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.