April News Part 1

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

No progress to report.

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E (REPAIRS)

The Gresley Buffet car has spent a week in the works having some remedial works to allow it to run at the Steam Gala. It had two defective vacuum cylinders and a cracked bodyside window. A replacement window was ordered in advance so by the time the coach entered it was ready to swap. Luckily Gresley windows are fairly straightforward to remove and refit and this was undertaken painlessly with the new window refitted and sealed in after two days. Some light repainting work around the window was done to blend in the new sealant.

The two vacuum cylinders were each removed in turn, rebuilt and tested on the vacuum rig before being refitted hastily back onto the coach as the Steam gala approached!

The coach was then removed from the shed, its short stay over, and had a spell over the pit to test and adjust the brakes up, oil everything underneath and complete a C exam. This done, and only just in time, the vehicle was whisked away to be formed into its set down at Sheringham.

British Railways 1959 Brake Corridor Composite E21224 (GOLD)

The leaking steam heater has been removed, repaired and refitted again just in time for the Steam Gala! This will be the final report for this long running Gold overhaul, as following the Steam Gala the coach is finally expected to be staying at Sheringham permanently as a mature member of the running fleet! It is likely that this vehicle will venture out onto the mainline very soon.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

The final door is now completed with only the surrounding doorway trim now outstanding. This has become the next area of focus for the door refitting team, who are also looking into replacing and refitting the remaining paneling from the wheelchair saloon.

The paint preparation on the landward side has now also been completed so the two ends are now the only bodywork outstanding before the exterior painting can commence.

On the interior, varnishing of the two vestibules continues, and has been aided by the refitting of the large sliding door at the Holt end corridor end.

At the other end of the coach, painting has progressed well with the guards compartment now resplendant in cream, with various items picked out in black.

British Railways 1956 Tourist Second Open E4236 (BRONZE)

The eighth of the conveyor belt coaches has now been completed and left the shed.

Before it left we had chance to scrape excess paint from the windows and give them a much needed clean. Door handles were refitted and masking tape removed. The repair on the damaged table was also completed and the whole table given a coat of paint so everything matched.

The final task on the vehicle was undertaking a start of season C exam on it, following which it joined one of the service sets to take part in the Steam Gala.

British Railways 1962 Tourist Second Open M4958 (BRONZE)

The ninth conveyor belt coach has now been moved from outside the shed into the staging area replacing M4236. The first task has been the emptying out of the last of the old seat cushions, which had been lingering in the vestibules, to allow full access inside for proposed vestibule re-varnishing work. All redundant Covid seat allocation signage has also been removed from the windows.

On the outside of the vehicle, which is where the main focus will be, a strong start has been made on chipping off any loose roof paint off the sun damaged landward side.

We intend to work on this coach for the next few weeks before moving too many other vehicles around, as the operations team will need a rest following all of the gala movements before and after the event!

British Railways 1951 16 Ton Ballast Plough Brakevan DB993707

There was enough time to paint all of the handrails and plough lifting equipment in white before the brakevan was removed from the shed (along with E9128E and E4236) and tripped down to Sheringham to be reformed into the goods set ready to feature in....you've guessed it, the Steam Gala!

London Transport 1955 20 Ton Ballast Hopper HW426

This has made great progress by the miniature wagon team in the few days it has been in progress. The three ballast discharge doors have been repeatedly oiled and exercised to the point where they are probably not going to get any easier to wind in and out. This work is essential to keeping the moving bits moving and not have issues in the near future.

The rest of the focus has been on the inside of the hopper. It has been cleaned down and brushed thoroughly to remove any remaining detritus and prepare the rusty surface for paint. A coat of rust inhibitor primer was then applied all over the inside, which has reacted and stabilized the surface ready for further coats.

British Railways 1953 20 Ton Lowmac DB904093

No progress to report.

Workshop

Within all the chaos we managed to find time to repaint one side of the 7F loco tender which had been suffering badly in the sun.

Maintenance

It has been all hands to the pump in order to get all of the toys out of the box for the Steam gala, with a flurry of exams and paperwork completion undertaken to allow everything to run at the event. This was finished the day before so all is well. Perhaps the highlight was a 12 wagon goods train passing the shed on Wednesday which, following careful consultation with long standing members at the railway, we now believe to be the longest train of wagons ever to be assembled and run down the line in the NNR's history! This is a great achievement and shows how well volunteers have done in recent years in getting out of traffic wagons back into serviceable and presentable condition. 13 wagons (one more) are set to feature at the Steam Gala, albeit split over two sets. We hope to see a 12, 13 or even 14 wagon goods train feature at a future event, now that we have the vehicles to enable it. One of the brakevans on the mega formation was the newly out-shopped SR brake, which the team up at Holt have been working on. It has made its big debut on the set for the Steam Gala.