April News Part 2

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

As hinted last week, the glass fitting has continued through to the moving panes. The two ex-hinged guards windows have now been glazed and are securely in place, whilst the assembly of the drop-lights for the doors is also progressing well. These droplights will be fitted to the doors once they are all fully glazed.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

The hidden body framework in the luggage van area has been the focus of attention, having been cleaned down and protected in several layers of paint, finishing with left-over gloss which explains the multi coloured appearance.

Meanwhile progress continues underneath the vehicle with some painting work on the recently refitted components (dynamo etc) and more chassis painting.

A reduced size pulley for the dynamo has been fabricated and machined which will hopefuully charge the batteries at lower speeds than previously.

Parts of the vacuum brake system are now methodically being removed, inspected for wear, repainted and refitted, with the linkages around the vacuum cylinder around the Sheringham end being the first area to receive this work.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The replacement cupboard doors, for the interior bulkhead which were explained in detail last week, are seen pictured here as there was no image last update.

The floor from the guards compartment has now been fully protected underneath and refitted back into position now that the floor supports are fully sound in this area.

This has allowed the vacuum and brake piping that comes up through the floor to be test fitted once again so that the underfloor pipework can be fitted permanently! However hopefully once all this work is done there will be a much neater space around the guard, as the duel braking conversion BR instigated was ugly to say the least.

Along the corridor, all of the holes through the steelwork which accommodate the bolts that support the wooden floor have been opened out to accommodate the new, larger, bolts. This done, the area that will be hidden by the floor supports has been protected with paint. Hopefully we are now not far away from reinstating all of the flooring down the corridor, making it safe to start the full interior reassembly.

On the exterior, panelwork replacement around the lower part of the luggage van area on the landward side is progressing well, with new metal welded in and the window aperture to be cut out shortly.

Little has been done this week on the bogie refurbishment, due to those particular resources being moved onto M51188, however there is a nice neat pile of parts ready to receive attention!

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

The gutters which were refitted last week have now been finished off. This involved sealing the joint where the chopped off bits join onto the main section of gutter (which wasn't removed) and painting them in a starting coat of roof paint. The areas of renewed roof above the gutters were also painted at the same time.

Both corridor ends now have their rubber and steel bellows refitted, a long winded task as there are so many little fixings on them that are located with limited access.

The final element of the corridor connections is a flexible "rain hood" that is suspended over the top and held up with brackets. This has been fitted to the Sheringham end but due to a few more areas requiring some painting the Holt end has had to wait till next week.

Final preparations and cleaning to the interior floor have been made so that the remaining areas under the seats can be painted.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The finishing touches continue. The solebars and bufferbeams are now all repainted into black (except the front buffer beam which received three coats of red instead) and all the underframe lettering is now complete. This was completed the same day that the main signwriting (numbers etc) was finished on the bodysides and corridor end.

Also at the corridor end, the exhaust silencers have been refitted back in place.

Two replacement footboards have been cut to replace either damaged or rotten examples on the vehicle.

The final task for the repaint is now in progress, that of picking out all of the bufferbeam pipes and equipment into their multicoloured coding, DMU's have reds, blues, blacks and whites all to denote the various pipes and connectors.

The interior is on the verge of being finished off, with the window surrounds being screwed back into position. All but one window is now refitted. A bit of a sweep out has also occurred as the interior has become quite dusty since being in the workshop.

It is expected for M51188 to return to service next week.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

The gap in the wagon fleet left by pipe wagon 4228 last year has been filled with the arrival of "Oyster" brakevan DB993707 from the Churnet Valley Railway. Fully operational and restored between 2011-2014, it can be used in the demonstration freight set and for works trains and stock movements with unbraked vehicles, making it a useful vehicle - particularly for the Operations Department who undertake many of these moves.

Its ballast ploughs for track renewal work can also be used should the more modern TRAMM be out of service for overhaul in the future.

The vehicle is currently at Sheringham but will hopefully be moved to Weybourne for some remedial work before it enters regular service.

Workshop

Some other miscellaneous items are also passing through the workshop. These include three not-to-be-moved boards which have been fully repainted, lettered and returned to Sheringham. There is also a table being made out of an old cable drum for the commercial department.