November News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Extensively pictured last week were the four buffers which had been loosely fitted. A great deal more effort has been put into them this week which has meant that all four are now tensioned, are fully secured at the rear and are all correctly sprung and spaced. This signals completion for this particular aspect of the restoration.

On the body, work to repair the droplight frames continues. The door catches for the four passenger doors, recently brazed, are now all permanently fitted into position, tested and painted.

Painting of the insides of the passenger doors is reaching an advanced stage with more coats of cream and brown being applied.

One of the more visual moments came when the electrics for the coach burst into life following the installation of a control panel and associated wiring. The compartment lighting and the inset tail light are now both armed and operational!

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E

Painting continues. The seaward side main panels are now finished having received two coats of Crimson & Cream gloss, whilst the landward side has one coat of gloss and currently awaits a second.

The roof boards meanwhile have now been varnished and refitted into their rightful positions on the roof. The suggestion of swapping the boards around to create trains going from Liverpool Street to Liverpool Street fell on deaf ears!

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

Work continues with focus still both above and below floor level. Underneath, the new steam heat piping is now substantially complete and clamped into position, with the exception of a few flanges and valves which will be fitted in due course once parts can be machined or ordered in.

In terms of the two bogies, focus is now solely directed at the wheelsets. The first wheelset (of four) is now turned to correct profile and has been swapped out of the wheel lathe, to be replaced by wheelset No2. The latter is now in the process of being turned. Set No1 is back in our workshop and has been needle gunned of all its old paint and rust and treated to a coat of rust kill primer.

Both of the bearing casings from both wheelsets, four in total, are also in bits being cleaned and repainted so they can be refitted to the wheels when ready. We hope to have the two wheelsets ready for fitting into the Holt end bogie very soon.

The brakegear mentioned last week and the battery box interiors have all progressed into undercoat.

Inside the vehicle, the compartment ceilings are now fully caulked so they are ready for repainting.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The big news for this coach is that the metalwork replacement work is now complete! This has turned out to be a huge job and not originally envisaged for this vehicle at all.

Getting it done is a major symbolic milestone for the vehicle and will hopefully spur on the remaining work required to see the coach pushed through to completion. The final welding work involved completion of the roof hoop on the Holt end and welding up replacement sections in the roof skin at that end.

Work to reconstruct the Holt end toilet/store cupboard is also progressing, with internal wall supports being returned into their original spaces, but onto brand new metal.