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!