Painting Continues

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

The brass window frames are now being lacquered, as part of the long quest to get them fit for service once more. Apparently this lacquer is particularly expensive so hopefully it will be worth it!

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

The replacement vacuum pipework continues to be prepared with further layers of paint on good areas and several sections taken through into the Engineering side to be built up with weld over the weaker bits where the pipe has previously been sat in damp securing clamps.

Reclaimed battery box lids have also now emerged out of storage and are being repaired, cleaned up and repainted where required.

It was requested that it be pointed out that 1866 & 16631 are parallel projects so if one progresses well, the other tends to slow down and visa-versa.

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

Needle gunning of the sole-bar continues steadily and the process has now passed the half way point now that the seaward side and Holt end bufferbeam are both complete. Accordingly, attention has now turned to the landward side and around 1/3rd of this solebar has now been gunned and primed.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

The exterior repainting of the coach has progressed with both corridor ends masked off and undercoated then glossed in black. The opportunity was also taken to undertake all the fiddly parts of the ends as well including the final black glossing inside the corridor connection/tunnel itself. A start has now been made on undercoating the landward side in red with all the window frames done ready for the main panels to follow.

Inside the vehicle, the Holt end vestibule ceilings continue to be built up and fresh panels to board out the ceiling have been cut to size and the rear faces painted to fight any condensation.

Painting work in the corridor adjacent to the guards compartment has now been completed with the area resplendent in cream.

Other, smaller, jobs have including refixing signage to the corridor which had been removed for varnishing.

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

Cab refurbishment and mundane bodyside welding works continue.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

All the timber has now been stripped of paint to expose all planks that need replacing. On the Holt end four planks have been removed and three small sections cut out ready to insert sound timber. 

A start has also been made to cut rotten timber from the doors, but this is quite time consuming as the van has to be moved outside to get access to both sides of the doors. A plan has been formed for holding the doors together where all of the vertical planks need have the bottom part cut away.

Any rusted steel work is being chipped and treated with rust converter as and when exposed.

As repaired sections are completed, sanding down prior to painting is being completed.

The paint has been ordered and painting the repaired sections will commence soon as sections are repaired, weather conditions allowing of course!

New Member of Staff

We would like to welcome Neil Elvy to the small team of paid staff in the department. Neil will be starting in February and we hope will enjoy NNR C&W life!

14021 Welding Starts

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

Brass window frame cleaning continues.

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

Work to prepare the new vacuum pipework continues, with more pipes cleaned up and several now up to black paint.

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

A further section of paintwork has been mechanically stripped back to bare on the seaward side of the vehicle, a dirty job being performed admirably by Graham who has returned with a new knee following a time away.

The Holt end has taken a big step forward with the commencement of some contract welding repairs. So far, the corroded bottom plate has been removed and a new one welded and bolted in place. The lower sections of the four crash pillars have been chopped out where rotten and new examples welded in. This has included a new lower section of the facia plate that goers either side of the corridor connection opening.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

The exterior of the coach has now reached primer all the way round, paving the way for undercoat to start next week.

On the interior, the toilet has become a focus which is being recommissioned. The plumbing has been reinstated but continues to suffer blockages so further work is required. The WC interior has had a good clean of all the paneling and fittings to see what requires any further cosmetic attention.

In the adjacent vestibule, ceiling repairs are ongoing ready to fit the panels back up. The supporting framework is now fitted into the roof space and the framework for the ceilings themselves having rotten sections replaced.

Finally, all of the former electric heater covers have been repainted silver to smarten their appearance.

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

The work on the seaward side doors, bodywork and cab interior explained last week all continues to progress. The copper pipework for the redundant cab water heater, believed to be a Norwich depot modification, has all been extracted from underneath the vehicle.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

No progress to report.

Maintenance

Maintenance work has focused on repairing and servicing one of the generators for the Gresley Buffet car. A start is also being made on the annual C examinations of the running stock, and as part of this a worn coupling was discovered on CCT E94464. The hook has been swapped with that on out-of-service sister M94125 and the worn slot in the bufferbeam in which it passes has also been built back up with new metal and dressed as it was making a knocking noise towards the very end of the last running season. 

New Year

Last year we started January with a summary table of the fleet, which went down well, so we thought we should repeat this. You can compare the situation to last year and most will agree there are only very minor differences.

Returning to the workshop, the first week after Christmas was a short one at just four days and additionally some people were still away for an extended Christmas break, so there wasn't quite as much going on as a traditional week, nevertheless, some good progress was made.

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

No progress to report.

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

Several sections of spare vacuum pipe from a donor vehicle are being prepared for reuse on 16631, which had lost large sections of its own pipe decades ago (reason unknown). The pipework is being sanded back and checked for corrosion and completed parts repainted in rust inhibiting primer. At least on Gresley vehicles the pipes run along the solebar rather than buried underneath so modifications and replacement is generally easier. A shame in some ways this wasn't replicated on the later Mark 1 coaches!

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

One of our New Year's resolutions this year is to get 14021 off the back burner and make some serious inroads into its rebuild as it is desperately wanted in the running collection! We have done well so far in getting contractors to strip the asbestos from it, which was a massive issue resolved, but haven't really focused on it heavily using in-house resources.

This week we have resurrected the previously paused job of grinding off all of the old and unstable paint and filler, some 65 years worth. Last summer the kitchen/guards end on the seaward side had been completed so we have resumed on the same side and have made a start on the passenger saloon area, with the bulk of one passenger "bay" completed and now back to shiny bare metal in areas where it is good. Metalwork that we are sure will be chopped out entirely is being left out for obvious reasons. Hopefully we can keep this task going throughout the winter which will go a good way to transforming the exterior appearance of the vehicle.

British Railways 1958 Brake Corridor Second M35148 (SILVER)

Painting has now commenced on the exterior so some dramatic changes to the whole look of the coach are afoot. The first area to be treated was the roof, which has now been coated in (logically) specialist black roof paint.

This was swiftly followed by the start of the primer coat on the bodysides. So far, two thirds of the landward side has been primed and the difference is already stark.

The interior has been less of a focus, however the last of the lower door cards have been fixed into place now and tested for a good fit. This done, two coats of varnish have been applied to them with more planned.

A "proper list" has been drafted up listing all of the outstanding items left on the overhaul of 35148. This is a sign of being on the home straight and hopefully it will re-enter service in the next few months.

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

This vehicle now has roughly the same amount of labour resource allocated to it as 35148 as we also want to push this one forwards with more vigor.

The cab end metalwork and seaward side door refitting work mentioned last time have continued to progress in a way which is essential but not very exciting! The door in particular is approaching a mature stage now with the new weather strips being prepared for fitting, so all being well it will not be too long before the cab door (on the same side) is being moved onto.

The cab refurbishment project has focused on plugging all of the redundant slots and holes in the cab desk to achieve a smooth finish once it is repainted. This has been quite time consuming but has now been achieved with the desk fully plugged. It is already looking better with a whole host of 1970's 80's & 90's retro fitted equipment no longer in use now removed. It looks more original to the as-built condition and is overall smarter as well.

British Railways (GWR Design) 1958 "Fruit D" W92097W (SILVER)

No progress to report.

Maintenance

A few wagons were prepared and ticketed for use on New Year works trains, predominantly employed in the setting down of the Norfolk Lights displays. Otherwise all has been quiet.