Return of the Quads

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

Focus continues to be on the toilet end of the vehicle with the ceilings pictured last week improved with some side pieces and finishing strips.

Mesh has been added to the fabricated vent grill (for the toilet extractor fan) which will be subtly added to the exterior, in order to deny entry to flies and small birds.

Another extractor fan has been added to the guards compartment as there are no opening windows in this area and it is thought it might be prudent to encourage hot air to vent into the luggage area. A fan has been fitted and tested, the exit hole being disguised by a suitable BR era grill more normally found in ceilings.

The enlarged interior door has been fitted to a runner mechanism and mounted in place next to the guards compartment.

Work also continues to modify the step arrangement at the other end of the vehicle in the corridor connection. As part of this it was discovered that the corridor connection was too high in relation to the buffers, and this has been rectified to bring it back down into spec.

London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74

The Quad Set just refuses to go away and they are back again for the latest attempt to put them right! Following last year's failure to reprofile the wheels on the bogies in situ, March is to be dedicated to lifting all four of the coaches and sending all of the bogies away for the work to be done. A big task and the first time the set has been fully in pieces since it was restored by West Coast Railways 15 years ago.

So far, apart from a huge amount of planning, the set has been extracted from the sheds at Holt and is now in the yard at Weybourne. All brake rigging, vacuum and electrical connections have been removed so the four coaches are now ready to be lifted in turn.

Inside the sheds, preparations are being made including borrowing the locomotive lifting jacks to work in collaboration with our own. Special adapters are being fabricated to bolt onto the loco jacks to enable them to lift the Quad bodies, and given the safety critical nature of these then the appropriate design, certification and testing procedures are being followed.

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

More component work this week with the door frame of Door #7 being painted ready for reassembly.

A full set of window surrounds for the small windows located in the guards and kitchen areas has been made up, some from their original locations and others stolen from the two windows which will no be reinstated. These stolen examples are making up the numbers elsewhere where rot has rendered the originals unsalvageable. These have been repaired where required, sanded, filled and primed and now await further filling and sanding.

Components for the corridor end bellows are also being progressed, with hoops and rings being stripped back to bare metal and primed.

We have now also finished cleaning the last of the luggage racking, these look very nice indeed and are now stored away safely awaiting the day they can be fitted.

Two steam heat end cocks have been removed from the main pipe which is going to be removed as part of the asbestos strip. Whilst off, they have been stripped down, cleaned, reassembled and painted ready for use.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

Exterior painting has continued to be the priority. This has now been completed along the bodysides with two coats of crimson and cream applied down both sides. The corridor ends have been undercoated with glossing due next week before the vehicle is temporarily removed from the staging to make way for the Quads.

Also on the corridor ends, replacement rain hoods have been made and test fitted as the old ones had become holed. These will have their final fit after the painting has been completed.

Internally, the worst of the dust and dirt that had accumulated whilst the windows were out has been removed from the upholstery and carpets. Tables which had suffered sun damage have had their corners glued back down after we spotted that many had lifted. Exposed table edges which were also sun damaged have also been re-varnished.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The straps for the fire extinguishers and wheelchair ramp are in the process of being sewn up. 

More Doors and Painting

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

The ceiling panels which have been in production over the last few months have now been fitted to the toilet and adjacent corridor area.

Also in the same area, teething problems with the door lock activated circuitry for the toilet extractor fan have been resolved and it is now working correctly.

Sticking with the same theme of wiring, a modern twist has been added to the guards compartment control panel, volt meters to assess battery life with in built USB sockets! This will certainly be the first brake on the NNR that will be capable of charging the guard's phone!

At the Sheringham corridor end, a reclaimed step plate from the Thompson BG has been fitted and painted.

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

A vanilla period for this vehicle, with the rebuilding of the final two (double) kitchen doors continuing steadily. The frame repairs to door #7 are now complete and a new hygiene friendly back panel is being produced for it.

Door #8 continues to be improved by volunteers, with the skin now separated from the frame, which promptly split into three pieces!

The landward side battery box doors have been removed, dismantled and are now being repaired and readied for repainting. There were many layers of tar like paint to remove to get back to the original wood.

The wooden window surrounds for the small windows in the guards and kitchen areas have been extracted from storage so that they can be stripped and sanded, standard practice for a Gold level overhaul.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

The paint preparation work has now been completed around the entire exterior, which allowed primer to be applied quickly to the two corridor ends and the landward side.

The landward side remains the main focus now, as we seek to bring it to the same stage as the seaward. Red and cream undercoats have been applied to the top and bottom followed by two coats of red gloss along the top and one coat of cream gloss round the middle band. This gloss was then applied to the seaward side as well so both sides are now at a similar stage.

The gangway end repairs are now complete, the final tasks being the repainting of inside the corridor "tunnels" along with cleaning and painting of the gangway faceplates.

Internally, the Holt end vestibule has now been re-varnished so it matches the other end. The removed door furniture has been returned to place. The removed sections of window surrounds inside the passenger saloons have now been refitted and any sun damaged sections re-varnished. We are now making smaller improvements to the interior such as sticking down the edges of some of the table tops which had lifted in the sun,. It won't be long before cleaning work will be the focus on the inside now that the windows are back in and other tasks are coming to an end.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

One last push required to tie up the loose ends on this vehicle before it is declared ready for the 2023 season. Inside the guards compartment, all the areas of yellow paint which were deemed too thin on the walls have had another coat so this is now up to an acceptable finish. All that remains now is to finish off the emergency equipment.

A new wooden frame has been machined and primed which will screw onto the front of the ambulance cupboard. New glass for the frame has been made and delivered ready to fit once the frame is ready and the poster printed off. At the same time, new emergency glass to shield the opening handle has also been made ready to fit once we order the final missing items from inside the cupboard itself.

Various new straps to hold the fire extinguishers and wheelchair ramp have been measured out and now await sewing up.

Volunteer's Forum

This week saw the annual NNR Volunteer and Staff Forum held in Sheringham. For the first time it included a section dedicated to Carriages and I was invited to present a few minutes of what we as a department had achieved during 2022 and our hopes and dreams for 2023 and beyond! I was humbled to receive a great reception from both the railway's higher management and also the volunteers who attended who, unanimously, gave positive feedback for the department and the update. It was a very successful and enjoyable event with lots of food for thought.

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

A further week of progress on existing projects which included more paint being applied to the ceiling panels.

The wheelchair width door also got more varnish.

Finally, a new development, an extractor fan is in the process of being installed in the toilet. This will cleverly trigger using the slide door lock and will run automatically whilst the toilet is occupied and also for a predetermined time after the compartment is vacated. Quite early days yet but an air duct has already been routed through the ceiling and the electrics associated with the door lock trigger are being installed and have been tested using a bulb temporarily as we don;'t have the fan itself yet!

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

More bodyside stripping has continued with the seaward side of the luggage area now almost completed. Also in progress are the door overhauls of the final two doors, #7 & #8. The former is receiving framework repairs to the wood and the latter is still being stripped down to its component parts, though several of these have been cleaned ready for reassembly already.

The corridor end tread plates mentioned last time have progressed to the point where primer has been applied, they look so much better than when we started on them.

A new project has commenced in the form of restoration of the battery boxes. This has started with the doors from the landward side, which have been dismantled and a start made on stripping off all the old thick bitumen paint. Also new has been a strip down and sand of two side bearers which belong behind the flexible bellows of the corridor connection. One of these will need further repair but with all the old paint now off we can properly see what we're working with.

British Railways 1962 First Open M3116 (SILVER)

With new rivets in stock the window refitting has continued apace along the landward side, and indeed was completed this week.

The more advanced seawards side saw undercoat applied giving the coach its two-tone appearance back.

This was followed by gloss paint on the red sections top and bottom.

The ends are also progressing with the Holt end now reassembled following some woodwork repairs around the gangway.

Moving onto the interior, replacement first class signage has been applied to the seaward side replacing old examples had become tatty.

The Sheringham end vestibule has also been re-varnished which has lifted its appearance considerably. The Holt end vestibule has been rubbed down ready for the same treatment.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

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