For the second time in around a year, we feel like we’ve launched our latest Bulleid carriage, open third 1456 into traffic for a gala! I hope those of you who made it down to the recent steam gala had a really great time. Sadly we weren’t able to show anybody round our workshop, which is often a highlight of the year, but due to obvious restrictions it just wasn’t possible.
On the plus side 1456 was released back into traffic with the passenger saloons finally finished. On top of the previously reported luggage racks, we also had time (just!) to fit the tables. These were a bit of a pet project for Gordon and I, he fitted the beautiful woodwork around them, while I took on the rather long winded and repetitive process of varnishing them. We really wanted to layer up as much as possible within the time we had, because their close proximity to passengers moving around the carriages will mean that there will be a fair amount of wear to them, so the more varnish there is, the better! For the sixteen tables in the carriage, it was taking the majority of the day to rub them all down, get rid of the dust, then varnish them up again, and I was doing this every day for a couple of weeks! The moment we finally took off the masking tape they really did look special, and having pre-fitted them all, it was a nice quick process to install them finally a couple of days before the gala.
Naturally Gordon and I feel a little lost now we don’t have a Bulleid carriage in the workshop, but hopefully it won’t be too long before we can get stuck in to 4367, the next part of the Canadian Pacific project. In the meantime there are several projects on the go. With our eyes on this winter, we have BY no. 765 in for some major repair work, with the
intention that it will be one of the generator cars for Steam Illuminations at the end of the year. It is looking very skeletal at the moment, having been stripped right back. As you’ll see from the photos, there is some fairly major corrosion in the metal structure, which will need replacing before we can restore the timber cladding. In the meantime, some of our dedicated volunteers, who enjoy making noise and getting filthy have been attacking the underframe with needle guns and green anti-corrosive primer.
The other vehicle in the workshop is also destined for Steam Illuminations, being BR MK1 BCK 21236. This has been suffering from the classic MK1 disease of deteriorating crash pillars at either end. Rob and Sir Christopher of Yates have been tearing into it, with the London end mostly stripped down, while the country end is a bit further ahead. You’ll see
from the photos that it is at the weird stage of having the bottom section of the entire end structure cut away. The upper part is supported by acro jacks, but they are easy to miss and it rather looks like the end of the vehicle is just hanging there!
Luckily the guys are old hands at this, and new sections of crash pillar will be welded in soon enough, and the carriage will have a new outer skin back in place. It will also require some new interior panels, but while this is a little way off, we are planning on making an inspection hatch (possibly a removable skirting board) on the interior of the carriage, so we can more easily inspect the bottoms of the crash pillars. These are always where the carriages rot out, but it’s fairly difficult to have a close look without doing some fairly major dismantling work, so it will be good to have easier access to this problem area.
That’s about it for this month, thanks for reading, and hopefully see you around the railway soon!
Ali
