Finished For Christmas

Blog Number 300!

Firstly I would like to wish all of our readers a Happy Christmas! However and perhaps even more importantly, I would also like to say a sincere thank you to those who have stuck with us and stayed interested in what we do. Readership has plummeted over the past few years and is the lowest it has ever been. For whatever reason, lots of people who used to read these updates before the pandemic simply have not returned, and the experiment (last year) of having fewer updates with more news in each one was not successful in winning visitors back. This year, for the first time since Covid, we returned to the original format of more regular news but readership has remained low. What has kept me going in spending time writing the page has been the continued support and overwhelmingly positive feedback from those I meet in person who do still visit the page, so to those of you reading this, thanks again! We are looking forwards to another interesting year of restoration in 2023, but before then don't forget our review of the year (next week) where we will be undertaking the tradition of looking back on everything we have achieved in 2022, and this year it was quite a journey! So read on for the final standard workshop update for 2022, which coincidentally is the 300th blog post...

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

It has been a quiet few weeks as the team have been spending time at home on the approach to Christmas, however a few items are being attended to. A replacement section of steel from the corridor connection has been fabricated using an original example as a somewhat rotten pattern.

London North Eastern Railway Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

The second wheelset for the Gresley brake has now been fully set up in the lathe and is in the process of being turned. The completed first one has been moved back into the carriage shed and presents an interesting comparison with its worn sisters still awaiting lathe time.

British Railways 1961 Brake First Open (Kitchen) M14021 (GOLD)

The long task of window frame restoration continues, with more trim drilling and tapping. Just over half of the windows have now been completed, so this will continue well into the New Year.

The sliding light alloy frame cleaning continues well and we are now almost complete, with just two (of the 16) still to finish off. With all paint stripped off revealing good condition aluminium underneath, they look very nice already, even though we haven't started cleaning up the actual glass itself...

Moving on from windows to doors, the refurbishment of the large sliding end doors for the corridor connection on FO M3116 had gone so well that we moved straight onto those for M14021! The first one, from the Holt end, has had its exterior face stripped back to bare metal and any fittings such as handles etc removed. The face on this one is made from galvanized steel and is in excellent order.

The bodyside door overhauls have continued to progress at a steady rate. We have reached a milestone in that the four aluminium passenger doors have now been completed as far as we can take them for now (we need to order some replacement lower door cards). They are now lined up and await the completion of their steel cousins.

This leaves four more doors left to do: two inward opening guards doors and a pair of double luggage doors for the kitchen area. These will take longer than the alloy doors as there is more to them in terms of the refurbishment of the steel outer skins and wooden inner frames, both of which can give more trouble than the aluminium. The first candidate is one of the guards doors, which has now been completely stripped down into its component parts, a process which itself took two days! The wooden frame has been cleaned up, de-nailed and a replacement lower section machined up and fitted back into the door. Luckily, this is the only major wooden surgery to do on this particular door, so we have got off lightly!

More refurbishment of this fifth door, particularly all of the "bits" that have been taken off it and the main outer steel skin itself, will follow next year.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

The removed seaward side window frames have progressed particularly well with the cleaned up inner edges receiving a coat of primer and two gloss coats to build up a layer which will hopefully help keep the alloy from meeting the steel of the coach bodyside.

Attention is now turning to the landward side equivalents. Half of them have been removed from the coach and will no doubt be receiving the same "treatment" soon!

The welding repairs to the Sheringham corridor end have now been completed. Luckily the landward side corner needed much less surgery than its seaward side sister, although we did find a rather large mess on the corner full of filler. The type of filler used suggests this shameful bodge was a British Rail creation, rather than that of the previous preservation-era contract overhaul M3116 had.

Staying at the Sheringham end, a suitably repainted sliding door has also been fitted back in at this end.

With the landward side windows removed, bodywork preparation has been progressing down that side, in an identical fashion to that of the seaward only a few weeks ago. I won't repeat the details but we are getting there!

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The interior works to the guards van continue. One wall in particular needed a second coat, so we completed this on the door into the next saloon before running out of cream paint! This has been reordered but will need to arrive before we complete the rest of the wall.

Whilst we were waiting, the floor was given a coat of red paint and this can now harden over the Christmas break.

We also audited the emergency ambulance cupboard and it was found to have several items missing. These will be ordered and replenished before closing the cupboard and signing it back off for traffic. For the first time the guards area will be neat and tidy, as part of our wider programme to slowly work our way through the brake vehicles on the railway and attach to the walls and/or floors all the emergency items that are currently rolling around loose without a fixed home!

Workshop

The task to overhaul and repaint three vacuum brake cylinders has now finally been concluded, with the third example brought proudly up to gloss. The first one has been set aside and will be used on the overhaul of pipe wagon B740918 next spring when the weather improves. The remaining two are our "ready-to-go" spares for the 2023 season and have been placed on a pallet to await the call.

The Holt station platform trolley has now been completed and given several coats of grey paint. It will probably be lettered before being returned to the station.

Finally, the workshop gained a Christmas present in the form of a new belt sander for the woodworking area. The old one was too small and had become damaged to the point where it failed a safety inspection, becoming unusable as a result. We are very grateful to the Tool Fund who generously agreed to fund the purchase of this item (a three figure sum). It will greatly enhance our ability to "fettle" our beloved wooden components!