March News Part 2

The Blog returns after several weeks "off air" due to weekends away. One of these included an event to mark the completion of the cosmetic restoration of the National Railway Museum's 2-HAP Electric Multiple Unit powercar. It was very interesting comparing vehicles, methods and workshop facilities at their site in Shildon. Needless to say they have done an excellent job and spent a large sum of money on this retired workhorse. For those who believe that the NRM are only interested in royal trains and Flying Scotsman, they really must see this 2-HAP vehicle as it pretty much represents the opposite to the nation's favorite steam loco: it's not a locomotive, it's anonymous, and a run-of-the-mill commuter vehicle. Serious investment in these areas of the NRM's collection is very encouraging to see, and is not too dissimilar to our own restoration endeavors such as the Quad-Art and Suburban projects.

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Anyway, to business. The exterior of 853 has been rubbed down gently over the past few weeks to key up the BR Crimson and allow the recently delivered Great Eastern Crimson to be applied. The glazing for the vehicle is still waiting to be delivered and it is required to be fitted before the final painting of the outside can start.

On the interior, the painting of the ceilings into eggshell has been completed ion the two passenger compartments and a modern battery has arrived which will power the LED lighting from a suitably hidden location.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

Since the previous update significant internal work has been completed. The raising of the floor timbers to the correct height (pictured last update) has been completed along the entire length of the passenger portion of the vehicle. With this done, all of the stored components from the guards areas have been moved to the opposite end of the carriage, so now work in the passenger end ceases allowing access to tackle the guards end for a bit.

The old flooring has been pulled out of the guards van area entirely which has revealed the top of the steel underframe below.

To allow this to happen the "glasshouse" guards compartment had to be stripped out and removed. This will be reinstated once repairs are completed.

Other ongoing tasks have included the fitting of the passenger communication apparatus to the Holt end and reupholstering of the lounge style chairs down in the "soft furnishings" department.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The Sheringham end bogie received a busy reassembling session which resulted in all the millions of bits and bobs being reunited into a single bogie once again. The ride height will have to be adjusted in the future but for now this end is done. We have held back from dismantling the second bogie as we require the vehicle to be movable or else the DMU will be trapped in the staging area of the shed for longer than it should be in there.

The bearing caps for both bogies have now all been repainted up to yellow gloss, which looks very bright.

Also underneath has been further air brake pipework progress, with several new sections being bent into shape and other (smaller) squashed sections replaced. Most of the underside pipework is now whole again, with just the pipes that feed up into the guards compartment still to fully install.

Other air brake components are starting to be fitted back onto the vehicle, including the two main brake cylinders.

On the exterior bodyshell, the repairs to the landward side are now complete along the passenger section of the vehicle. Work has now started on renewing corroded "crash pillar" end framework at the Sheringham end.

One of the four pillars has so far been treated.

The polishing of the metal window frames on the seaward side passenger compartments has now also been completed, which means all of the windows for the whole vehicle have now had all of their original paint removed.

Moving onto the interior, resources have been available to allow all of the flooring to be refitted in all five compartments, reversing the stripping out which was required about a month or so ago to instigate repairs to the corroded steel floor supports. This done, the supports for the corridor flooring (also removed) have now all been repaired and test fitted into position, their final fitting is awaiting suitable bolts to be ordered in.

Finally, several more coats of varnish have been applied to the compartment interior walls.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

This coach has now returned to the workshop where a number of the smaller jobs that had not been finished off have been sorted out. The centre door on the landward side had a missing aluminium weather strip which has now been fitted back into place.

The internal woodwork adjacent to this door pillar is now also being replaced. On the Holt end, the supports for the lighting control jumper cables have been fitted into place.

The final rodding for the passenger communication apparatus has been cleaned back ready to repaint.

Preparations are being made to refit the gutters which had to be removed for metalwork repairs. The woodwork which will be screwed onto this end before the corridor connection is refitted has been repaired with many new sections spliced in, and will be available soon to refit.

The final window which was removed, the seaward side ex-toilet one, has been refitted which in turn has allowed the reassembly of the seaward side store cupboard to progress through to completion, with re-paneling and re-flooring completed. This area is now also painted in primer.

The store cupboard opposite, which was at a more advanced stage, is now finished in gloss cream.

 The bulkheads in the vestibule outside the cupboards is being rubbed down for further coats of varnish.

On the underframe, various restored lighting box covers have been refitted into their respective positions.

he bearing caps for the wheelsets have been painted yellow (at the same time as E21224's).

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

Repainting has continued, with the vehicle given two coats of green gloss.

This completed, the windows are now being refitted wherever they had been removed, and those that were in situ throughout are having any paint splashes removed off them.

The route indicator box for the front end has been glazed and just needs the false numbers/letters applied.

Inside the guards van the cream interior walls have been cleaned and/or patch painted where required to make them smart again, the floor has been repainted and the chequer plate flooring has been cleaned up of any spilled paint etc.

Maintenance

RBR E1969 was raised to the correct ride height by means of packing and is now back at Sheringham where it belongs. Before it left, the opportunity was taken to repaint the tyre slip marks on the wheelsets, a mainline running requirement and the originals were starting to get a bit faded through road dirt.

In its place has been the suburban set which has been down for C exams.

A replacement step has also been fitted to the guards brake as there had been reports people were struggling to get in and out of it. This one is larger and at a more convenient height.

The Gresley Buffet car has also returned from Holt and has been in the yard so it can be stripped of surplus equipment.

It has a generator fitted which provides lighting these days, so the dynamo and lighting control boxes have been removed as they are wanted to fit to Thompson E1866E.

Some bits were unbolted but unfortunately other bits had been welded in situ originally so had to be cut off.

Several Not To Be Moved boards are being painted up for Sheringham, they have been carefully masked off to paint the red chevrons which these require to display.

Other maintenance has involved much replacing of brake blocks on running vehicles to ready them for the new season.