Lots of Lights Train Preparations

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

Following completion of the ceiling, it has been decided to build out the bulkhead wall at the Holt end of the coach by around an inch. Some packing pieces, which will be hidden, have been fixed to the old wall and will be suitably clad in due course. A start has been made on the upper panels, which are white to match the ceiling and will be similar to to the already-completed Sheringham end.

Trim an grill fitting has continued over the steam heat pipework, which is making the lower areas of the coach look almost finished!

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

Work to reupholster the seating has been the main focus in recent weeks. 75% of the seat backs and bases have now been treated, with one more "shipment" (the remaining 25%) due to be started soon.

London North Eastern Railway 1931 Corridor Third E12493E (REPAIR)

Finishing off this project will now have to wait until next Spring, so the vehicle will disappear from these musings for a while!

London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74 (VARNISH)

The Quads have been back with us for their re-varnishing which occurs every two years. This year they have been tackled in two separate parts as they were needed in service for the October half term. During October the two Holt end coaches were cleaned, rubbed down and varnished, before being returned briefly to service. The Sheringham end pair of coaches, are now being similarly treated in the workshop, and are now rubbed down and ready for varnishing.

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

Bodywork continues to progress well. All of the welding on the seaward side of the passenger saloon has now been completed and the five window frames have been test fitted successfully.

On the landward side, the guards compartment area has also been competed and has also been sanded and prepped ready for a first coat of primer. The two window frames have been permanently fitted into position and will also be included in the primer.

The landward side guards corridor has also been coming together well, with door jambs, trims and planking all being finished off, primed and undercoated. Repairs to the floor where the door interfaces have also been completed in this area.

Slowly but surely, the reading light boxes are being stripped and repainted ready for when the interior is built in the future.

British Railways 1957 Metro Cammell Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory E79263 (SILVER)

With the exterior details now completed, the vehicle has been out-shopped from the shed and is now outside for the remainder of the interior assembly to be completed. The cab refurbishment also continues, with black paint around the desk and surrounding walls being applied, along with further finishing details on some of the controls.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918 (BRONZE)

The past month has seen this wagon progress really well, so well in fact that all the work planned to be done in-house ahs been completed by the wagon team at Holt! Since the last update, the wagon has been fully painted with several coats of bauxite brown and all signwriting has been completed.

Removed fittings have been returned to place and the previous areas of chassis have been touched in with black to get a crisp divide with the brown body colour.

There is now just one final task for the project: replacing the hood (cover) that sits over the top protecting the spares that lie beneath. The company that makes these have visited and measured up for the cover, which will hopefully match the 1950's era of the wagon better than the previous example.

British Railways 1959 21 Ton Lowmac B904149 (BRONZE)

The final painting and signwriting works have now been completed on this wagon, which was completed and returned to traffic in time to run Norfolk Lights Express preparation trains.

Maintenance

Steam heat repairs have also been occupying our time. A section of holed pipe underneath First Open M3116 was the first major item to be attended to when we started steam heat testing.

Non functioning heaters inside TSO's M4843 & M4958 have also been made to work bringing up the heating levels in these carriages inside the passenger saloons.

The Christmas present store coach, BG 81269, required some limited attention this year before it could be loaded up with supplies and used by staff. Some stuck doors were freed up and a step board replaced, with a second in the pipeline. We undertook a brake test to see if the vacuum brakes were still operational after a time out of use, but sadly it failed so it will continue to be worked as an un-braked vehicle.

Lots more Norfolk Lights Express preparations have also been done in the past few weeks. We have fitted all coaches in use in winter with in-built battery chargers so that staff now only have to plug in leads to charge the coach batteries, rather than carrying round the actual chargers themselves.

Brake Corridor Second M35148 has seen six new tables installed, to the four compartments and also in the accessible saloon. These were varnished and prepared with their various legs (the accessible ones are removable to have "clever" legs).

Electric "booster" heating has been fitted to both accessible brake coaches, E21103 & M35148, to take the chill off when the large double doors are left open on these vehicles during boarding/alighting.

Other tasks completed have included fitting curtains to the first class compartments in E21103, extra store cupboard shelf restraints in BCK E21224 and a door catch inside RBR E1969.

October News Part 2

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

Nowhere near as dramatic as last week's transformation, but ceiling work has continued beyond the main fitting of the panels, with untidy areas improved and trim finished etc. 

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

The second quarter of the seat re-upholstery has now commenced with stripping of the old covers being the first act.

London North Eastern Railway 1931 Corridor Third E12493E (REPAIR)

No progress to report.

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

Bodywork on the landward side close to the guards compartment has extended as far as the double set of doors in the kitchen (former luggage) area. Old skin has been chopped out and replaced with new along with a further section of repair skirting. The whole areas from doorway-to-doorway is being prepped also ready for some primer.

British Railways 1957 Metro Cammell Railcar Driving Trailer Second Lavatory E79263 (SILVER)

This week further finishing touches to the exterior have included the refitting of all of the grab handles and cab handrails.

The corridor connection outer "scissors" mechanism has received a cosmetic only coat of black gloss to smarten them up as the corridor has been shown up by the surrounding shiny paintwork!

Interior wise, the cab refresh continues and we have started on freshening up the passenger vestibules, which are noticeably poorer than the saloons in condition, so will receive a repaint to the walls. Before the vehicle leaves the staging area, the inside faces of all four passenger doors have been painted, as it is much easier to do this with the doors open, due to the arrangement of the draught excluders when the doors are shut.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918 (BRONZE)

Paint has been ordered for the top coats for this wagon.

British Railways 1959 21 Ton Lowmac B904149 (BRONZE)

This vehicle is progressing nicely with all of the replacement planking now bolted down into position on the wagon.

Painting has continued with the signwriting now complete down one side and the axlebox ends undercoated in yellow.

A bent coupling at the Holt end has been extracted, straightened out and refitted, all in one day as it proved more straightforward than expected.

Maintenance

The second coat of varnish has now been applied to the replacement tables for BSK(D) M35148.

M4843 Launched into Traffic

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

A big visual difference has been made over the past two weeks, with ceiling panel fitting now well underway and 75% of the main passenger saloon panelled very quickly. Even with the protective film still in situ, the extra lighting in the coach is noticeable with the new panels providing a lot of reflection.

London North Eastern Railway 1938 Brake Third Open E16631E (GOLD)

The first quarter of seat cushions have now been reupholstered by the department at Weybourne, and the second quarter of seats extracted from storage and moved to Weybourne to be similarly treated.

London North Eastern Railway 1931 Corridor Third E12493E (REPAIR)

No progress to report.

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

Bodywork progresses well with the seaward side of the main passenger saloon now looking the part. Three window sections are now skinned with all framework also replaced where required.

The final two windows are in the process of being cut out and framework repairs are ongoing, with the floor bearers done and higher up examples now ready to be replaced.

The guards compartment has been built up nicely with the replacement ceiling now in place and most of it beaded.

The walls have had final paint preparation and have been primed and undercoated, which has transformed the area into the cream colour that it will b close to when finished.

Further adjustments and restoration has also been done to the relocated ambulance cupboard, which is now physically completed and in place accessed from what will be the kitchen.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843 (BRONZE)

This vehicle has now finally been completed and returned to service just in time for the Autumn Showcase event. Lots of the usual finishing touches were made to the outside including some reassembly and cleaning work, but the largest outstanding task was converting the strip lighting to LED versions which will be much kinder on the batteries. We also replaced the filament lights in the vestibules with LED's so this is now the first fully LED coach on the NNR.

The final task was to lift the coach and change the coil springs in the bolster of the Sheringham end bogie. These had proven too difficult to remove before but we were now armed with a bespoke squeezing device which managed to crack the corrosion and split apart the required plates to allow a spring change to occur with some good spares we had in stock.

We also undertook a steam heat repair whilst the coach was on jacks, so hopefully the cold area of the coach that was reported last winter will be cosy once again during this year's Santa and Norfolk Lights trains!

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

Sadly this vehicle was not able to be launched at the Showcase weekend which had been the plan some time ago. However we have still done well externally with the remaining windows now back in place. This allowed all of the signwriting to be done including numbers, chassis lettering and various legends on the doors and corridor end.

After the lettering and numbering was applied, the entire vehicle has been treated to a final sealing coat of varnish, which almost completes the exterior. Just handrails left to refit now!

Before the vehicle re-entered the staging, finishing touches to the bogies and axleboxes were made with the tyres painted white and the axlebox covers yellow.

The vehicle will be available this weekend for viewing during the member's shed tours.

British Railways 1954 13 Ton Pipe Open B740918 (BRONZE)

The seaward side rubbing down is now complete, wood hardener applied where necessary followed by red primer.

Also primed are the metal repair plates, which are to be fitted in various places, along with new timber replacing the rotten planks on both seaward and landward side.

British Railways 1959 21 Ton Lowmac B904149 (BRONZE)

This wagon has now been moved into the shed temporarily whilst there is space vacated by 4843. The Youth Development Club finished off priming the exterior and have also rallied round and applied back undercoat.

The "bodysides" have also progressed into gloss Bauxite brown.

The replacement planks have all been profiled underneath so that they sit nicely into all the rebates and over rivets etc. These have been rot treated on the undersides and on all edges that will be hidden once fitted. The bolts for these have now arrived so all being well it will not be long before they are fitted.

Maintenance

The new tables for BSK 35148 have now arrived from the contractor. These look very nice and are of an identical design to those that visitors may have spotted inside BCK 21224. They require varnishing and the first coat was applied this week.