June News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (GOLD)

Good steps forward have been made this week, with the commencement of the final gloss exterior painting. For the first time, we are seeing the final colour of the vehicle, with the double set of luggage doors on the landward side, plus the Holt end being covered so far.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

A good week for visual progress, with several items being installed and painted.

The guard's emergency equipment locker has been reinstated up in the ceiling, having been painted and filled again.

The hinged guards seat is now also in place.

The outside walls of the guard's "booth" are also coming on well, with two out of the three walls in place and the glazing bars being fitted ready to receive glass.

The Sheringham end wall has already received a coat of cream gloss.

Further into the luggage end of the vehicle, a new teak strip of flooring has been laid between the sets of double doors.

Above this, the steam heat piping in the ceiling of the same luggage area has now been 95% completed.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Bodywork continues on the Holt end. All four lower crash pillar repairs have now been completed along with the new sections of baseplate.

Welding has now turned to the upper sections, also at the Holt end, around the gutter area in the corners where further corrosion is present. So far, sections of gutter and roof paneling have been removed to assess the damage!

The replacement of damaged flooring sections has focussed on the Sheringham end, with a large piece spanning the full width of the vehicle now fitted at the very end. As this is in the luggage area, it will be visible, not being covered by lino, so it has had a small teak top added to it as the main material we use for the floor bearers themselves is probably not up to the job of being repeatedly scuffed by foot traffic.

Repaired sections are now being refitted to each side of the luggage area.

The project to clean and refit the corridor and compartment windows has now reached the end of the frame cleaning stage, with all five windows along the corridor now ready to receive the sliding lights.

These are now being prepared to fit - there is a lot of work in getting the runners drilled, tapped and repaired as many were damaged when removed some time ago.

Inside the toilet, the walls are being stripped of their previous owner's paint revealing the original Formica pattern below, which so far has been found to be in very good condition. Fingers crossed we don't reveal any horrors whilst stripping the rest of the walls.

Meanwhile the soap dishes and paper towel racks that will be fitted inside the toilet compartment have all been rubbed down and received a coat or two of varnish, with more to follow.

The sawdust bin, briefly mentioned last week, has now been completed and is ready for fitting to the guards compartment when ready.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (SILVER)

The exterior repaint continues. All of the main gloss work to the coach is now completed, with the second coat of maroon gloss being finished this week.

This allowed the ends to be masked off and finished in gloss black.

As the toilet water tank is no longer in operation, the filler spouts have been removed and capped off. These caps are now being painted, as are several other small items too numerous to mention that add into all of the finishing touches to the vehicle's repaint.

Internally, any final varnishing work to the vestibules is now complete, so any finishing touches or reassembly can now be done.

We now enter the final snagging list stage of the vehicle's overhaul.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

More woodwork has been pulled off the ends, revealing significant areas of holed metal which will require the corridor connections removed in order to replace.

Some of the end components including the passenger communication apparatus and the corridor bellow metalwork, have been cleaned back to bare metal and are now in the process of being repainted.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254 (GOLD)

All of the areas of blown metalwork around the bottom of the corrugated steel ends have been cut away.

The strips which were removed show how much rust had built up behind them.

The areas are currently bare and are being protected before repair sections are welded in.

Underneath the vehicle, the mis-aligned W-irons around the axleboxes have been bent back straight via the careful use of heat to manipulate them. This is one of the few mechanical jobs required on the vehicle which is generally in very good shape underneath.

June News Part 2

Due to commitments last weekend and this weekend coming, this is a mid-week Blog update so there ends up being two updates covering three weeks.

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (GOLD)

Painting preparation of the windows has continued with all of the modified droplights now back in red primer. It won't be long before the final painting process begins. To this end, the footboards have been sanded down again ready for further painting once the body is treated.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

The guards "booth" pictured last week has seen more refinement this week with further beading added and other loose ends tied up. A start has been made on preparing the glazing for the same bulkhead.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Lots of progress on this coach this week. Bodywork continues. The full extent of lower end crash pillar corrosion at the Holt end is now known, with all four pillers requiring replacement at the bottom.

In a similar fashion to the Sheringham end, the base plate is also corroded and two sections of it on the seaward side has already been curt out, replacement sections made and welded back in. The two crash pillar repairs on this side are now also almost complete, with the outer example in and painted, with the inner example not far behind.

In a big craning session, "project bogie" has been completed for now, with all of the spring components reassembled and put back into place under the bogie frame. This also reunited the restored wheelsets with the rest of the bogie. The bogie is now back in one piece and back under the coach, albeit with both bogies in each other's place at the moment! These will be swapped over during the next shunt.

Also underneath has been the refitting of the air brake cylinder actuating rods and the reservoir tank for the air braking system, which is now almost complete again.

Flooring repairs continue, with the toilet floor now finished and back in place which will allow us to start building this area back up very soon. To this end, the first of the components (the paper towel rack) have been selected and stripped down ready for re-varnishing. Returning to the floors, the missing flooring sections in the luggage van area at the Sheringham end are currently in the process of being machined and prepared for refitting.

Cleaning of the internal alloy frames along the corridor side continues well, with a large team on the job. A start has also been made on sanding down the corridor ceiling ready for repainting. A sawdust bin has recently been acquired for use in the guards brake (the original was missing), less than 24 hours after arrival the bin was cleaned down and primed and is now in undercoat awaiting gloss paint.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (SILVER)

The exterior repaint continues. The seaward side painting is now complete with two coats of maroon gloss having been applied. The landward side has received one coat with the second to follow shortly.

The two black ends have been undercoated, whilst the Sheringham end sliding door inside the corridor connection is now repainted into cream.

Internally, the window surrounds have all received a coat of brown to make good minor damage since they were painted first time around.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

Dismantling continues. Both ends are now at a similar stage with both corridor connections prepared for removal in the near future. This has involved a lot of careful dismantling of the passenger communication apparatus, end steps and handrails, and the corridor connection bellows, which consist of a remarkable number of individual components.

We now have a large box of small parts which will all require cleaning down and repainting or re-greasing in the coming months. This process is already underway with some pins being cleaned up and the end data panel for the coach stripped back.

The RCH jumper cable components pictured last week have now been brought up to gloss black so have now been safely stored ready for refitting when the coach is nearly ready to return to service - this is some way off!!!

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254 (GOLD)

This vehicle is now inside the shed for the lion's share of its bodywork to be completed. The doors have had their rotten outer skins removed revealing the full extent of framework rot below.

The roof spars have been refitted providing a solid base for the new roof to sit on top.

The plywood panels for the new roof are currently being encouraged into a curved shape.

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707 (BRONZE)

The final jobs were painting the interior walls and a few hours over the inspection pit where all of the mechanical parts were lubricated and the vehicle given its Fitness to Run exam. Some bolts were replaced and all of the axleboxes removed and wheelsets examined. Luckily these had a clean bill of health so it was reassembled with new oil.

Last weekend the vehicle was returned to traffic and now joins the NNR's regular freight train. It operated successfully for the three days of the Mixed Traffic Gala and attracted many compliments and much attention.

(C) Steve Allen

Now, which wagon do we resurrect next?!?

June News Part 1

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853 (GOLD)

Not an exciting update this week sadly: it's been more of the same with further work improving the drop-light windows and the wooden paneling on the doors.

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866E (GOLD)

Some pronounced visual changes can be seen in the guards end of the Thompson coach this week. A good part of the side walls for the guard's "booth" have been refitted into position, which are fixed onto the floor and into the ceiling.

This is the first major component to be fixed back down onto the floors which have been in the process of being rebuild all Spring.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

No Gold overhaul would be without an update on the ever present steelwork bodyside repairs. With the lower half crash piller and skin repairs to the Sheringham end now completed, the same process is being done to the Holt end. So far, parts of the corridor connection that were in the way have been stripped out and the lower section of skin cut away to reveal how badly the crash pillars have corroded at the bottom. This work will be ongoing at this end for some time.

"Project bogie" is now ready for the reassembly of the second bogie, as this week the last components of the suspension system for Bogie No2 have been repainted ready to refit. The springs in particular look very nice!

The interior of the vehicle has been a hive of activity. The corridor floor, which wasn't pictured last week, was able to be captured this time.

Some final flooring has been fitted around the guards compartment area.

We have now made a start on re-flooring the toilet which is located at the opposite end of the corridor. Due to an "ammonia absorption hotspot", it is looking like the original toilet floor will be replaced!

Now that the lower half steelwork repairs are completed at the Sheringham end, refitting of the floor supporting timbers is being progressed. Some of these are quite large, and a reasonable number of original mahogany examples which were carefully removed have been able to be retained, saving on a large amount of replacement timber.

With the corridor floor in place, we have started on cleaning and reassembling the first of the corridor windows. Each of the quarterlight windows at the top is being resealed and its alloy trim carefully cleaned, prior to the fitting of the sliding lights, which are already restored and awaiting refitting.

Finally, one of the vestibules is having its floor edging adjusted in the doorway.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (SILVER)

The focus remains on repainting. The landward side followed the seaward side into undercoat during the first part of the week.

This allowed the seaward side to receive its first coat of maroon gloss.

The Holt end corridor end door has also been repainted cream, with the Sheringham end door to follow shortly. The metalwork area inside the gangway is also receiving coats of black paint.

Inside the vehicle, a few final repairs to walls and varnishing have been made to the Holt end vestibule which is now complete and shouldn't require any further attention. Meanwhile, the tables have all been cleaned and have come up very well, and the windows have been masked to allow the painted internal window frames to receive another coat of brown paint.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

Dismantling continues on the Holt end gangway, the bolts and screws that hold the rubber and steel bellows to the wooden supports on the outside of the vehicle are being removed one-by-one, we don't know why there are so many of them! Although it's hard to see progress from just walking past, this will be essential in quickly craning off the gangway end when the time comes to start on the repairs to the end of the vehicle.

The first removed components are starting to be restored. the "RCH" (lighting) jumper cables which were removed last week have now all be cleaned down to bare metal and painted in primer. Thanks go to volunteer Gerrard who came in to do this for us, when he normally comes in on a different day to work on GER 853 and LNER 1866.

British Railways 1962 12 Ton Box Van B784254 (GOLD)

Grit blasting was finished this week, the next task will be to repair and paint all of the metalwork which has now been treated and is blissfully corrosion free!

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707 (BRONZE)

This vehicle has been promised to run at the Mixed Traffic Gala next weekend, so jobs are coming through thick and fast to get it completed in time! The whole chassis on the outside has now been repainted into black gloss, and all of the "bling" such as the edges of the ballast ploughs and the wheel edges have been picked out in white.

The handrails have been painted into gloss white, as has the ceiling inside the guards cabin. A few smaller items such as a missing coat hook, wagon label clips etc have all been fitted back into place with just the couplings now left to refit. These are currently still off the vehicle but have been painted up to gloss.

The stove inside the cabin has been brushed down, hoovered out inside and given a coat of heatproof paint.

Final jobs will be painting the interior walls (which are now rubbed down) and a few hours over an inspection pit so all of the mechanical parts can be lubricated and the vehicle given its Fitness to Run exam.