April News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Glazing work continues with more drop-light glass being fitted into frames this week. Several are now also appearing fitted inside the doors as well.

The next task to accompany the glass will be reproduction leather straps for pulling the windows up and down. As is tradition - these will be stamped GER.

More interior painting has also been progressed this week.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E

A slightly quieter week for this vehicle. Another of the sliding top-lights has been dismantled for restoration, while more electrical switch gear for the lighting has been dismantled, cleaned up and reassembled to ensure completeness and reliability into the future...

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224

The cupboard doors, now suitably stained, have received a few coats of varnish so are slowly gaining an attractive shine.

Air brake pipework is progressing nicely with the new pipe runs under the guards floor now permanently fitted in place.

This has also involved careful bending of the original pipes that came up through the floor to make a better job than BR did cosmetically. The air pipe now follows the curve of the original vacuum pipe and although its still in the initial stages the visible pipework is already looking neater than previously.

The corridor floor supports are progressing well with most of the corridor now refitted.

On the exterior, the side panelling is now complete on the landward side which concludes this side of the coach. Only the two ends now remain to be welded. Crash pillars at the Sheringham end are now the main focus of attention, with several previous repairs being chopped out and redone to better standards.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

After much work, the passenger communication apparatus is now refitted permanently into place on the Holt end of the coach.

Other end "furniture" has included the refitting of the toilet filler pipes. These are no longer used but have been repaired (where they had snapped off on the roof) and refitted to keep the coach externally original.

A start has now been made on doing final bodywork preparation and filling before the vehicle is handed over for repainting.

British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958

This vehicle, painted five years ago, is the replacement in the shed for M51188 (see below). It was due in during October this year for varnishing but an opportunity in the programme has arisen due to other reshuffling which created an opportunity to bring it in six months earlier. The first task was to clean it down as it was very dirty having been in use as a front line coach recently on the main steam set. This was done by a variety of volunteers with a variety of products and a lot of elbow grease! The end result was a clean coach ready for further work.

So far, the seaward side has also been sanded back gently to create a good surface for the varnish.

A small repair to the strip which holds the flexible bellows to the corridor connection faceplate has been made at the Holt end, corrosion had split the old one outwards and a full replacement can't be fitted unless the corridor connection is removed, so this repair will keep the bellows watertight for the foreseeable future.

We have been experiencing problems with the opening sliding windows in the passenger saloons. One of these has been completely dismantled into its individual parts, cleaned and reassembled meaning they open freely now. Unfortunately we don't have the time to do this to the other 15, so some of the less stiff examples have been cleaned as best as possible whilst still in situ, which has also improved some of them.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

A flurry of activity early in the week saw this vehicle finished. Tidying up included fitting the remaining window surrounds back into place on the interior and having a sweep out. Externally, more bufferbeam pipework was colour coded, the replacement foot-boards fitted and painted gloss black.

The vehicle completed a test run on Monday. The C&W completion of the painting coincided with other work by the diesel department to get two DMU sets working together in multiple for the first time in the NNR's history - so it was quite a day.

Both the repaint work and multiple working were a great success, so M51188 has now been signed off back into service, the end of another Bronze level overhaul for us.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

This new arrival has now squeezed into the shed meaning we have five vehicles inside at once which is fairly rare for us. No time has been wasted, with the whole exterior receiving a wash and hose down just before it came in. Having been outside for five years since being overhauled a few jobs are required before it is fully released into NNR service. These tasks are all cosmetic and centre mainly on the exterior and paintwork. It is not anticipated for this vehicle to be in works for long.

So far most of the handrails have been removed (they get in the way) and the seaward side and Sheringham ends have been combed over, with any cracked or loose paint chipped off to reach a solid surface below. Most of the filler which hides the screw heads had also popped so has been dug out in order to be replaced.

Two rotten corner pillars on the cabin have been chopped out ready for new pieces to be spliced in. Luckily, these two pillars are the only serious areas to have rotted - all other defects are small surface examples. This is mainly because the vehicle is being kept on top of after only five years, rather than the more normal practice of leaving it 20 odd years and then having to do a much larger rebuild.