Returning to Bodywork

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

The main focus continues to be underneath, with the rerouted steam pipe pictured in previous weeks being moved underneath for reconnecting. Further work is also being undertaken on the mounting straps for the Control Emission Toilet tank, the reason for moving the steam pipe in the first place.

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

Several new asbestos surveys has been taken after the initial contractors either declined or quoted uncompetitive prices. We are currently awaiting fresh prices. Meanwhile steady rebuilding of the landward battery box continues.

The final door rebuild has stalled whilst other maintenance tasks on other vehicles have been undertaken.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

Bodywork continues with the main area of attack being the landward side, in particular the guards doorway and nearby window apertures. The accessible saloon section on the landward side has also become the first to be flatted back in preparation for filling and painting.

Some further limited door patching has been done and many more doorway side strips have been removed and are having sealant and corrosion removed. Also being progressed is the sealant removal from the window frames that have been taken off the vehicle.

The first of the sliding corridor end doors (Holt end) has been removed from the vehicle, sanded and undercoated ready to be repainted brown.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Work has picked up again with stripping out spreading to the cab front. All three windscreens have been removed.

The first passenger doorway to be repaired has had all it's new metalwork completed and painted and is now ready for reassembly and building back up.

This can't happen until the replacement door is ready however. This has been stripped as far as possible and will now have all of the serviceable interior furniture from the old door transferred to it.

The metalwork continues to progress on the seaward side along the rear saloon. All of the patches have been cut out and replacement metal tacked in place ready for full welding next week. Some prototype replacement window bottoms have also arrived and been tacked in successfully. With tweaks noted, the production run can now be ordered.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

No progress to report.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

The good weather has seen good progress continue. The main thrust has been needle gunni g down of metal on the chassis and body frame in the morning and protecting it in new anti corrosive primer in the afternoon. This cycle has worked well with three out of four sides of the wagon treated so far.

On less weather predictable days, some time has also been given to de-greasing the lower running gear with a view to painting in the future.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

No progress to report.

Gala Preparations

A lot of time and effort has been spent this week making preparations for the Steam Gala. Having an event where nearly all of our rolling stock is intended to be in use, so early into the season, puts a great deal of strain on the maintenance and examination side of the department, as it prevents us spreading the annual exams into May. All of the "special stock" has come out of winter hibernation and been ticketed for use for this event and indeed for the year ahead. It has been worth it however as a real show has been put on with some interesting formations and a good time had by all.

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

Work has restarted underneath the vehicle, with a good section of the new re-routed steam pipe being produced ready to fit, as the original route was needed for the new control emission toilet tank.

This tank continues to be arranged underneath the vehicle, with thought being given as to its mounting arrangement. 

A good step forward on the exterior of the vehicle has been the arrival and fitting of replacement glass for the small luggage area windows. Around 3/4 of these have been fitted already with just a few still to finish off.

Additional shelving and further tweaks are being made to the servery area inside the vehicle.

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

Work on the landward side battery box continues, which has turned out to be more rotten than first appeared.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

In similar style to previous weeks, a continuation of the bodywork which is slowly creeping its way down the Holt side. Several doors are having in-situ metalwork replacements, particularly around the lower end. As we don't like to strip the doors fully down unless it is a Gold level overhaul, this is a good way of giving the doors a new lease of life and removing corrosion for relatively little outlay, albeit without being able to protect the rear faces of the metal as much as we would perhaps like.

Further passenger compartment windows have been removed to allow early corrosion underneath the frames to be dealt with.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

No progress to report.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

No progress to report.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918

Now that Spring is in the air and we are getting some drier days, this wagon project which had to be stalled in the Autumn has now recommenced. This week the landward side ironwork has had a coat of red primer applied all along the body. It is planned next week to move onto the Sheringham end which so far has escaped attention.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

This week has been all about paint stripping, getting there slowly but surely.

A start has also been made sanding in areas where the existing paintwork is pretty good.

Peter Leny

It is our sad duty to inform readers that long standing C&W volunteer Peter Leny died last week. Peter was known universally as "Doctor Peter" owing to the fact that after joining the department there were too many Peters to keep track of and his career had been as a GP. Peter was old school, a gentleman, down to earth and softly spoken. I never saw him angry even once, and one of his greatest skills in my opinion was the ability to convey any irritation in such a way that the listener hardly realised he was complaining, an art which is surprisingly rare! Peter was an interesting person to spend time with, having a seemingly eternal bank of stories from times gone by providing heathcare to the general public. There was a case study relevant to almost any situation being discussed. Despite being long retired Peter was often consulted by other volunteers and paid staff for an opinion on any ailments in the department, something I never fully worked out whether he minded or not. He would be far too polite to say if it did bother him! Peter's entire life was dedicated to helping people beyond himself and being part of a wider cause, which he translated seamlessly into his volunteering at the NNR. Peter understood completely that his weekly contributions tediously cleaning down carriage components were part of the backbone of the restoration process despite not being particularly photogenic. He gave many years to the railway and his departure around the time of the Covid pandemic leaves a hole in the department hard to fill.

Doctor Peter (left) with partner in crime Nurse Peter

Tanker Rides Again

Thank you for all the well spirited comments following last week's April fool, it was nice for the readership numbers to (temporarily at least) return to pre-Covid levels. This week, in contrast, has been a short week due to Easter and lower levels of volunteers with grandchildren being off and holidays being had!

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

The woodwork associated with the servery area is being painted up.

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

The slowly advancing negotiations with the asbestos removal contractor regrettably has fallen through and they no longer wish to undertake the work. We have now returned to the drawing board and are now exploring a new batch of contractors.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

Work continues to focus on the wheelchair accessible saloon, but not in a particularly photogenic way. Further metalwork has been tidied up and more small areas replaced and painted around the four window apertures and work is also ongoing on tackling the doorway edges on the double (former luggage) doors. Some of these are having the wooden frames removed, others can remain in situ. The rough aluminium weather strips capping the doorways are all being removed, cleaned and prepared for refitting. It would have been nice to replace these four-piece examples with the superior one-piece type which fit under the hinge between the body, but this would involve very time consuming stripping down, hinge removal and door resetting. For that reason we have decided to let this one go and simply stabilise any early corrosion and refit the old strips. A substantial amount of supporting woodwork modifications are also being made around the windows on the interior, to make window fitting and removal easier in the future.

Further down the vehicle, a start has been made on preparing for the future phases of the corridor and compartments. The first compartment window has been removed, following dismantling of the surrounding wooden trim.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Focus has remained on doorways, with the first one receiving more metalwork. The second doorway has also been stripped out with wooden trim and door jambs removed allowing all of the metalwork below to be needle gunned so we can see where we are. We believed the second door to be better than the first, but underneath things have proven to be just as bad! At least this doorway doesn't have an out of shape door!

Removed seat frames continue to have their lower legs painted, many of these are up to gloss now, with a few still in undercoat.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

No progress to report.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

No progress to report.

Metropolitan Cammell 1965 4 Wheel Petroleum Tank 53083

The Devil Tank successfully had its buffer changed this week, a fairly straightforward task for once. We extracted a spare buffer from stores but then discovered that all seven of our spares had the smaller buffer head whereas the tank should have the larger type. After a head scratch for a bit we spotted one of the box vans in the yard which are internal use only had been fitted with a larger buffer out of convenience.

Given box vans normally have the smaller type, we placed the (small) spare onto the box van and moved the larger one onto the tanker. The actual removal and fitting of the buffers was pain-free, with all bolts behaving.

Although we didn't have much time, a quick clean up and a coat of anti-rust primer was applied to the area of bufferbeam normally covered by the buffer.

Whilst we had the tanker at Weybourne the air braking system (seldom used) was fully tested and found to be in working order. The wagon has therefore had its "fitted brake" ticket reinstated so provided it is moved around solo then it can run as an air braked train, which is not that common on the NNR.

Quint-Art Return

NOTE to retrospective readers: The section in red was constructed as an April Fool's joke!

London Great Eastern Railway 1907 Quint Articulated Set 74

As hinted in last week's update, we have now fully completed the work on the set. Satisfied that the wheel profiles were correct for the original 4-coach formation, it was back into the shed once again to undertake the final part of the puzzle. The M&GN Society's long term aim has for some time been to utilise Great Eastern 295 and run it with the Quad-Arts in matching teak to bring wheelchair accessibility to the set for the first time. With recent quotations for bogie overhauls having risen, instead the recently acquired articulated accommodation bogie has been utilised to its full potential and the body of GER 295 centrally placed to create a Quint-Art set perhaps decades earlier than would have otherwise been possible.

It is anticipated that the centre coach will be locked out of use for a few days whilst we complete the finishing touches to the bodywork, however the disturbance to the rest of the set for the tyre turning was too great an opportunity to turn down when it came to undertaking the body lifting works. The set will be in service this month so come on down and see for yourself... you'd be a fool not to!!

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

Back in the workshop the Thompson has seen some detailing work to the large sliding door at the brake end of the passenger saloon to widen it further in a way that the draught strips can be more easily fitted. The upper pelmet has also been added and surrounding pillars tidied up.

At the opposite end of the coach, the mini-bulkhead wall separating the bar counter from the saloon has been fitted and rapidly a framework made up for the counter behind.

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

The landward side battery box refurbishment continues with the box itself taking the focus now that the doors are complete. The right hand side is particularly bad with around two thirds of it having now been cut away with timber being prepared for its splice replacement.

The battered framework for door #8 continues to be soothed back into life with repaired parts being prepared ready for the framework to be reconstructed.

The corridor end metal oops for the gangways have now both been completed having been brought up to black gloss.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

All four of the windows have now been removed from the wheelchair saloon, which has made a good start.

The apertures are in reasonable condition despite the eruption corrosion and we have caught most of it in time. Some small areas have been chopped out and replaced, with other being cleaned and rust treated. A start has also been made on cleaning up the doorways, which bizarrely have shown very poor outer weather strips but on closer inspection don;'t have the more normal heavy corrosion beneath. So far so good.

At the Holt end, most of the vestibule ceiling has been removed. this had suffered from leaks in the past and had become a damaged and untidy mongrel of repaired pieces. The opportunity of this overhaul will be used to replace what requires replacing and improve this area in the process.

British Railways 1957 Class 101 Railcar Driving Trailer Composite Lavatory E56062 (SILVER)

Unlike 35148, the DMU has been sinking deeper and deeper into the mud with more problems with the bodywork and doors pointing to the conclusion that this one isn't going to be a particularly fast turnaround! Nevertheless we plough on! The first doorway has been a major focus this week with more rot chopped out and one side pillar completed with new lower framework and skin welded in. The door was test fitted again but has found to be too out of shape to re-use so it will probably have to be swapped out with a spare.

Whilst we await laser cut window bottoms to arrive, the exposed framework is being needle gunned to stabalise it.

The removed windows also continue to be cleaned down to give the aluminium some life again.

The passenger seats are all having their water damaged sections at the bottom of the feet de-rusted and repainted. So far, they have been needle gunned, rust treated and primed where required. 

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51188

The ambulance cupboard picture frame has been undercoated.

British Railways (LMS Design) 1949 20 Ton Brakevan B950133

The M&GN Society's brakevan, despite having last been refreshed as recently as 2016, has been taken out of service again for more remedial work, a necessity for wooden wagon stock that is kept outside sadly. It has been taken on by "Team Pete" at the museum at Holt station, who have turned out several wagons now including the Southern Railway brakevan.

There is a lot of work to be done, the timbers on the balcony corners need to be replaced as bolts have rusted and split the wood. A start has been made on preparing these for removal. 

Also started is the heat gunning of old paint from areas where it has become unstable.

Metropolitan Cammell 1965 4 Wheel Petroleum Tank 53083

The "Devil Tank" was stopped late last year as it was reported to have a compressed "oleo" buffer. Following tests to ascertain it was benign the vehicle has been removed from the freight set and tripped to Weybourne for a buffer swap.