January News Part 1

A Happy New Year to all readers! Let us hope 2019 is a fruitful one for coach restoration around the land. Early January is always a bit slow to pick up, with some paid staff on extended holidays and less volunteers coming in due to the extended duties that home life can present at this time of year. However we are slowly getting back into the swing of things...

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

All being well, 2019 should be the year 853's rebuild reaches its conclusion. With that in mind, we are dangerously close to the "big push" to see it finished. Further sanding and filling is being progressed on the Holt end and seaward sides (the other two sides are now complete) with more applications of pink primer in between. The team are now working towards glazing the vehicle which will then in turn allow the exterior to receive final painting. To this end the door droplight frames have been focused on recently with machining of slots which will receive the glass. The frames are now built up and have been stained on one side and primed on the other. They are to be varnished internally and painted externally, giving them a duel personality.

On the interior, the main lighting is now completed in the guards van and disabled space. This has involved wiring up the fake gas lighting with a grain-of-wheat bulb housed inside a cut-off test tube to represent the pilot light....

....and an LED downlight mounted in the ceiling to represent the main light.

They are hard to photograph in action but they do look good. The assembly is finished with a bowl clamped to the ceiling with a decorative cast ring.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

More supporting woodwork has been fitted to the vehicle's sides, this time at ankle height to support the new steam heating elements which are to run down the two sides. A good start has also been made on removing the sliding lights out of the top of the windows, for dismantling and cleaning back to polished brass, as they are currently over-painted brown. Whilst these are out, one will also be used as an aid to casting two more windows worth, as the corridor side (in the coach's original configuration) only had two of the four side windows with opening sections. Having all eight present will be more appropriate for an open saloon configuration. Work to install a hot water tank for one of the taps is also ongoing, salvaged from one of the Mark 1 coaches which no longer has toilets fitted.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

We now have a full set of four wheelsets for the vehicle, with a big day out to the East Lancs Railway to pick up the axle that we needed. They have our thanks for sparing us this wheelset which is crucial to allowing E21224 to operate on Network Rail metals.

In common with our wheels here, this spare one has also been stored outside, long enough for some natural foliage to take residence. Being Northern himself, Monkey was immediately impressed with the "good honest moss" and has opened a new visitor attraction for 2019:

Sadly the horticultural masterpiece was soon disturbed as less than a day after arriving the wheelset had its bearing housings removed to inspect the roller bearings and the surplus V belt pully was also removed as it is not suitable for a Mark 1.

The axle is now ready for tyre turning into profile.

Work on the bodyside and floor welding on the landward side has ceased briefly as our welder has been away for the birth of his first child. A big congratulations from all of us in the workshop as we wish the new family all the best!

A small job completed has been the repainting of the battery box interiors, which will allow the fitting of new batteries in due course.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The landward side door, pictured last update, has had its weather strip and grab handle fitted and adjusted which completed the door work at that end of the vehicle.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

Bodyside repairs continue on the landward side of the vehicle. The entire side is now rubbed down and welding repairs to window edges and associated bodyfilling and sanding has been creeping from the rear of the vehicle towards the front. This is all now at a very advanced stage and I can't see it being long before we move onto the front end and the seaward side.

The biggest single task to get the landward side up to scratch has been a large repair to the driver's door, which was the worst on the vehicle. It had blown out of shape due to severe rot in the bottom of the door and close to the handle at waist level. It was also distorted to the extent it was getting stuck and was hard to open/shut. By chopping off the bottom of the steel door skin, we were able to replace the bottom of the door frame and reassemble without fully taking the door apart into its component parts.

Both steel skin and wooden frame are now new at the bottom. With remarkable speed, body expert Phil has undertake all the repairs and rehung the door which now opens and shuts seamlessly. Even better, there are now no jagged holes in it either! The completion of this door has meant the entire landward side is now almost ready for repainting.

Cleaning of the exhaust silencers has continued and these have now been repainted ready for refitting. This will occur after painting as they will get in the way if we fit them now.

The route indicator box for the front has now been built from steel and any imperfections filled.

Measurements have been taken for the glass and the box has now been primed in preparation for the glass being fitted,. Some wooden frames are also being produced to hold the glass in place.

The inward opening guards door on the seaward side has now been reassembled with a replacement window after the original was found to be badly scored. All of the internal planking is now back in place and the window operates much more smoothly.

Maintenance

RBR E1969, from the dining train, has been back in detention again as its generator failed over the Christmas period. Luckily the entire dining train is currently at Weybourne for the closed period so that the four coaches can receive Ultrasonic Axle Testing later this month, so the RBR was ideally placed to undertake a generator swap, overdue for several years. This was successfully completed with the overhauled example now in situ.

The tyre turning work, also scheduled for E1969 during this period, is now no longer able to be completed at the present time, so we will be seeing some more of E1969 when it comes in again for this work later. I think this particular vehicle has been in for repairs more than any other the past few years, which has been slightly disappointing given how large a rebuild it received in the mid 2000's. However we continue to keep on top of it, justifiably given E1969's key role in the fleet.