January News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

More sanding and filling this week to the Holt end and seaward side. It can't be long now before the undercoat paint comes out! Further varnishing and painting of ancillary components has been done, including the picture frames for the walls, and the compartment interiors have been cleaned as they were getting bad!

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

Progress has been made on several fronts. More scraping and brass polishing work has been undertaken on the two sets of sliding windows that were removed last week, to return them to their original shine.

On the coach itself, the floor has been completely removed revealing the framework below.

This has allowed a quick scrape down of the underframe and rust kill paint has also been applied this week. Notice how the rough surface of the metal has reduced the brush to mop-like status!

Part of the underframe trussing has been cut out and replaced by a rather thick tube. This has now been welded up by our friends in the engineering depart (required as it is structural) and will allow for a soil pipe to be fitted in the future if it is required. This has been done on a "just in case" basis as the restoration team don't want to have to heavily modify the coach in the future if dropping waste onto the track gets banned.

Moving upwards, into the ceiling, some extra support beams are being fitted into the roof space beyond the end of the original passenger area up to the guards compartment. This is because in its new life the passenger area will be slightly larger than original to encompass the first set of double doors, to allow disabled access. We therefore need the curved ceiling to extend further than it did originally, hence the extra supporting woodwork.

More woodwork has come in the form of some new hoops to support the surrounds for the extra windows which are going to be cut into the sides, and work to introduce extra passenger communication chain points is also being done.

Inside the upholstery workshop, a test seat for the Thompson has been reupholstered in the proposed new material to asses its suitability before ordering the bulk of the material. Pictured is an original next to the new blue look.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The wheelset heavily pictured last week has now been painted in rust-kill primer and moved into the wheel lathe to be turned down to profile. This is now mid way through being completed.

The areas of underframe which were not able to be painted from underneath, but which were revealed after the flooring was all removed for the welding repairs, have now been painted with primer, undercoat and gloss black to protect them for the next 50 years. This will all be covered up once the new flooring is back in!

With the battery box interiors painted the covers have now been refitted to keep the dirt out.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

No progress to report.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

Welding and bodywork preparation is now complete on the landward side. The cab end is the next section to tackle, with lots of pin holes, fibreglass and expanding foam being discovered underneath!

Cleaning and repainting of the corridor connection area has been able to be progressed this week. The end sliding door has been rubbed down and repainted into gloss black, whilst the scissor mechanisms on the outside of the corridor connection have been cleaned, primed and undercoated.

Maintenance

All of the coaches required for Ultrasonic Axle Testing (UAT) are now at Weybourne for testing next week. These include RBR 1969, FO 3116, SO 4372, TSO 4641, BCK's 21103/21224 & BG 81033. This includes the currently registered Cromer fleet, plus any coaches that we may choose to register in the next two years. Note that the choice to UAT a coach does not necessarily make it a mainline/Cromer coach!