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.