Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (GOLD)
More of the same this week, with window work and other sundries progressing. Some of the windows, now that they fully slide up and down satisfactorily, are having a further coat of primer.
London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)
I was slightly premature last week reporting that the woodwork at the end of the luggage compartment was complete. It turns out some more framework was required as well as some packing sections to raise the level up high enough for a level floor. This has been tackled this week, along with more reinforcing timber to sit underneath where the luggage cage is located.
British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)
Bodywork at the bottom of the Sheringham end is now completed now that the second side of steel skin has been fully welded into position.
The steam heat piping reported on last week, has now been completed, with all 13 individual copper pipes now produced and fitted to the heaters. The system is now steam tight and can be tested for leaks once the coach is back down on its bogies.
"Project Bogie" continues steadily with just the springs now left to repaint, all other items now in gloss black ready to refit. The springs are red and have been lagging behind the rest of the parts as our needle gun was out of commission for some time.
Internally, a big milestone has been reached now that the replacement corridor flooring has been screwed down into position, meaning we finally have a strong and stable base from which to "open the gates" and start the interior refit. To create a dust-free area to start refitting, we are working towards getting the glass back in along the landward side. The wooden gripper bars are currently being dry fitted into place and any problems ironed out before we can look into glass fitting. The last two window frames were able to be fitted this week, after some restocked supplies arrived!
British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (SILVER)
The main focus has been the exterior painting work. Earlier in the week, the primer stage was completed, making the coach all one colour again for the first time in a long while.
This has been followed by undercoating, which is now 50% completed, with the seaward side being treated first. This particular shade creates a sort of 1940's/army themed coach, we have been assuring visitors that this is NOT the final colour!
British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)
We are still easing into this new arrival! A few more items have tentatively been removed from the Holt end corridor, which will have to be dismantled to allow for corrosion repairs.
British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254 (GOLD)
Grit blasting, to remove scale and corrosion, continues apace with the body now completed and the chassis still to finish. As the weather has been changeable, it is being painted as it progresses, so we already have a much cleaner looking vehicle.
British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707 (BRONZE)
Progress this week has included spot needle gunning of localised corrosion on the chassis, followed by rust treatment,. Any areas of black paint, plus the rust treated areas, were then coated with black undercoat, ready for the repaint of the whole chassis next week.
The couplings have been removed for a repaint and re-oil to make them operate freely again.
The handrails have all now been refitted to the vehicle, and are awaiting a top coat of white to really freshen them up. Also repainted white has been all the wheels and winders on the veranda ends, which operate the descending ballast plough.
The lamp irons have also been refitted back into place, so the body is now looking complete once again.
The final small job has been the fixing of a wobbly door catch on the entrance door to the cabin!
Miscellaneous
The project to re-roof the Gresley TK (better known as the "play coach" at Sheringham) has now been completed with the "fitted tarpaulin" now screwed down and secure. It looks a lot neater than many doubters thought it would and we are pleased with the result. We shall have to hope during the next big rain shower the leaks that have plagued this vehicle latterly are cured!
Lastly, one of the CCT bike & buggy carriers, which gained a flat spot on the wheels some time back, was reported to have become a lot worse this week.
Staff were duly dispatched and the flat has now been smoothed out somewhat, although not eliminated.
It has been removed from the train today to allow another effort to improve it, away from the running set of coaches, to be made next week.
This is an excellent blog, I read it every month.
ReplyDeleteCould you give us an idea of what the Bronze, Silver & Gold refurbishment levels include?
That is a surprisingly difficult question to answer! Each level is only a guide and some elements of the different levels can "leech" into a project if it requires the work to be done.
DeleteGenerally speaking, Bronze level is the lowest and is intended to simply improve the appearance of a coach to the public. In order to do this, exterior corrosion may be locally repaired or patched to allow enough improvement to sand down the body and repaint it. The interiors are generally left alone during a Bronze, however if there is anything hanging off or in a deplorable state then limited internal repairs may be carried out. Other simple tasks that can be achieved very quickly yet still improve the vehicle cosmetically may also be done, such as painting the floors inside a brakevan for example.
Silver overhauls are the "middle road" ones where everything that is identified that needs doing will be done to a good standard. This may involve interior dismantling where necessary to complete the exterior repairs and make any corrosion good. Interiors are assessed and everything either deep cleaned or restored as required. In the case of woodwork panelling, they may be rubbed down and re-varnished to return their original shine. If a component works OK and looks good however it will generally be left alone.
The Gold overhauls are for very rotten coaches and coaches where the interiors are in as much a poor state as the exteriors. The Gold overhauls are no-compromise strip downs to a bare shell, with all components removed and dismantled whether they look suspicious or not. These are full rebuilds really. Interior woodwork will be stripped right down to bare wood and treated for water stains before being build back up from scratch with many layers of varnish. The bodywork will be thoroughly inspected all the way around, both inside and out, with windows removed and in many cases large sections of both framework and skin completely replaced.
Confusingly, certain aspects of a coach's wellbeing are separated from the Bronze/Silver/Gold programme and are instead done on a separate "as required" basis. Two examples of this are bogie overhauls and seat reupholstery. We don't reupholster or do bogie rebuilds on coaches just because they are in for a Gold overhaul - this could be wasteful. To illustrate this it is worth noting that E21224 had good upholstery in second class so won't be upholstered despite being a Gold overhaul. Meanwhile, E4521, which is only a Silver, will be reupholstered throughout.
I hope the above is not too confusing and answers your question. Three times as much could have been written explaining more about the Bronze/Silver/Gold system!