Sitting down to write the annual summary of Carriage & Wagon activities and achievements has been surprisingly difficult. It has been a year of very few highs and an exceptional number of lows. I apologise in advance if the report is not as positive and rosy as people may want it to be: however I have always prided this Blog in being an honest account of the view from the coalface, and always try to keep the "buzzwords" and unrealistic over-optimism that can be found elsewhere to a minimum. The highs are sweeter when the lows are acknowledged and come to terms with, rather than glossed over, and I believe that readers value the honest account. So strap in and join me on a roller coaster recap of this most balmy of years!
January dawned as a normal month, at the works were vintage coaches M&GN 129 and Thompson saloon E1866E, along with Mark 1's E21224 (Brake Composite), E4521 (Open Second) and W25189 (Corridor Second), receiving Bronze, Gold, Gold, Silver & Bronze overhauls respectively. The completion of the two bronze examples was fast approaching and we were mostly inside the shed (hiding from the weather!) beavering away and getting as much overhaul work done as possible before the main season started. Great progress was being made with interior refreshing of 129, the continued internal restoration of E1866E, bodywork and door preparation on E21224, the Sheringham end steelwork renewal on E4521 and the compartment repainting and re-varnishing inside W25189.
February was less mundane as both Great Eastern Railway 853's rebuild and this very blog were nominated for the awards at the Heritage Railway Association's annual ceremony. A trip to Birmingham was made by about a dozen delegates from the railway for an excellent evening celebrating the nation's rail heritage achievements. Whilst neither of us won the award the honour of being nominated and the evening itself certainly brightened what would normally be a fairly dark and damp month! Back in Norfolk, the works described in January continued with the notable exception of W25189 which was painted at released back into service, at the owner's request painted in its early 1960's Chocolate & Cream livery. Colourful and controversial on a railway this far East, W25189 made quite an impact when rolled out and is the only Mark 1 on the railway which genuinely carried Chocolate & Cream "back in the day". The coach's lack of steam heating however meant that it was not used straight away on trains and was initially parked up awaiting warmer climes.
The following month, everything changed. A new project to replace W25189 was brought in in the form of M3116, the First Open from the dining train which required wheelset re-profiling and minor repairs. It was dismantled and a start made, but we were swimming against the tide and the first sinister sign was the significant drop off of volunteer labour as individuals (quite rightly) made personal choices to stop coming in and to stay at home. Less than two weeks later the UK government took action and made these voluntary steps compulsory with the national lockdown and compulsory instruction to stay at home. We were, in effect, closed.
April saw the works fall silent for the first time since they were built, the combination of uninterrupted pension payments and the creation of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme thankfully meant both volunteers and staff alike could remain at home safe. In May the railway began its slow and uneven recovery, resurrecting fragmented parts of various departments one-by-one, starting with the Engineering department who reopened at Weybourne undertaking contract work only.
By early summer, as part of the recovery package negotiated with the M&GN Society, a contract was let for the overhaul of the two bogies from Thompson E1866E, a coach which would ordinarily be worked on by 100% volunteers. This brought two members of staff off the furlough scheme and back into the C&W sheds at Weybourne to undertake the work. With no volunteers on site, this was the first carriage activity for some time and represent the first green shoots. As one of the members of staff still on Furlough, this blog wasn't restarted to document this work although it was recorded in the M&GN Society's house journal Joint Line.
By July we experienced the novelty of running a train service again! The warmer temperatures had brought the dreaded virus to a level where socially distanced and heavily regulated fun was permissible again. At this point reasonable sections of the railway were brought alive again with more staff and volunteers returning to run the new service. Understandably however prospects were shaky and costs needed careful control. With C&W being primary a costly department (as opposed to income earning) restoration work was not restarted, and we became a maintenance only department running with the same two staff engaged in E1866E's bogies and no further volunteers. The initial trains made great use of the Quad-Art set, which ran more miles this year than their entire preservation life put together, with the suburban set following as a second train in the "peak summer season".
After further recovery and strength building across the summer, when incidentally W25189 made its delayed debut into passenger service in August, we reached September and at long last it was deemed acceptable to tentatively restart some workshop activity. Two more members of staff were half brought back off Furlough (part time) and a limited number of volunteers returned each day utilising a booking system to prevent there being too many people in the shed. New working practices were brought in and we appeared to be getting back on track. During this period M&GN 129 was finally completed and returned to the shed at Holt, along with some of the repairs to M3116, which being an open coach was not felt required for the foreseeable future. The wheels were completed but the coach stored without the remaining repairs being completed. Also stored was Second Open E4521, its major overhaul stopped and also stored stored at Holt. It was clear that things were going to be very different now, with the future strategy for the department drastically altered. Unaltered however was the major overhauls of E1866E and E21224, which both made modest progress again for the first time in September and October.
One of the "wild card"projects in October was the conversion of an open coach into a compartment one! The only open suburban out of the four on the railway, which had been out of use for the summer, had quickly designed varnished bulkhead walls bolted into place making it suitable for use to make up a fully compartmentalised train for the winter services. The whole project was designed and completed in one week and was one of the better examples over the year of working together and getting the task completed.
Sadly we crashed down again in November with a second national lockdown which put staff back on Furlough and ceased most volunteer C&W work again - one exception being the Thompson E1866E was able to continue on a much reduced basis with limited M&GN volunteer labour. Whilst the lockdown eased in December allowing Santa Specials and Norfolk Lights Express trains to run, things were not strong enough for C&W to reopen properly again, so no overhaul work is currently taking place on any carriages other than E1866E.
We end the year with a quick look at some figures. Just two overhauled vehicles: 129 & W25189, were produced during this year, these only being possible having had a significant amount of their work done in 2019. To compare six vehicles were produced in 2019 and in the years prior to that we averaged 5-7 per year, so obviously a large drop. We end the year rather battered and bruised, with the condition of the Quad Art set and Suburbans much reduced after being thrust into daily service when they were restored for occasional use only.
However I will end on lighter note. In spite of the ridiculous challenges our team and the carriages have faced, that irrepressible human trait to keep on going, get things moving and to make the best of it has been there throughout. Much easier to give up entirely... however trains have run, passengers carried and coaches maintained in service. Many volunteers and staff trapped at home have kept in contact, even visited each other (in their gardens) when they hadn't previously. It is this behaviour that gives me hope that one day the C&W will reopen proper and reach the output it had before once again.
I appreciate readers allowing me to finish with a direct message to the C&W volunteers and furloughed staff who read this: hang on in there, you most certainly have not been forgotten. We will be getting back to it, and will (someday hopefully soon) want as many of you as possible back with us to make it all happen once again!
Happy New Year to all - fingers crossed 2021 brings better times.
