March News Part 2

London North Eastern Railway 1950 Brake Corridor Third E1866 (GOLD)

No progress to report.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

The signwriting on the outside of the vehicle has now been completed. Outstanding items since the last update included the remainder of the corridor end data and the underframe lettering. Aside from the normal historic and NNR required lettering and symbols, including the "Emergency Lighting Point" and brake release chord stars, extra mainline registered features have been applied on this coach, such as wheel profile markings on the bogie and an arrow on one corner of the vehicle which acts an an aid to identifying components for maintenance and exam, such as wheels and doors.

The opportunity of the vehicle being out of the staging allowed for the new batteries to be fitted. These have a higher rating than many of the batteries fitted to several other coaches, hopefully this will help to power the new toilet which is due to be fitted, along with longer lighting life given this coach is due to run on a reasonable number of after-dark services.

With lining and lettering completed, E21224 was returned to the staging area for yet another rub down and application of the final coat: varnish. This has sealed in all the previous work and the repaint is now officially concluded.

Attention has since turned to the exterior "trimmings". The full length handrails have been bolted into place on the guards doors, and the brass grab handles fitted to the four passenger doors.

More components including the locking bars for the luggage door mechanisms and the original BR cast end data panel (now officially superseded by the "mainline data panel" but its nice to have it on anyway for historic interest) are currently on the bench receiving a final top coat of black paint before fitting. The job list for the exterior of the vehicle is now virtually exhausted so the focus through the spring will be on the interior.

Speaking of the interior, the troublesome vestibule ceilings continue to require fettling: some beading previously thought to be complete has required more minor work this week. The four vestibule lighting units have been finished off, sprayed silver and fitted into place.

The work to fit the internal woodwork and panelling to the four doors has progressed well, with the remaining three doors fitted out. One was missing a single component so an un-restored example had to be extracted from spares and rubbed down and varnish built up on it, which has delayed the completion of the doors. Such is life when dealing with restoration! Additionally, after the woodwork was first fitted two doors have had problems with the wood interfering with the operation of the sliding droplight windows, so again more dismantling and modifications were required.  

Also being restored are some rails/bars associated with the guards and luggage areas.

The flooring contractors made a third visit to see the coach to finalise their details for laying the lino flooring. We hope for this to be fitted very soon so the interior can be progressed further.

British Railways (SR Design) 1948 25 Ton Brakevan 55167

Everyone's favourite Holt based solicitors firm, Bedell, Maynard & Turl, have been progressing the Southern Guards Van in their socially distanced emporium. The main theme continues to be "stripping down" with the Sheringham end verandah wall now removed as this will require total replacement. It was suffering the usual wood rot in the areas near the floor where water sits, but also had issues half way up and had already been spliced up all the way up one side, using a solid piece of wood with grooves cut into it to fool people into thinking it was planked!

Some other timber has also been removed including one of the roof planks.

More of the exterior (which is being retained) has been rubbed down ready for repainting in due course, including the Holt end cabin wall.

The corroded stove pipe and upper verandah ends which were dispatched to Weybourne are being worked on separately. The corroded steel skin is being replaced with new galvanised material, these new pieces having been cut out now and are shortly to be reattached to the original framework, which has been retained. The latter has been cleaned down and is now being repainted.

Maintenance

Brake Third E43357 received the remainder of its floorboard and guards floor coats of paint, completing the cosmetic maintenance tasks. In addition to this, the unreliable handbrake protection valve (which stops the train brakes being released when the handbrake is on) has had a temporary repair made to improve it for this year until the valves can be re-engineered with better springs; a side project which has encountered pandemic caused delays. The coach was returned to Sheringham to join two other suburbans so we now have three of our five coaches ready for the railway's relaunch on April 12th.

Composite Lavatory E43041 is the next in line at Weybourne to be repaired. This vehicle only needs a vacuum cylinder overhauling to make it serviceable again. The naughty cylinder has been removed, stripped down and components overhauled. By the end of the week an attempt to reassemble it has been made but alignment problems were encountered rendering success elusive.

Corridor Brake Second W35148 remains inside the workshop for drawhook and buckeye coupling replacements, however it is still awaiting manpower to undertake these tasks. In the meantime, some additional work tidying up the footboards has been undertaken with them now looking much smarter in undercoat black (gloss to follow).

Meanwhile at Sheringham the C examinations are all but complete on the main "A set" which is required for the 12th April. All that really remains is the full set to be formed up (once the repairs above have been completed) and final tasks signed off and the set is ready to roll. Discussions are currently underway around the boardroom tables as to which vehicles will form the second "B set" for hopeful use in the summer when the railway hopes to be in a position to start steadily increasing operations. It will be a long and steady road moving from the April single train service back up to something resembling full capability.

Workshop

As suggested last time, the agricultural jack for the museum has progressed greatly. A large lump of new timber has been cut to an interesting pear shape and hollowed out to accommodate the screw mechanism. Much of the ironwork has now been returned to the wooden "core" and it is currently back together and awaits treating, painting and finishing.