Gresley Buffet Returned to Traffic

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

Window fitting has continued along the landward side with the aim of working towards the fully glazed milestone. There is just one window now outstanding for the top sliding lights.

Further adjustments have also been made to the two main passenger doors.

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

Contract works continue at LS Engineering. Back at Weybourne, a set of four leaf springs have been removed from our two spare Electric Multiple Unit Gresley design bogies for intended reuse on 16631. This was because the originals were found to be in too poor a condition to reuse. We have also received unfortunate news that the journals on the wheelsets of 16631 are in a scrap condition, rendering all the wheels useless. This damage sadly occurred during the coach’s many years in storage. The good news is that we have prepared a set of four axles (taken from the spare EMU bogies) ready to go under 16631. The bad news is that the four coming out of 16631 which were going to be returned to our pool and used on one (or both) of the remaining two unrestored Gresley vehicles in our set, are now no longer able to fulfill that role, so we are back to having no spares so will keep our fingers crossed that the wheels under the two future coaches are in good enough order to go forward with! The above is all part of the rich tapestry of restoring 90 year old vehicles of course!

London North Eastern Railway 1937 Restaurant Buffet E9128E (BRONZE)

Star of the show for this update is of course the Gresley Buffet car, which has been returned to traffic after just 47 days in the workshop. Considering the amount of work completed on the vehicle, this quick turnaround is a credit to the team who have worked so hard to undertake the tasks so desperately needed on the vehicle and minimise the time that the operating and catering departments had to suffer without the use of it.

The final two weeks of the vehicle being with us saw us complete the varnishing on the landward side and gloss paint to two vehicle ends. The two corridor end doors received several coats of varnish to build them back up to the expected finish. The interior was deep cleaned in advance of the coach being handed back to Sheringham, in order to give it a head start as its return to service was expected to be quick.

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

The focus continues to be on the guards compartment structural restoration. Several major floor bearers have now been machined from new hardwood, painted and dry fitted to ensure a good fit. More plywood flooring has been cut back to either remove rotten material or access rotten steel supports beneath the wood floor.

Work to the bulkhead walls has progressed, with two walls cut down by a few inches in order to widen the side corridor to the maximum it can be for trays of food to pass through easily. The removal of a seemingly small amount of material has actually made a massive difference to the passageway. Replacement material for both the bulkheads (where they are damaged or missing) and the removed flooring is now on order, as part of our plan to get a secure floor down for us to stand on and conduct the remainder of the restoration in this area.

Other works have included needle gunning the handbrake pedestal back to metal removing the 50 years of BR paint layers. It looks much “crisper” now and can return to it’s original 1960’s splendor in due course!

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

The cab end repainting has seen the bufferbeam first be primed and then receive a first coat of red gloss, which is really giving the front some colour now. The new front valance has also been painted gloss black. A start has been made on fabricating the cosmetic waist height jumper cable sockets which will eventually be fixed below the cab windows.

Also on the exterior, good progress is being made with the underframe repainting. The landward side is now complete with both bogies and all the “danglies” brought up to black gloss. The seaward side is slightly behind with around 3/4 in primer.

Window rubber replacement in the window frame units is steadily continuing. The cab interior project continues with the first areas of wall paneling starting to go into maroon undercoat.