E21103 Completed (Again!)

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

Progress has continued steadily, the largest interior item to be returned to place being the toilet ceiling.

Some smaller items are also being built up with varnish applied.

Mechanically, work has continued on the vacuum system, which has now all been connected up as one system. Following a test, it has been found that something is leaking somewhere, so various items are now being blanked off to try and isolate the area in which the problem lies. Being a brake vehicle there are several extra components and more pipework to test than a standard coach.

Elsewhere on the exterior, the now modified footboards have been fitted to the vehicle and painted in gloss.

London North Eastern Railway Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

Four wheelsets have arrived on the railway, becoming the first major components of this vehicle to actually land on NNR metals. They are in better condition than the wheelsets currently under the coach, and will leave us to meet up with the rest of the coach in Derbyshire in due course. First however they are getting some TLC, having been in storage for a very long time. The wheels are currently in the process of being chipped back to stable metal and primer paint applied, transforming their appearance markedly. The axleboxes have been removed and the bearings inspected. They have been found to be not the best in the world, but luckily we have caught most of them just in time and following some remedial work and swapping out of one, a serviceable set can be formed for the coach.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open M14021 (GOLD)

The corridor end steelwork stripping has continued to be the main focus. With the Sheringham end stripped, no time was lost in moving to the Holt end, which has proved to be in worse condition, with some gutter height corrosion having traveled along the tops of the adjacent doorways and in towards the former toilet. Sections of gutter have been accordingly released from the bodysides in these areas to allow access for new steel in due course to replace the affected sections.

The vestibule floor will have to be removed from this area in due course. The remaining components, such as woodwork panels on the ends, sliding door etc have all been removed now to access the framework for cleaning and repairs.

Other stripping out work on the exterior has included both doors and windows, with the landward side now devoid of all of these items.

The consequence of course is now the vehicle looks even sadder than before, resembling little more than a stripped out shell! We plan to follow up next week and strip out the remaining doors and windows from the seaward side.

Component removal has been a matching theme on the interior as well. Half of the ceiling in the luggage area has been removed now along with the associated lighting and trunking in the ceiling.

The guards desk has also been removed from the guards compartment, primarily to access the window for removal.

British Railways 1956 Brake Corridor Composite E21103 (SILVER)

Despite our excitement that the vehicle had been launched into traffic, it was not to last long as it was soon giving vacuum problems along with several other coaches in the same rake of coaches (more of which later). Following tests E21103 was found to be leaking vacuum at greater rates than we had detected during its Fitness to run exam. As a consequence the engine was unable to overcome the combined leaks of the naughty coaches (including E21103) and a train had to be cancelled.

We quickly removed E21103 from traffic and brought it up to Weybourne after it became apparent that it was not able to be fixed in the field at Sheringham. We found around eight leaks in total, some minor and others major. E21103 spent a week in the shed and ended up receiving five new flexible hoses, a replacement vacuum cylinder, replacement direct admission valve (next to the cylinder) and new seals in two other separate components. Eventually a leakage test was completed successfully and E21103 was transformed from one of the leakiest coaches to the tightest! We took the opportunity of painting the overhauled vacuum cylinder before it was fitted as this was more easily done in the test rig.

Whilst the vehicle was with us we also fitted a first aid kit holder into the guards van, which we ran out of time for previously as it hadn't been painted. The vehicle was returned to Sheringham just in time to be put back into the train in time for the Autumn Showcase weekend.

British Railways 1957 Tourist Second Open 4667

This project to create a seating area for Holt station has now been completed, bringing the conveyor belt project tally up to 14. Since the last update, the remaining repainting work has been completed, including a few brief touches such as footboards and lamp irons. This was followed by much cleaning of the windows, which had the usual paint on them but were also filthy inside and out following a few years in storage.

The coach was then extracted from the shed and tripped up to Holt where it has now been positioned in the goods yard to await its first custom next season.

British Railways 1956 Gangwayed Brake (Kitchen) M81033

The worst vehicle on the railway still operating had reached a stage where its exterior cosmetic condition was too embarrassing to tolerate for the next few years until 14021's overhaul has been completed. As an interim measure therefore, it was decided to refresh the vehicle and give it a coat of paint to see it through. M81033 has therefore unexpectedly become the 15th member of the conveyor belt project, and also the only one to be undertaken outside at Sheringham rather than in the shed at Holt.

The vehicle has been moved into different platforms on dry days for the work to be completed in stages. So far, the seaward side bodysides have been completed along with the lower sections of the landward side in red. The ends have also received a coat of black. The only sections remaining to complete now are the cream elements of the landward side which we can hopefully complete soon before the weather turns too nasty.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

With the conveyor belt project close to its conclusion, we are looking ahead to future projects as the conveyor was always designed as a Covid "bounce back" and wasn't sustainable long term. One of the current concerns is the poor cosmetic condition of the Class 101 DMU fleet so a programme to undertake bodywork and repaints for them is inevitable. There is a slight project overlap however as the best of the four affected vehicles, powercar M51188, has not declined to the point where it can't be quickly refreshed, unlike the other three. The first of the four DMU repaints therefore can be included as the final member of the conveyor belt project, to hopefully save it before it requires more major repairs.

Accordingly, M51188 has been withdrawn from service and brought inside for a quick repaint.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Some limited areas have had some more rust inhibitor applied.

British Railways 1953 20 Ton Lowmac TDB904093

Progress has slowed but the wheels of the tractor have emerged in gloss white.

Maintenance

Returning to our vacuum problems mentioned in the E21103 section, the vehicle was in fact one of five vehicles that were found to be leaking vacuum at a greater rate than specification. Owing to time constraints we were not in a position to rectify them all before the Norfolk Lights Express season, so we decided to repair three of them, which should solve the issue as the remaining leaks should be overcome by the engine if we have eliminated 60% of the problem. The first was of course E21103, the second being Gresley Buffet E9128E. This was removed from the train at Weybourne and unlike E21103 had a much simpler diagnosis, with a quick change of two hoses curing the leaks. It has now been returned to service.

The third coach to tackle was TSO M4958. We changed all four flexible hoses which made a slight improvement but didn't cure the problem. More in depth testing at Weybourne revealed that both vacuum cylinders were the culprits. We have now overhauled two cylinders in preparation and hope to fit them next week.

A more positive development has been the completion of the final interior task on Gold overhaul E21224. Whilst the coach was formally finished and launched some time ago now, we always intended to fit high quality tables to the compartments but their construction was time consuming so we had to send the coach out without them.

However this week they were completed and have been fitted into the vehicle, blue in first class and red in second. They look excellent.

We hope longer term to produce more of them for eventual fitting to W35148 and E21103, both of which currently have mixed condition tables borrowed from other coaches in storage (which we will eventually restore).

Workshop

Other workshop activities have included a good tidy up, and repainting progress on the M&GN Society's road crane. Much like M81033, this is a race against time before the winter sets in.