completed, resplendent in grey. This has been followed by repainting of the two ends into black.

The bodysides themselves, which take a little longer, have also done well. All priming is now completed and the landward side is now covered in undercoat: red and white as required by the crimson & cream livery the coach will carry.

The seaward side is even more advanced with the first coat of gloss applied, giving a good idea of how it is going to look when finished.

Also underway is the varnishing of the destination boards which sit on the roof. These have now been varnished on one side which has returned them to a gloss finish, whilst the other sides await the same treatment.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

Awaiting transfer from Holt down to Weybourne for work to begin.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

Our main Mark 1 overhaul project has had another good week. The best news has been the completion of the underframe repainting, an end to a truly huge task. This vehicle now joins the dining train SO (M4372) as the only mainline Mark 1's on the railway to have received full underframe strip downs to metal and full repainting inside the frames.

The first wheel for the Sheringham end bogie has unfortunately encountered problems with defects within the metal. This has sadly meant that many years of life has had to be cut off the tyre in the wheel lathe to find good metal beneath. This is disappointing as the tyre is now significantly closer to becoming of scrap size, which would be expensive to rectify (via retyring). Of some comfort is that good metal was eventually found before reaching scrap size, so the wheel is now in the process of having a finishing cut and correct profile added to make it ready for service.

The bearing casings for this wheel, whilst it has been in the lathe, have been needle gunned and are in the process of being repainted ready for refitting. They are currently up to undercoat stage.

The brake pin checking and lubrication on the Holt end bogie is now also complete, and it has now been fully reassembled and just awaits attention to its wheelsets.

There has been more action under the coach whilst it remains lifted on the jacks. The battery boxes have been cleaned out and resealed with primer, as they were a bit...acidic from previous spillages.

The brakegear under the coach (which join the bogies to the brake cylinders via various arms and links) is receiving the same strip, repaint, and lubricate attention that the bogies have had to gain a fully checked and well oiled system. There are various sections currently around the workshop being painted up ready for fitting.

Also underneath has seen the completion of the main pipe runs for the brand new steam heat pipe. There are just a few flanges and small copper connecting pipes now to attend to.

This pipe includes a main end-to-end pipe with a subsidiary branching off to feed all of the individual compartment heaters.

Meanwhile, the air brake cylinders themselves are now fully repainted into gloss are now just await the correct grease before they can be reassembled.

Moving inside the coach, interior refurbishment of the guards area continues with the unsightly patches over the old periscope apertures being re-patched giving a smoother finish.

Inside the compartments, the ceilings have now all been sanded, and two sections of broken beading have been remade and replaced. Some gaps are now being filled with decorators caulk prior to repainting of the ceilings starting.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

We now have another door refitted, the landward side door at the Holt end this time. This is allowing the old toilet in the same corner to be reconstructed.

Given recent events elsewhere in the heritage railway world, it is no longer acceptable to just close the door on un-restored toilets and put the coach into passenger service ignoring those areas as "not part of the coach".

We have never run M4843 with working toilets and now that the steel end repairs are approaching completion we are rebuilding the floors of the ex toilets. These will be quickly panelled out, to a less exacting standard than normal, and then painted and left as store cupboards. This mirrors what we have done with the old toilet/shower area in E21224.

Also at the same (Holt) end, the upper sections of the renewed steel ends are being completed. Just one section of roofing now remains to be welded in place.

The curved angle section is currently being produced and fitted which arches across the whole vehicle.

Inside the vehicle, further coats of black paint have been applied to the covers which go in front of the heaters, and also the table legs. More varnishing work is also taking place in various areas.

Miscellaneous

One or two modifications are required (extra eyes) in the Y14 storm sheet.