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.