October News Part 5

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

A good week this week for the Thompson. The guards doors continue to progress. Some of the primed areas are now slowly progressing into undercoat, with black being the next colour.

Also on the same doors, varnished wooden ventilators, which have been prepared over the last few weeks, are at the stage where they are starting to be fitted. These are lovely and smooth to operate!

The two hinged end doors which sit inside the corridor connection are back off the vehicle for further repair works, in readiness to accept their four reproduced inlayed panels.

Finally, inside the toilet, a start has been made on constructing the cupboard that incorporates the sink, a feature of many LNER design vehicles.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Awaiting a return to Weybourne to be finished off.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

The metalwork continues to be the main focus, with great progress being made. The second of the two wheelchair saloon window apertures has now been modified and enlarged to match the first one. This involved cutting out of additional framework installed by NNR staff past, moving one or two sections outwards and subsequent opening up of the existing body skin. A test fit of the new window frame finished the process.

With this complete, the whole Sheringham end is now sound from a steel point of view, which should open up possibilities for reassembly of everything else over the coming weeks.

Metalworking has now switched to the other end, the Holt end, and a start made on renewing the two top corners, where the roof, rain gutter and end steelwork meet.

Elsewhere on the coach, cleaning up of all the aluminium sliding lights from the five compartment windows has been completed, and the wooden window surrounds from the same windows are in the process of being repaired, replaced and stripped for varnishing. The removed door jambs from the passenger doorways, which are being replaced with new, are having the bits of ironwork on them associated with the door removed so they can be cleaned up and eventually let into the replacement jambs.

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139 (BRONZE)

The third of the conveyor belt coaches has made great steps this week. The whole coach has been rubbed down in readiness for repainting, after a sterling group effort by half a dozen folks.

This allowed painting to commence very soon after the vehicle arrived in the shed. First to be treated was the roof...

...followed by a coat of Crimson gloss to the landward side of the coach.

Less sexy but still essential to the process was first chipping off minor sections of corrosion which was just starting to eat into the surface, particularly round the lower parts of the windows. Hopefully this is a case of nipping future problems in the bud, and it is clear to us that two years of the coaches standing outside in regular service rather than "gala only" use kept undercover has certainly taken its toll on the suburban coaches. Other jobs completed have been the removal of now surplus Covid booking signage, a repair made to one of the net luggage racks which had been torn down by a member of the public, and a start made on going through all of the wobbly armrests, which all need strengthening and/or repairs to varying degrees.

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

More painting! This week the sole bars and buffer beams were given a second coat.

Primer has been applied to new bolts and the Holt end was given a first coat of signal red. More red will be required before further progress can be made.

The ends of the vehicle have also been gently rubbed back in readiness for a second gloss coat. A start has been made on fitting the door furniture photographed last week.

Finally, a stencil has been made in preparation for imminent signage.

Southern Railway 1952 Covered Carriage Truck S1439S (BRONZE)

More painting work has been completed on the van, making the outsides look pretty much complete now, with only finishing touches left. The roof "canvas" (actually plastic) has been peeled back at one end, some small areas of woodwork renewed, and placed back in its rightful place.

October News Part 4

Paul Mobbs

I'd like to start this update with some words on NNR volunteer Paul Mobbs who sadly died this morning following a long battle with Cancer, sadly aggravated by Parkinsons. A great character, with a hard stare that only those who knew him could understand(!), Paul had strong links with the Mid Norfolk and North Norfolk Railways following his retirement from the mainline railway, having completed a successful career in the Signal & Telegraph department. At various times he owned several Class 03 and 31 diesel locomotives along with freight wagons, with two Class 03's and a 12 ton box van calling the NNR home. Paul could often be seen at Weybourne works, almost every day, working on either his 03 or van. The former in particular had a restoration of the very highest standard, which reflected the precision and dogged dedication that Paul put into his projects. I recall clearly an amusing and bizarre conversation with Paul after he had spent weeks searching for and eliminating air leaks on his 03, and he had achieved a test where the loco air system held up for 24 hours and only lost 5 pounds per square inch. Bearing in mind that many locomotives can often lose ten times that amount in one hour, and despite Paul now having the most air tight vehicle on the entire railway, he wanted to do do more checks to chase that final 5psi!! I mention it now as that illustrates Paul's way of approaching his restoration, as a craftsman and perfectionist. Unfortunately the 03, despite having run on tests, hadn't quite made it into traffic when Paul's heath declined to the point he had made his final visit to the railway, however as regular Blog readers will remember, C&W managed to just squeeze his box van through works to complete its restoration. Happily, Paul was able to be shown photographs at his bedside of his van finished and in traffic, at this year's mixed traffic gala. The van now operates in the demonstration goods train and will hopefully remain, in part as a reminder of Paul's railway legacy. May he now rest peacefully, he will be missed.

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

Work on the guards door planking has continued. This week the inward opening doors have had their lower halves filled and painted into primer, with several timber upper ventilators being prepared now for fitting.

The linkage to the water system drain has now been completed, with the exterior handle fitted and the linkage adjusted to achieve the desired effect. Also completed at the same time is the permanent fitting of the sink drain pipe, which had been loosely there but not properly piped to its final destination.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Awaiting a return to Weybourne to be finished off.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

Following last week's completion of the Sheringham end welding, the remaining areas of metalwork that are going to be covered up but have surface rust have been cleaned back ready for painting.

The spot repair work to the lower skirt of the vehicle has now been completed along the landward side, with the seaward side to be done later.

Team metalwork have now moved onto the two window apertures for the wheelchair accessible saloon. We are now confident the new replacement windows are going to be able to have new glass fitted, which will hopefully cure the long running leaks the old windows had. The old windows however were much smaller in height than the rest of  E21103's, whereas the new windows are much the same size. So this week has seen the vehicle's framework on the landward side slightly modified, and the skin cut out wider, to take the new window. As we are enlarging the apature rather than shrinking it, we hope the wooden interior paneling can just be carefully trimmed and then reused!

The window has been dry fitted to ensure a good fit and is now back out again for continued cleaning and glazing work.

Yet more of the sliding windows from the currently dismantled compartment windows have been cleaned up. More stripping of the wooden window surrounds is also ongoing. 

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041 (BRONZE)

After a final flurry of activity, the refreshing work has now been completed to this vehicle, the second of the conveyor belt repaint coaches.

The remainder of the exterior has been varnished this week which allowed the final cosmetic tidy up jobs to be undertaken. This included the scraping of paint off the windows and some window cleaning. The footboards were also treated to a coat of black gloss once the vehicle had been extracted from the staging area.

Internally, more coats of varnish have been applied to the areas which have been repaired, and the internal door handles have been refitted to the end doors, which allows access once again between the end compartments and the side corridors and toilets.

British Railways 1954 Mark 1 Suburban Third W46139 (BRONZE)

The third of the conveyor belt repaint coaches has now arrived at Weybourne, the second suburban to be treated. 

During a shunt with E43041 it was possible to see the stark before-and-after effect of what we are doing this winter.

Early days yet, but W46139 has been moved into the staging and so far around half of the coach has been scrubbed and de-greased to remove the build up of steam loco grime so it does not react with the new paint.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory M56352

A secret project that has been ongoing for around six months can now be revealed! We have always felt it was a shame that both of the Class 101 trailer car DMU's on the railway had lost their first class compartments in the 1990's, with the seating removed and replaced with more second class for additional commuter capacity for Regional Railways. To the hardened purist, it could even be said that it is historically inaccurate to run them in green livery without the first class! Earlier this summer, the Dean Forest Railway DMU Group were scrapping a Class 108 DMU (which have 99% identical first class seats to 101's) and made the seating available for sale. This sort of project was not appropriate for the NNR itself to fund with the financial challenges and shifting priorities caused by Covid, but it was felt the opportunity was just too good to miss with the interests of the vehicles at heart. Two members of C&W staff and two volunteers decided to fund the purchase of the seats themselves, along with a part roll of First Class material to upholster them in. They were then transported to the NNR and reupholstered and the rusty frames cleaned down and repainted with 100% volunteer labour. The compartment behind the driver had its old seats removed and the lino and side walls given a deep clean.

The M&GN Society's wishes were that their 101 (E56062) retain its second class style seating as the (now extinct but very similar) original East Anglian "Metro Cammell Lightweight" sets did not have the larger first class seat frames such as these. We therefore fitted out the trailer of the other "Midland set", M56352, instead. Following several periods of inactivity (as the jobs had to be fitted in between higher priorities) the seating is now proudly in place inside the front compartment, and certainly is a huge upgrade over the previously (rather boring) continuation of second class. Although we were unable to go the whole way and change the side panels back to original and add carpets and curtains, Rome wasn't built in a day and we have taken a large step towards returning M56352 to its proper, 1950's, configuration. As M56352 is a National Railway Museum owned vehicle, its 1990's era second class seating has been safely retained and stored, to safeguard the option of reversing what we have done should that be the owners' wish in the future.

We nearly missed the 2021 season, but there is still just one week of DMU running remaining, and subject to failures M56352 will be running from the 24th-28th and again on the 31st where its new seats can be tried out!

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

Once the weather cleared, a coat of gloss was able to be applied to both the buffer beams and solebars, although each needs another coat.

Additionally, lots of 5 minute jobs have been done such as top coating all the door furniture.

Southern Railway 1952 Covered Carriage Truck S1439S (BRONZE)

The final materials have arrived to complete the latest work on this van.

October News Part 3

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

The recently installed interior planking on the insides of the double doors have now been filled, sanded smooth and treated to a coat of primer.

The latest mechanical project is to install a linkage from an exterior mounted handle up through the floor to operate the modern valve internally which will drain the water system (from the sink/toilet assembly). This is currently in progress but the exterior plate on the solebar has already been fitted. This has been taken from a Mark 1 vehicle (Thompson vehicles originally had a different arrangement) as it has been thought desirable to have a consistent system with the current Mark 1 fleet.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

The vehicle is still in use on the line and we have decided to keep it in traffic until the end of the month to allow a second suburban to be released from duties for repainting.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

The works to the welding of the Sheringham end have now been completed, an important milestone! Strips have been replaced up the side of the corridor connection as well as the top and bottom of the vehicle in the normal places for Mark 1 degradation.

Also for the corridor connections, more of the ancillary components have been grit-blasted and primed ready for refitting in due course.

The next focus on the metalwork is the spot-repair work to the lower "skirt" which runs right round the bottom of the vehicle. Failed rivets need replacing and some limited patches chopping out and renewing.

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The two reclaimed windows, which we now believe are from a Class 108 DMU, have been receiving investigations this week so ascertain whether they are a better fir for the wheelchair saloon than the current examples, which are ex-double glazed frames which have relied on large amounts of sealant to hold a single pane in place... After much experimentation, we believe the Class 108 windows will take glass inside some rubber we have in stock, which will hopefully seal better in the future. The glass is now on order so we have a few weeks to clean up the frames now that we know they are going to be used.

Finally, some more of the sliding windows from the currently dismantled compartment windows have been cleaned up.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041 (BRONZE)

The repainting work has continued well this week. The seaward side received its Crimson red gloss during the start of the week and towards the end, the landward side was lightly rubbed down and a finishing coat of varnish applied. The Sheringham end was also so treated giving the coach a real shine once again.

The roof has also benefited from a repaint.

Some limited sign-writing is in progress to repair some damage caused when the door signage was taped over to paint the coach red, and some of the colour peeled off with the tape!

Less obvious has been some interior repairs just to catch up on a few defects that have cropped up over a few years in service. Several damaged "First Class" and "No Smoking" stickers have been removed and replaced.

Some varnish on the second class interior compartment doors has been rubbed back and redone as it had reacted and come out in hives in some places. Also inside the compartments, an armrest which had fallen off has been replaced and several screws on wobbly armrests replaced or tightened up. lastly, a small woodworking repair has been made to a piece of window surround woodwork on one of the doors, which had fallen out at some point and not returned to us!

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

Painting continues, with progress remaining good so long as the weather holds. The veranda gates have received top coat, with some extra-long bolts cut down to size. Foam has been applied to the gap between the "new" veranda and the platform, this will be cut flush and sealant added before the original protection strip is reattached.

Both sole bars have now also been undercoated.

On the body itself, top coat has also been applied to the seaward side.

Southern Railway 1952 Covered Carriage Truck S1439S (BRONZE)

Repainting of the repaired areas is now underway.

60 Years A Slave!

This week (Tuesday to be precise) was the exact 60 year anniversary of Roger Ison joining the M&GN Society. Roger has volunteered continuously for all of those 60 years in various areas around the railway, his first involvement as a 14 year old actually predating the creation of the NNR! He has latterly been a Carriage & Wagon volunteer and indeed is one of our longest serving. We marked the occasion by presenting a novelty cake which depicts Roger is his classic orange overalls (which he has worn for many years) scraping down the roof of a Mark 1 CCT vehicle, an internal joke as Roger has almost single handedly scraped almost every carriage roof in the NNR's fleet! The cake was followed by a poignant reflection by Roger of his time at the railway, particularly the early years, and how it has shaped his life, sometimes in unexpected ways. Well done Roger for putting in such as exceptional level of service!

Workshop

Yet more station platform trolleys are being repaired, some to quite extreme lengths, I have lost count of them all now!

October News Part 2

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

This week has been the focus of the failed vacuum cylinder although its true that other jobs have also continued but haven't reached any newsworthy milestones. The cylinder was dismantled and received a standard clean up and overhaul, utilising one of the industry standard overhaul kits which are readily available for this purpose. Upon reassembly the cylinder passed all of its tests so its now off the rig and ready to be fitted onto the vehicle underframe.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

Temporarily in service and awaiting a return to Weybourne for the last of its snagging jobs to be completed. Although originally requested to run for just a driver experience, whilst at Sheringham E21224 was also able to be used for this weekend's Members & Shareholders day to substitute for E43041 which is currently out of the suburban rake and with us. This allowed our latest restoration to be viewed by many of our supporters and favourable comments were received.

Inside the workshop a start has been made on the five new build compartment tables although it is early days yet and these will be fitted in between other jobs.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

The sole focus remains the comprehensive bodywork. The Sheringham end renewals continue with a focus now on the landward side corner (previously the seaward side corner was the main subject). This is much the same as before: rot cut out, renewed, with replacement outer skin following. The top corner, where the gutter is, once again has been the source of trouble, a common location for Mark 1's.

The doorway stripping out is now complete and the doorways are ready for welding work to start.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Suburban Composite Lavatory E43041 (BRONZE)

The second of the conveyor belt coaches was shunted into the staging area early in the week and no time was lost in hitting it hard to get the planned exterior work off to a good start. The outside was washed down thoroughly to remove the accumulated steam engine dirt and the bodysides were then lightly rubbed down to prepare it for a coat of new paint.

Before the paint came out however some concerning gaps which had appeared around the window glass were attended to and "topped up" with some sealant to try and arrest further water ingress. The windows are a really bad design and these early Mark 1 coaches were plagued with corrosion issues in their working lives and this has continued in preservation. Hopefully this remedial work (which is being done after not many years service at all really) will help reduce the onset of this typical window corrosion.

This done, the painting was started. Unlike CCT E94464, E43041 will be receiving one coat of paint as well as a coat of varnish, as the Crimson livery has faded badly in just a few years since the Suburban 4 project was completed. This time we have decided to switch suppliers Monkey was not impressed with the speed at which the most recent coaches out of works have faded in the sun...

By the end of the week, the landward side had been painted.

British Railways 1960 Covered Carriage Truck E94464 (REPAIR)

The seaward side of this vehicle was quickly varnished in a similar fashion to the landward side last week. Although not originally planned, at the last minute we decided to give the wooden ends a quick coat of black paint to smarten them up and to match the shiny sides. This complete, the vehicle was returned to traffic and has already seen use including Members and Shareholders day.

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

No progress to report.

Southern Railway 1952 Covered Carriage Truck S1439S (BRONZE)

This privately owned van has been back in the locomotive shed for repairs to its wooden bodywork, despite only last being done in the summer of 2019! Over a dozen sections have been cut out and replaced and are being refitted, resealed and patch painted, in order to keep the van in top health. Three of the window have also been removed and replaced as part of the repairs. Sadly the original glass on several of the windows didn't survive the adjacent repair works!

Maintenance

In readiness for Members day, the Vintage train received an exam which it needed as it has not been seen in passenger use since before the pandemic. A few items cropped up including the onset of mold in several vehicles and a stuck door handle on M&GN 129. Both were able to be rectified before the weekend.

Workshop

The station bench, which has featured in several updates, is now on the home straight and has been painted again, looking much nicer than before.