REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2019

The "Review of the Year", which took a break in 2018, is back for 2019!

Focusing on the pure numbers, if you include all the different factions working together, the railway has produced six vehicles in one form or another (minor or major refurbishment work), three carriages, two wagons and a diesel multiple unit. This stacks up nicely against previous years such as 2015 (five), 2017 (six) and 2016 (seven). There was a reasonably even spread also of the type of work undertaken, with a re-varnish, three bronze, a silver and a gold level overhaul completed. Overall we are pleased with the results, so read on to see in more detail which vehicles we completed this year:

In April we celebrated the first "return to service" of the year, which came in the form of Class 101 DMU M51188. This came to us on hire in very shabby BR blue colours and was treated to a Bronze level exterior overhaul and repaint, into BR Green to match the rest of our fleet. Bodywork was completed as well as the resealing of several windows. Whilst about it we undertook some interior spot repairs with repainting work mostly to the brake van and saloon ceiling areas.

The following month Mark 1 Tourist Second Open M4958 was returned to traffic following an exterior spruce up and re-varnish, returning the shine to the vehicle 5 years after it was last painted.

In June, the first wagon to be completed this year, ballast plough brake van DB993707, was out-shopped and debuted in the freight train. Having only arrived on the NNR two months previously, it was immediately brought into the workshops for a Bronze overhaul (it had received a Gold only five years ago), which involved limited woodwork repairs followed by a rub down and repaint top to bottom. A string of minor repairs which had accumulated over the five years out in the open were also attended to to keep the vehicle in good condition, easier said than done for wooden vehicles stored outside!

August saw two vehicles exit the works into service. The first was the long running Silver overhaul to Tourist Second Open M4843. This was the welcome end of the largest Silver overhaul we'd ever undertaken, everything which could have gone wrong with this coach did! lasting several years, the overhaul work involved a full interior re-varnish with many remedial and improvement works undertaken. The two toilets, which were previously in incomplete and derelict condition having never been used since BR days, were tidied up, paneled out and converted into usable storage spaces. The exterior bodywork however saw the most attention. Both corridor ends of the vehicle had been completely rebuilt as had 1/4 of the saloon bodysides. The remaining 3/4 of the sides received the more normal patchwork and body preparation which is more common to Silver level overhauls. With the hidden nasties finally eliminated, M4843 was at last launched into front line service in time for the main summer traffic.

The second vehicle to make a summer holiday appearance in August was Southern parcel van S1439S. Privately owned, this van had been inside the loco shed for its owner to complete a series of repairs to the doors and other areas which had rotted, followed by a full repaint into British Railways Southern Region Green. Unfortunately despite being fully operational, the vehicle doesn't appear in trains; rather spending time as a (albeit very presentable) storage van at Weybourne.

The highlight of the year for many came in October with the completion of the four year Gold restoration of Great Eastern Railway brake 853, which saw the coach carrying passengers for the first time in over 90 years, a staggering 120 years after it was built. Rescued as a grounded body from near Dereham in 2003, it had been fully rebuilt from top to bottom, inside and out, the vast majority of work being done by volunteers.

Rolling stock still located in the workshops that received major work during 2019 but are still with us for completion include Thompson Saloon Brake E1866E (Gold), Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 6 Wheel 129 (Silver), Mark 1 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (Gold), Mark 1 Second Open E4521 (Silver), Mark 1 Corridor Second W25189 (Bronze) and Box Van B784254 (Gold).

We also undertook plenty of smaller projects throughout the year. In January, ultrasonic axle testing was undertaken to allow our mainline registered fleet to continue operating to Cromer, and also tested were several other vehicles that are planned to be added to the Cromer stable. We also swapped the generator on buffet car E1969 for a reconditioned example following its failure and obtained an alternative wheelset from the East Lancashire Railway to replace a damaged example on long term restoration project E21224.

In February, the bogies of buffet E1969 were sent away for contract tyre turning work which was completed at Ilford, this method being chosen as we didn't have the time to undertake the work ourselves before E1969 was required back in service for dining duties.

In March we completed the main examinations (C exams) on the operational Mark 1 stock (mainline plus suburban) and mechanically recommissioned Gresley Buffet car E9128E after a period out of service.

In April we produced some "not to be moved" signs for Sheringham.

May saw the roof of the "play coach", Gresley Corridor Third, at Sheringham recovered with tarpaulin to rid the coach of the water leaks it had been suffering on and off for the past few years.

In July it was the turn of some platform trollies to be rebuilt from bonfire condition back to their former glories!

The Society's Thompson BG 70621 came down in September to transfer parts between it and Thompson brake E1866E, this being the first stage in an eventual plan to see it resurrected in its role as a museum coach.

October saw Mark 1 E4236 come into the workshops for an unscheduled repair to its wheelsets which had suffered wheel flats. Due to differing tyre thicknesses, the repair also involved several more swapping of wheelsets between the two bogies and with additional examples from the spares rack.

In November the main activity was all the preparations for the highly successful "Train of Lights" operation which was being put on for the first time at the NNR. We also winterised other running stock as the season drew to a close and replaced the generator on the Gresley buffet car, in a similar manner to the Mark 1 buffet back in January.

Finally, in December we turned and swapped a wheelset on buggy/bike carrier (CCT) M94125 after it suffered wheel flats during the season in a similar manner to E4236.

All that remains now is to wish readers a Happy New Year from the C&W team, Monkey and myself. Let us hope 2020 is just as fun and fruitful!

December News Part 3

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

The underframe continues to progress nicely, with the brackets which hold the long full length footboards in place fully modified to the different shape that they need to be to fit the 6 wheel underframe. These have now been bolted into position and the boards for the landward side also transferred to the new position.

On the vehicle's ends, most, if not all, of the end furniture such as steps has been repainted and refitted into place. The additions that were never added when the coach was first restored, such as the cosmetic gas pipe, are now also finished and added.

The completion of the exterior body work has allowed varnishing to progress, with the first of the coats now applied around the entire vehicle.

Internally, the cleaned ceilings are in the process of having a single coat of white gloss before the lining is added. So far, three of the five compartments have been painted.

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

Small works to the passenger windows continues to progress.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Reassembly of the interior continues. More internal paneling has been added to the remaining passenger compartments (3, 4 & 5). Inside the Holt end passenger vestibule, the framework for the new floor is beginning to take shape, although the renewed structure and some slightly incorrect sections of timber around the two doorways have made this a challenge.

Other smaller items restored include the base for the guards "swivel chair". This has been reupholstered (image to follow) and the base was in the workshop during the reupholstering so the opportunity was taken to give it a new lease of life!

The door pictured last time continues to be reassembled. The window glass side runners, the glass itself and "lazy tongue" spring mechanism have all been returned to the door, which only needs a few more bits and bobs before it's ready to hang.

The woodwork for this door is now also nearly there, varnishing has started on the recently cleaned and restored internal panels.

The project to hang the eight doors that live towards the Sheringham end of the vehicle continues, with the landward side inward opening guards door and seaward side double luggage doors receiving the lion's share of the labour this week to get opening and closing properly.

Externally, we now have a full compliment of bodyside windows! The final two windows, from the luggage van area and guards compartment on the seaward side, are now sealed and in place. The latter is frosted similar to the toilet windows.

At the Holt end, the remaining paint has been stripped off the end along with the last remnants of the corridor connection bellows. This is so that the renewed timber work for this end can be refitted next month.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

Bodywork on the Sheringham end has moved forward well, with the framework repairs now completed. This has allowed the first large section of skin, the end panel for the seaward side corner, to be clamped into place ready for welding.

Paint stripping of the aluminium doors eventually destined for this vehicle continues. The third door is now 90% stripped and the Blue & Grey door mentioned last time has been started.

British Railways 1957 Corridor Second W25189 (BRONZE)

The priming of the bodysides is now complete and the vehicle is in its fetching "crushed strawberry" stage.

After a star performance by a certain unnamed volunteer, the roof was completely scraped back to bare metal before Christmas. This was closely followed by rust treatment and a first coat of the oil rig roof paint. It looks fantastic and is a credit to the hard preparation works that were required to get it ready for repainting. This will allow body painting of the coach to accelerate fully once we are back in January.

On the interior, we are now on the home straight. All of the corridor varnishing has now been completed, including the sliding doors, so very little remains to be done in this area. Some signage, such as the "No Smoking" red triangles, has been added but we are awaiting a delivery of "do not lean out of the window" transfers before we can fully finish the job.

Inside the compartments, we now have a full compliment of tables, as when the coach came in there were three missing. Examples from the stores have been repaired and restored over the last month and are now varnished and in place.

British Railways 1958 Covered Carriage Truck M94125 (REPAIR)

The turned wheelset has now been refitted to the Holt end of the vehicle. The vehicle now awaits the repair of the crane so that the same treatment can commence on the Sheringham end wheelset.

Unlike many railways our CCT vehicles are used daily on passenger trains. We currently have no spare wheelsets and one set will be approaching the end of its useful life on the current set of tyres. If any railways out there reading this have a static CCT which is only used as a store and wanted to consider a financial deal where worn wheelsets were swapped for reasonable ones then please get in touch!

Workshop

The two trollies rebuilt are now painted and complete.

Misc

During a visit to Holt to assess how many of our compartment vehicles have complete signage, it was discovered that Corridor Composite 15997 (in long term storage) is now no longer watertight. We will have to either move this vehicle into the shed or undertake emergency roof sealing work as the water ingress is now damaging the interior ceilings and the items below.

Christmas

This is the last work report Blog post for the year, so from the team, Monkey and myself, Merry Christmas to all our readers. If there's time over Christmas there may even be a summary of the year post!

December News Part 2

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

Final painting preparations on the new 6 wheel underframe have continued, with the touched in areas of rust affected metal now returned to wood effect brown. Whilst the paintbrushes were out, the lettering on the axle-boxes (reclaimed from Great Northern Railway No 46) was picked out in white, as were the edges of the wheels themselves.

The ends of the vehicle are now receiving minor works. The cosmetic gas pipe, never finished when the vehicle was first restored, is being completed. Lamp irons have been moved from the old underframe and will now be fixed to the body, similar to GER 853. Holes are being drilled in the underframe to bolt on the brackets which stop the body from sliding forwards and backwards should the mounting bolts fail. Most of the end steps have been removed and are being repainted whilst the opportunity is there.

Some interior work is progressing on the compartments. Preparations are being made for the blue striping to be applied to the walls, this Great Northern Railway feature was discovered on the original coach, but again there wasn't time to apply it during the original restoration, so the plan is to correct this. The ceilings have also been cleaned as they had suffered the same mold that had struck the Quad Art set inside Bridge Road sheds.

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

No progress to report.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Reassembly of the interior continues. More work to compartment 3 has been done, and a start has been made on the side corridor alongside the compartments. The first task is an inventory of all the supporting timbers which hold the panel-work in place. This is now in the process of being bolted back into place where it had been removed for metalwork repairs. Any missing items at the end of this process will be remade from new and then fitted.

Resources have become available to complete the flooring project, which needed finishing off as the Holt end vestibule is still without a floor, despite the rest of the vehicle being done. The large timber which spreads across the corridor end, and which will later support the plywood floor, has been cut and is being fettled ready for final positioning.

Refitting of the doors around the guards/luggage van areas continues to progress. The guards inward opening door on the landward side now has its outer aluminium strips fitted so is close to completion.

The components for the two Holt end doors that were painted last week are now being refitted to the frames, slowly working towards the day they can be re-hung onto the vehicle!

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

The Sheringham end welding repairs continue with some lower end framework being welded below the windows and at the bottom of the vehicle around the toilet areas.

A tentative start has been made on the door overhauls for the vehicle, this will be a long job with a full set of six aluminium doors being selected to form a set for this vehicle. Two of these are from E21224, rogues that were discarded as we wanted a full set of steel doors on E21224 rather than a mix of types. E4521 had three aluminium doors already on it which it will keep. The sixth door has been found in the stores and is a damaged example but it is hoped it can be repaired during the rebuild. Regular readers may have already seen this "sixth door": a blue and grey example which recently had a trip out on M4843 for a week whilst one of its own doors was repaired! The first door has been partly dismantled and some of the components shot blasted and primed, improving their appearance greatly. The door casting itself is currently being stripped back to bare metal.

British Railways 1957 Corridor Second W25189 (BRONZE)

The finishing work to the two corridor ends has now been completed and signed off, so the exterior is now fully in the hands of the painters. So far the landward side and Sheringham end has been primed.

On the roof, the vents are now fully sealed and only the remaining old paint requires chipping off the outer surfaces. This is about 1/3rd done.

Internally, the vestibule ceiling repainting is now complete, meaning the vehicle;'s ceilings have now been repainted throughout the whole vehicle. Varnishing along the corridor is progressing very well, with half of the vehicle already done.

British Railways 1958 Covered Carriage Truck M94125 (REPAIR)

The turned wheelset, destined for the Holt end of the vehicle, is now repainted in gloss black, and the axleboxes have been returned to it. The axle is now ready to be refitted, hopefully next week.

Workshop

In a frenzy of reassembly, the kit-form platform trolley has emerged once again and was quickly undercoated and glossed in a day shortly after reassembly form a kit of metal parts. I am told that the woodwork has been completely replaced, so this trolley is almost a new build! Unsurprising given they often live outdoors in all weathers.

December News Part 1

Great Northern Railway (later M&GN) 1887 6 Wheel Third 129

More major progress on this project, with no time being wasted. The big news can only be that this week the "big lift" occurred with the body transferring permanently onto its new 6-wheeled underframe.

Before this could be done, the holes marked out last week were drilled and tapped to receive the bolts which come through the wooden body through into the steel underframe. The rubber mounting blocks, which sit between the two steel/wooden elements, were then glued into place around the bolt holes having been transferred across between the two underframes.

After the lift, the bolts themselves were of course fitted properly and officially marrying the two parts back together. The addition of the extra wheelset in the middle, plus the "solid" look of the solebar (in contrast to the "C section" appearance of the previous wagon underframe), makes a remarkable difference to the entire "look" of the vehicle. I believe fellow carriage aficionados are likely to concur that the conversion work has made the vehicle look more Victorian. It would seem 129's Feng Shui is much improved!

Rubbing down of the exterior paneling on the body for a re-varnish is complete. The underframe itself has also has some more areas of rust which were discovered chipped off and patch primed. Meanwhile, the modifications to the brackets which will hold the footboards has continues, this will take a while as there are quite a few of them.

The spreader bars which could possibly have been used to lift 129 have now been completed in gloss paint. In the end 129 was lifted on jacks but these bars will have other uses in the future.

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

No progress to report.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

The toilet door mentioned last week has now been eased in its frame and is opening and closing nicely. The problem was the bulkhead wall that it hinged from had moved slightly during the replacement of the floor.

Reassembly of compartments continues with more fittings now in place inside Compartment No3.

It goes without saying that the fitting of the multiple doors around the guards/luggage van end of the vehicle has continued - a huge task!

Also at the luggage end, the panels to the right of the corridor gangway, which had been sanded but not painted, have now been primed to match the surrounding areas.

The large sliding door over the corridor end has been fitted into place, complete with runner, mechanism, handles and locks. These have all been brought through to completion, so it all shuts and locks correctly. The outside face of the door, which again had been sanded only, was also painted in primer.

Three out of the four ceiling panels required to renew the ceiling over the luggage area have been cut to size and primed on both sides. The fourth panel will wait until new timber arrives as it is an unusual size.

Exterior work has been limited to some more door components for the Holt end doors being painted up ready for refitting.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open E4521 (SILVER)

The welding repairs to the lower parts of the Sheringham end have been protected with anti-rust paint.

British Railways 1957 Corridor Second W25189 (BRONZE)

Exterior paintwork preparation has been completed this week, with both sides now smooth and ready for primer.

Finishing works to the corridor ends are still underway, with an uneven step at the Sheringham end to remedy.

On the roof, the original plan was to reseal the vents above compartment 6, which had suffered a water leak. However once up there all of the vents looked the same so it wasn't obvious where the leak was coming from. After checking a sample of other vents on the roof it became known that the original sealant had perished and gone hard and powdery. Seeing as water leaks are the beginning of the end for any coach, particularly the interior, we decided every vent should be stripped off, fully cleaned up and re-bedded down with new sealant. This has been 90% completed this week with the last stragglers to follow next week.

Stripping of the old paint on the roof, ready for repainting, has continued witgh the sides and gutters now complete. Next week should see a start made on the remaining centre section, up on the roof itself.

Internally, compartment 6's re-varnishing is now completed which means that compartment 6 has now "caught up" with all the others. This done, the re-varnishing eyes turned towards the inside of the sliding compartment doors, which have now all received a coat of satin varnish.

The ceiling repainting is progressing well, with the centre vestibule and corridors repainted, leaving just the two end vestibules still to complete.

British Railways 1958 Covered Carriage Truck M94125 (REPAIR)

The newly tyre turned wheelset is now in undercoat, whilst the axleboxes have made it to gloss.

Workshop

One of the platform barrows which has been with us for some time undergoing repair, has received final painting and sign-writing this week.