The final vehicle to be completed this year is also the only one from the 1930's era: LNER Gresley Buffet Car E9128E, which had been out of service for a few years due to its declining condition. The text below covering the vehicle's history from 1937 through to 2011 comes courtesy of Steve Allen, undoubtedly the architect of its original restoration, and coupled to his historical research abilities makes him the best placed to tell its story:
Originally numbered 51769, the vehicle was built at York in 1937 (believed to be August) to diagram D167. With its '5' prefix number it was unique as the only Buffet Car built for the Great Central section of the LNER. It was built specifically for Manchester-Sheffield-Cleethorpes services and must have passed through the Woodhead tunnels thousands of times in its life. It is reported to have been put into store, with other catering vehicles, at the outbreak of war in 1939 and kept secure at Patley Bridge in Yorkshire until put back into traffic a year or so later.
51769 was refurbished in 1946 when the Rexine (Leather cloth) wall covering was removed and the walls painted. At the same time it was renumbered into the post war scheme as 9128. Post nationalisation it seems to have been a general user Eastern Region vehicle and received the BR number E9128E being painted into Crimson and Cream.
In the late 1950's E9128E was rebuilt by BR to internally match the more modern Mk1 stock, with Formica walls, blanked off windows, lowered ceilings and enclosed bar counters, it would have also been repainted into maroon at this point. Why BR selected 20 year old wooden stock when more
modern steel built stock was being scrapped is still a mystery that no one seems to be able to adequately explain.
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
In the late 1960's it was one of only a handful of pre-nationalisation coaches that were painted into BR's corporate Blue & Grey livery, this would prove to be E9128E's fourth (and final) colour scheme.
By the 1970's E9128E was a bit of a celebrity as one of the very last pre-nationalisation coaches in service. It was a regular vehicle on the famous Cambridge Buffet Express at this time, it also worked in the Harwich Boat Trains to/from Manchester, and could also often be found on excursion work. The vehicle was observed at times in Glasgow, Edinburgh, York, Bournemouth, Bristol, Cambridge, Norwich, Great Yarmouth and London. It's sisters fell gradually fell by the wayside until the last three were withdrawn together in the summer of 1977.
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| Photo R E Bird |
E9128E was stored safely at the National Railway Museum's yard in York whilst BR made arrangements for their sale. The NRM selected one of the other two (W9135E) for the national collection.
The M&GN Society purchased E9128E for approximately £4,500 + vat - a very significant sum of money at the time, but they were determined to have a Gresley Buffet in the collection and this was the last chance. The Society was fortunate that their Railtours generated sufficient income to afford such a purchase. Initially it was moved to Norwich Victoria, arriving there in November 1977. The intention was that the NNR's offshoot C&W team there would fast track restore it once BCK E21103 was completed, however it turned out to be a much more significant restoration task.
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
The original intention was to restore it for use as a static buffet at Sheringham replacing the rapidly deteriorating LNW Director's Saloon. However events overtook as the Gresley was found to have very significant amounts of rot in the end pillars, floor, floor end beams, and parts of the roof.
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
To attend to this, the interior had to be gutted which resulted in a decision to 'retro-restore' it to as built condition reinstating the missing windows and recreating the Art-Deco style interior.
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
After repeated vandal attacks at Norwich the coach was moved to Sheringham in April 1980 - here restoration continued.
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
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| Photo Nigel Scarlett |
Slowly at first but it gained pace with the roof being completed in the spring of 1981 and re-panelling taking place from June 1981 to December 1981. Sadly we couldn't afford 'real' teak so a suitable substitute call Freijo (also known as Brazilian Teak) was used. It cost a quarter of the price of teak but still cost nearly £3,000 which was a lot of money in 1980.
By this time the new station buffet at Sheringham was on the cards so the idea of it being a static buffet was ditched, and with the impending extension of the line to Holt the idea of an operational on-train buffet was preferred.
The exterior of the vehicle was completed quite quickly by the summer of 1982. However, the detail in the interior took a significant amount of time, being gradually restored between 1982 and 1987 - during this time it was often temporarily pushed into traffic for the Santa season which slowed completion.
The coach was fitted with a replica Art Deco interior with stainless steel (rather than chrome) fittings, and with leather cloth on the walls and counter front. The vestibules were classic LNER varnished teak style. The kitchen though was fitted with modern equipment to meet hygiene standards.
Of note is that the style of interior matched a number of available photos at the time and drawings acquired from the NRM. We were perplexed that the evidence we found when the coach was stripped didn't quite match the photos. It seems, from photos that surfaced later, that we'd fitted the slightly more ornate 1933 style interior rather than much more austere 1937 interior. Having seen other restored cars with the later interior, the original restoration team are not sad at how things ended up. At least two other railways have copied "our" interior for their restored cars and not the 1937 style.
The restored (and renumbered) 51769 entered traffic in November 1987 (exactly 10 years after purchase) and was then put into regular use on the NNR as a buffet and bar car.
With regular revarnishing the teak finish initially lasted well even though it was stored outside in all weathers, however a couple of years of missed re-varnishing soon took their toll. Despite stripping back to bare wood and revarnishing the finish was hard to restore and even harder to maintain.
By 2006 it was exceedingly tired. Due to some of the panelling going rotten the decision was taken to re-clad in meranti panels and to repaint into BR Crimson and Cream livery. Whilst unfortunate to lose a teak finished vehicle the BR liveried vehicle did fit in better with the rest of the NNR's stock.
Despite a further refresh in 2011 the replacement panelling was suffering again, and the vehicle was eventually stored awaiting attention.
Fast forward to August 2018 and the Joint Heritage Coach Fund made a decision to take on the vehicle's resurrection. They wasted no time in removing all of the troublesome lower half paneling as well as several sections of corridor end panelling, making structural repairs as they went where required. The whole structure was then resealed in resin before experimental Dibond paneling was applied to the lower half, an aluminium/plastuic composite far removed from the original teak that went originally. The roof canvas was repaired where required and new strips were added at cantrail height where the roof meets the bodysides. The roof was fully repainted which will go some way to ensuring it's nice and sealed from potential water ingress. The underframe required nothing more than a good wash down and repaint into black gloss. The final task was the full repainting of the vehicle into BR Carmine & Cream. Now fully finished once again, it looks good, time will tell if the finish on the experimental Di-bond paneling lasts as well as on the wood, or better...
Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853
Returning to the workshop, bodywork volunteers have continued working on 853 whilst others brave the outdoors to work on the Thompson BTK. Once again, sanding and filling has been the order of events and some quite large areas have been reaching a stage where final painting must be on the horizon. The Sheringham end and landward side appear to be the most advanced and by the end of this week had received another coat of primer all over giving it a very tidy and, dare I say it, "complete" appearance.
London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E
The hidden elements of the interior reconstruction continue to progress at a good rate. The stripped out ceiling has allowed better protection of the steel roof hoops that form part of the structure of this vehicle. These have been painted up in various coats of paint and are now finished in gloss. Their previous paint had failed revealing bare metal and they were already becoming rusty despite being cocooned in the ceiling cavity.
The new beam for the toilet water tank is now fully bolted up, and the new steel supports fabricated for the tank are now also in place. This allowed for a water test on the tank, which was found to be water tight after it was filled up. The external pipes that fill up the tank had a few leaks but these have now been sealed.
The new wooden support panels at waist height, pictured last week, have now all been fitted along the sides of the coach where required, completing the modifications to this area of hidden framework. More painting of the inside of the steel and around all of the thick wooden body framework has also been undertaken, which has been a great job for using up old colours of gloss paint that are stored in the workshop and in danger of going off. The sides are a riot of pinks, yellows and greens!
British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224
Two weeks since the last update has seen the wheelset refurbishment progress as well as it can up to this point. All three wheelsets we have on site are now completed in gloss black paint, and all have their bearing housings re-greased and refitted into position. These three axles are therefore now ready for service, and just need fitting into the bogies. This will wait however until the fourth and final wheelset arrives from another railway in the North, which will in turn be re-profiled, cleaned and painted.
The major floor surgery has continued, with all the compartment and corridor flooring that needs to be removed now done, along all five compartments. This has left the place looking very bare and we need to get the floors back in as soon as possible as work inside is not practical with the floors missing everywhere! The removed flooring has allowed the new steel repair sections to be welded into place, which has been completed in the two first class compartments (nearest Sheringham). The second class ones can be done once new steel section arrives as we have now used all that we had in stock.
Whilst the steel floor supports are being tackled, other volunteers have been repairing some of the chunky hardwood which has been removed to gain access to the steel. A lot of these are generally sound but have small areas that are broken and/or rotten. Given their large size, it is uneconomical to replace them fully when some skillful repairs and splicing can return them to full health once again. The repairs can look odd but are remarkably strong and effective.
Before the floors were removed from the compartments, there was just enough time to complete the painting of the five ceilings into white gloss. These look fantastic and are the first areas of the compartments to be completed. Compartment reconstruction will continue (moving onto the walls) once the floors are back in place and it is safe to work in there again.
British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843
The task of removing all of the redundant under seat electric heaters and control units is now completed, these have now been gathered and will be making their way to another railway soon.
The Sheringham end vestibule is edging ever closer to completion with the hanging of the landward side door. The lock now needs adjusting and a weather strip also needs adding to the lock side.
British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188
With the Gresley Buffet now completed, we welcomed our next project into the workshops, the fifth Class 101 Diesel Multiple Unit vehicle to be refreshed in the last 5 years. This vehicle is most easily recognisable as the "blue one", given our other four vehicles are in green livery. It is on hire to us for the 2018 and 2019 seasons from the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway and part of the hire agreement is to undertake bodywork repairs and a full repaint whilst it is with us.
On arrival in the shed we wasted no time in getting started. In a very short space of time most of the items which are being removed from the vehicle for the work were off. This has included six bodyside windows, the grab handles, exhaust silencers and the plate which was covering a hole in the front intended for a 2-character route indicator box.
The windows were removed due to corrosion under the sealing rubbers where water has got in. This has the added advantage of also making the bodysides easier to work on and weld.
So far, two thirds of the drivers (landward) side has received its welding repairs and is currently being rubbed down and filled to create the smooth finish required for painting.
The exhaust silencers are in sound condition but are being thoroughly cleaned as they have severe sooty deposits on them. They are due to be repainted before they are refitted.
The front end now has a hole where a 2-character route indicator box was originally fitted. These were done away with by British Rail in the 1970's and are sometimes reinstated in preservation to make the units more authentic when being returned into their 1950's/1960's colour schemes. At the request of the vehicle's owners, a route box is being installed as part of the refresh.
The box is currently being cut out of sheet steel and fabricated in house, and will be welded together soon.
The opportunity is also being taken to replace and repair the guards opening window on the seaward side. Due to distortion in the door, the window has been rubbing on the glass when it was opened and closed, which has caused irreversible scoring on the glass. The door has been dismantled and the distortion partially corrected so the window no longer fouls. We have replaced the damaged glass and the cleaned/repaired assembly now awaits refitting into place.
A start has also been made on chipping off the old roof paint to bring the roof back to a bare metal surface. This will give a proper key for some new roof paint.
Workshop
The workshop was cleared out so that a cherry picker could sneak its way in to replace two of our lights which have been defective and out of action for many months now. With the shortest day having passed this week it is nice to have full lighting in the workshop once again.
Christmas Wishes
As this is the final Blog update before the big festive day, may I wish all readers a very Happy Christmas. Don't forget there will be a summary of the year in the week following Christmas to remind readers of the journey we have all taken in 2018 and to ready us to do it all again next year!
