Paintbrushes Back Out

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

Work continues on interior components. The vestibule ceiling, complete with hatches, is now coming together and has been sanded and painted as far as the undercoat stage. Additional clearance holes have been cut into it to accommodate pipes.

More varnished wooden support timbers have been produced, this time for the toilet itself, and are currently in the process of having varnish coats built up.

The widened saloon entrance door is now substantially complete and, again, is having varnish applied.

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

The glass cleaning progressed really well this week, with the team flying through the eight main panes, followed by seven subsidiary ones and finishing with 16 smaller quarter-lights. We have now finished this job as far as we can, just the toilet glass to do but that window is staying in place until after the coach has had its asbestos stripped from it.

The long task of repairing (drilling and re-tapping) the window frames is slowly getting there. All of the eight main windows are now complete with four smaller ones still to tackle.

The door overhaul project continues to also thrive. The second of the two inward opening guards doors (door #6) was fully reassembled this week and has now been set aside in the completed pile.

Door #7 is now completely stripped to a bare frame. Unfortunately one side has been found to be snapped in half so a repair is ongoing. The steel skin is rotten at the bottom so is having a custom repair section welded in. Meanwhile volunteers are busy refurbishing all of the loose components removed from the door, ready for reassembly in due course.

There was even enough willing hands towards the end of the week to make a start on (the final) door #8. It is being stripped down and now has most of its components split off, with the separation of steel skin from wooden frame still to go.

A start has been made on cleaning up loose parts that were removed following the strip down of the two corridor ends. Two aluminium trad plates, covered in paint, has been cleaned back to bare metal, returning them to their former glory once more!

Finally, a start has also been made on the long job of stripping off all the paint from the main bodysides of the coach in all the areas where we are currently planning to retain the original metal skin. Stripping back the layers will allow us to see if there is any hidden corrosion underneath. We are using a new type of grinding disk to strip the paint, following recommendations through social media from our colleagues at the Great Central and Mid Norfolk railways, so it goes to show that there is always room for new methods and it pays to network with others.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

Window refitting continues on the landward side, with around half now back in place. We had to call a halt after we ran out of rivets but more are now on order so we can recommence shortly.

The roof has been checked for leaks, cleaned and painted, marking the official start of the full repaint. To have reached painting stage in January is a real boost and is remarkably two months ahead of schedule, which is down to the hard work put in and also the unexpected good condition of the coach after we started taking it apart.

With the seaward side preparation work completed and the roof out of the way, towards the end of the week a coat of primer was applied to the that side.

Work to refresh the door cards continues with the first door woodwork now back in situ on the vehicle.

The second door has now been stripped off and sanded back to wood.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The vehicle is currently inaccessible due to track contractors working in the yard.

Stuck Indoors!

We are now well into the railway's shut down season where all the large infrastructure work is done. As a consequence we have all retreated inside the sheds whilst contract track workers renew the main crossover and yard entrance at Weybourne, the yard becoming their worksite for approximately a month. This hasn't stopped us however, with a multitude of fairly vanilla, but large, tasks to tackle on the coaches currently in the works.

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

Steady progress continues to be made on interior components. The widened-door mentioned last time is still being worked on and the characteristic "Gresley hatch" is also being produced. This small false ceiling fits behind the corridor connection, usually inside a vestibule, and contains hatches to allow access to reset the passenger communication valve and to lubricate the spring and fittings behind the corridor connection face-plate, normally inaccessible.

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

The focus continues to be exclusively windows and doors. The eight main sheets of glass from the bodyside windows are currently in the process of being cleaned of old mastic so they can be bedded back into the frames in due course. Around half of these have been completed.

The door project continues with a lot of labour being dedicated to them. The first guards inward opening door (door #5) has now been completed, the first of the steel skin/wood frame doors to reach this stage.

The second inward door (door #6) has been a priority over the past two weeks and has gone through the normal process of strip down, repair of frame and refurbishment of components. The steel skin was assessed and, being the worst one on the whole vehicle, it has been decided to replace it rather than repair it. The old skin has been returned to stores (we may get it back out one day if we get very desperate!) and a new one prepared for fitting to the original frame.

With additional staff moved onto the door project, a second door has been in progress (door #7), half of the double luggage door. So far it has been fully stripped down.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

Progress continues to be rapid. All of the removed window frames have now been cleaned up and painted on the inside edges, creating a full stack ready for fitting. Just in time too, as the preparation work on the body has now been completed along the final stretches of the landward side.

This week, window fitting has been in full swing, and the seaward side has quickly received all of its windows, making the coach look complete once again.

Work has also started on some minor interior refresh works. the varnish in the two vestibules is showing its age, particularly around the doors, so these are being treated each in turn. The first door has had its panels removed, sanded down and re-varnished.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The vehicle is currently inaccessible due to track contractors working in the yard.

Workshop

The battery chargers mentioned last time are now all finished and are awaiting their return to Sheringham.

Start Again

 

Happy New Year to all of our readers! As we enter 2023 we thought it would be of interest to share this table of the overall NNR carriage fleet as of 1/1/23, hopefully this may help some visualise where the various coaches fit into the general rakes that are usually formed and used around the railway.

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

Volunteers have been thin on the ground so soon after Christmas so progress has been limited,. However a new project for the new year has been the construction or modification of a door which will be separating the guard/luggage areas from the newly created vestibule (formerly luggage area) which will house the double doors enabling wheelchair access into the main saloon. The door must be fairly wide so is being created from parts of two doors glued together.

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

The tedious job of window frame cleaning and re-drilling and tapping continues in an identical fashion to that in 2022! The door rebuilds are much the same but have a different feel as we have now moved on frok the aluminium doors and into the steel/wood doors. The latter are much more involved and will take longer to get through. Door number five, the inward opening guards door, had been stripped last year. This week, all those stripped parts have been cleaned and repainted, with some requiring more repair work than others. The steel outer skin itself received several welding repairs, including a new bottom, and has been stripped back to bare metal to check for pin-holes. Welding completed, it was painted inside and out to protect it for the next lease of life. The wooden frame, also with new bottom, had received repairs to its splits before also being painted.

Towards the end of the week, much of the reassembly took place with skin and frame being reunited, followed by all the strengthening ribs and mechanism for the drop-light window. It was hoped to get it finished but there wasn't quite enough time, and the door handle and rear facing planked wood will have to be restored and refitted next week.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

Work to clean up the removed landward side windows, with all of the Sheringham end half now cleaned down ready for repainting. On the coach itself, the window apertures on the seaward side are now almost ready for the window frames to be put back into the coach. On the landward side, the last remaining quarter (Holt end) is now having its turn to be corrosion treated round the windows, sanded and filled.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

This vehicle is still waiting for the remaining emergency equipment items to be fitted into place, but it is very close to completion otherwise.

Norfolk Lights Express

The NLE season is now over and staff were involved in the setting down operation, mainly removing the main generators from CCT 94464, which can now return to its role as bike and buggy carrier for the 2023 season.

Workshop

Last year we were busy replacing temporarily wired carriage battery chargers with proper leads that would withstand trauma and weather better. The programme had to be halted during the Santa Special season as every charger was needed in use during weekends. Now that less chargers are needed we have gathered the strays and have been fitting the remaining upgraded cables. This unseen job is essential for future running trains after dark and has taken one person a good length of time to undertake properly. All part of the maintenance offering to try and keep things running smoothly!