April News Part 1

There are comparatively few images for this update as the final day of the working week was somewhat preoccupied with the Spring Steam Gala which has run its first day.

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Sole focus has been the fitting of glass to the fixed windows in the vehicle. These are now almost done (if not all done), and any excess sealant has been cleaned off also as the team work their way around the vehicle. Next will be the glazing of the moving panes such as the droplights and the strange hinged windows at the guards end.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

Despite a few challenges and blind avenues the passenger communication apparatus modifications are starting to come together, so hopefully it won't be too long before we can report that the coach has a system fitted once again.

Inside the guards area all of the wall planking has been removed from the luggage van area so the relevant areas can be restored - more news to follow on that score.

Meanwhile under the vehicle the reinstatement of lighting and electrical apparatus continues well. The reclaimed (Mark 1 style) lighting control boxes, regulator box and dynamo that were removed from Gresley Buffet E9128E have all now been fitted to the underframe of E1866E. They remain to be properly connected of course but the heavy task of getting them into position is now complete.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The letter rack pictured last week has now been completed and is resplendent in silver spray.

Staying with the interior, two replacement door panels have been cut out of plywood and stained to match the existing woodwork. These doors are located in the passenger vestibule at the Sheringham end of the coach, and will be covering up old cupboards which formerly housed the pipework and equipment for the toilet at that end. Now that the toilet is just a store cupboard, the access doors are no longer required so these panels will be permanently shut. We couldn't use the original doors as they had been too heavily modified during the coach's time as a mainline support coach in the past - this area used to be a shower!

The guards compartment floor has been removed and is currently being protected with the usual layers of paint before it is fixed back down again. The corridor flooring meanwhile has had the supporting bearers test fitted with new coach bolts and should hopefully be being fitted permanently shortly.

Welding of course continues, with the bodyside around the Sheringham end landward side still receiving attention.

However the largest visual change this week has been underneath. The coach is now back on jacks following last week's shunt and this has allowed the two bogies to be temporarily swapped around so that we can dismantle the Holt end bogie to change the wheelsets. This has now been done and once again we have a large pile of bits to start cleaning up and repaint!

All 8 bearing caps followed the ones that were done for M4843 in being repainted yellow and lettered up, these now look very nice and are all now refitted to the bogies.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

This is now in the staging area for its big push to completion (gasp!) to begin. The immediate tasks are to finish off all the exterior work which remains outstanding. So far the four sections of gutters which were removed for steelwork repairs to the ends have now been refitted. We are now concentrating on attaching the corridor connection "bellows" to the faceplates which were craned on last week.

Internally, a coat of floor paint has been applied to the two store cupboards, but more coats are required.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The finishing touches to the repaint continue. The route indicator box has been fitted to the front end which completes this area, complete with cosmetic reporting number, "B3". All of the lining is now also finished with the lower bodyside stripe applied. A start has been made on all the bodyside and chassis lettering (such as numbers etc), and there is quite a bit of it to get through.

Meanwhile, some of the lower height finishing jobs are now being tackled. The two solebars have been cleaned down and are being repainted into black gloss, as is the rear bufferbeam. The front bufferbeam has received a pink primer however, as this is a better base coat for the red gloss we will be applying to this area.