Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853
Work has continued to focus on the doors, specifically the lowering droplight windows. These have now all been fitted around the whole coach, but some are too tight and aren't sliding properly so have been back in and bout a few times for adjustments. This task is ongoing.
At the same time the newly stamped up GER lowering straps have been produced and are also being fitted. Again, these have not been trouble free, with some binding up and requiring modifications to achieve smooth operation.
More interior painting inside the compartments, adding further layers to what has already been treated, has been completed. Finally, the vehicle's battery, which will feed the LED lighting and tail lamps, has been installed.
London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E
The last of the sliding top-lights (pictured last time) has now been removed from the coach, stripped down to its component parts and cleaned. This was the last of the six examples that were present in the vehicle. Can we remember how to put them back together?!?
More lighting equipment has been installed back on the coach, including the battery charging sockets.
Inside the shed, much of the re-purposed steam heat piping, taken from a Mark 1, has been split apart and lengthening pieces added to suit the Thompson vehicle. Some sections have been finished and treated to a coat of heat proof paint whilst others are awaiting extending.
British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224
The two replacement cupboard doors which have been ongoing for a while now have had some extra framework added into the apertures for them to fix securely onto and limit any warping in the future.
The latest progress with the air brake pipework is the installation of the emergency outlet pipe for the guard's emergency valve. Due to it being compressed air (rather than vacuum) the emergency valve cannot expel into the guards saloon for obvious reasons, so a pipe directs it back downwards under the coach to blast harmlessly downwards towards the track.
Corridor flooring continues steadily. With the supports now in place permanently, the floor panels themselves have been dropped in temporarily, and one-by-one are being shaved and fitted properly to create a smooth and level floor. Once the flooring is in place properly, this will allow interior reconstruction along the middle section of the coach, which will really make a difference.
End crash pillar repairs continue at the Sheringham end. The two middle pillars have now been chopped out. Unfortunately the heavy plate that the middle crash pillars sit on was also corroded and distorted (a fairly common Mark 1 disease) so the affected area is also currently removed for a new plate top be cut out ready to weld in.
The neglected bogie overhaul work has had a few small items attended to this week (we plan to put more resources back onto this when possible) with cleaning down ready for repainting being the order of the day.
British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843
This Silver overhaul is surging forwards towards the home straight, which is just as well as it's been with us for far too long and has been dogged by setbacks.
On the exterior, several roof patches (close together) have been removed and a larger (2 foot square) section of roof cut away to get rid of them all. A replacement patch has been welded in flush using galvanized steel sheet curved to the correct profile, a much neater repair than the three riveted patches that, to be fair, have served the coach well for several decades by the looks of it.
The bodysides have received the remaining paint preparation work (sanding and filling), particularly around the Holt ends which were replaced by new pressed panels bought in from South Devon Railway Engineering. It won't be too long at all before painting work starts.
On the interior, the passenger saloons are now practically done with final re-varnishing work giving a nice shine to the area. The edges of the tables have had their final varnish and all of the seating is now back in place. The luggage racks have been cleaned and any defects in the internal window surrounds carefully touched in.
The Sheringham end vestibule has at last received its replacement lino, which is a nice pattern and suits well with the rest of the coach.
The fitting of the lino has in turn allowed other fittings which were being held up to be put back in, such as door tread plates, the steam heater and the two sliding doors that flank this vestibule. The doors are receiving final varnishing now that they are in place and sliding correctly.
The second store cupboard, on the seaward side, has received its final topcoat - cream. This almost finishes these cupboards, with only a coat or two more of floor paint still to apply.
British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958
This vehicle has seen the most attention the last week or so. After a bit of thought, extra resources were put onto it so that all 16 of the sliding windows could be dismantled, made to operate freely and then reassembled. This was a tall order but in the end all of them were treated. Stiff windows have been a problem on this vehicle for a few years now so it's nice to be able to sort them out properly.
Rubbing down on the exterior continued and was followed up by the re-varnishing work which was completed just in time for the coach to be used for the Bank Holiday Day out with Thomas weekend.
The outer edge of the underframe and bufferbeams were also repainted in a top up coat of gloss prior to the coach departing, but it will be returning to us to allow the two ends to be repainted and for some miscellaneous lettering to be finished.
British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707
All of the repair work has now been completed, there were five areas in total which had rotted and needed replacement. With all new pieces spliced in, the joins and all the areas where the hidden screw heads were visible were filled. This was followed by several days sanding down the whole exterior and interior of the verandas.
The next stage was to coat the exterior in red primer.
Then the first coat of Gulf Red gloss paint.
The roof has also been repainted.
Work is now progressing on the second coat of red gloss.
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