August News Part 2

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

Work has continued on the various projects described in detail last time. The doors continue to be worked on around the luggage (Sheringham) end and will be for some time as they are important and time consuming items to get right. Both the double luggage doors and the inward opening guards doors have continued to be the focus. Internal planking for the inward guards doors has also now been started using some timber we had in stock. Some repair work has additionally been started on the wooden hinged door at the corridor connection.

The material "bellows" for the corridor connections are progressing with more of a focus now on the Sheringham end now that the Holt end is fitted successfully.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Work on completing the snagging jobs has now started at a relaxed pace given the main focus on sister E21103. Some air brake bufferbeam equipment has received additional coats of paint and some minor items such as the handles for the steam heat valves on the ends have been prepared and fitted. A set of door stops has been produced from timber and have now been varnished and await fitting to the coach. Inside the guards compartment, the rather odd "list to bow" in the guards seat has now been corrected and it swivels and operates normally! Also rectified in there was a hole in the guard's desk which has now been filled and patch painted back up into cream gloss. Outside the guards compartment, a porcelain light fitting which we found smashed after the gala has been replaced. All of these items are small but are required to bring the coach back to completion. Finally, a new section of steam heat pipework is being let into the centre of the coach as the original arrangement had to be modified to accommodate the new Network Rail approved toilet tank due to be fitted later this year.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

E21103 has now become the Alpha Male in the workshops and has been the main focus for most of us this week. The work has broadly been split into two directions, the first of which is preparing the corridor ends of the coach for repairs. This has involved the removal of interior panelwork at both ends which has allowed an inspection from the inside.

The ends have surprisingly been found to be in better condition than we thought which is certainly a bonus! At the Holt end of the vehicle, several volunteers have been involved in removing the corridor bellows to facilitate further exterior repairs and stripping.

The second area of focus has been the bodyside windows on the seaward side of the coach. All of these had corrosion issues and needed to be removed for both the alloy window frames themselves to be cleaned up but mainly for access to the surrounding steelwork to be stabilised/cleaned/replaced as required. 

This work has progressed at an amazing pace and in two weeks the entire seaward side has been stripped of its windows and all but one of them has had the apertures welded.

More than 3/4 of the removed window frames have been cleaned down back to aluminium and etch primed as part of the process for readying them for refitting.

The idea is to clean up the windows as fast as possible so as not to delay their refitting and these will continue to be a focus along with the treatment of the coach bodysides around where the windows sit. Together this will allow them to be refitted in time.

Very early investigations into the doorway repairs that will be required is now being made, with the usual removal of aluminium outer "weather strips" and wood door jambs to access corroded door pillars now in progress.

British Railways (SR Design) 1948 25 Ton Brakevan 55167 (SILVER)

No progress to report.