Carriage & Wagon report for July 2007

by Richard Johnson 7th July 2007

When I wrote the last report in May, I said that the maroon BSK (Corridor Brake Second) 35305 had been in our workshop for two months. A further month’s work followed, before it was moved outside into the Barn at the end of May, for work to be completed. By that time all external work was finished. We were concentrating on rebuilding the compartments, and finishing the disabled compartment, toilet and corridor.

Now, in early July there is about two weeks work left before it can go back into service. The thoroughly refurbished inside shows what a remarkable difference has been made to what it looked like previously. There are just floors to clean and polish, paint to be touched up and odd items of ‘snagging’.

The carmine & cream TSO (Tourist Second Open) 4763 currently resides in the shed, and has been there for about a month. This is making good progress. It is one of the two coaches we purchased from the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway a couple of years ago, in a shabby but complete condition. All the usual internal and external refurbishment is being undertaken, but in particular all the seating has been reupholstered in bright new moquette which will look outstanding once it is all fitted. It has never run in service on our railway, so will be a welcome addition to the fleet.

Of interest here is the fact that a large section of the vacuum pipe underneath the solebar has had to be replaced, as it was completely rotten. This work necessitated taking up the plywood toilet floor. A brake test last week appeared to show everything working perfectly again. Five of the six external doors have been replaced so far, and the sixth is well on the way. There is still a good couple of months work left on this coach before we see the end in sight.

We are currently in the middle of the department working fortnight (extended from a week), when traditionally we try and move everything out, have a giant tidy up and generally set ourselves up for the next year. This year, we decided to paint the whole of our workshop floor, both to try and keep the dust down, and to make it look nice. The picture on the right shows some of the gang hard at work, and the floor looking good. The staining on the wall shows how wet it was getting before the roof and guttering was renewed about a year ago. Now it is dried out, we will repaint this also.

You may be aware of a plan which was developed for the Department a few months ago, looking to our future rolling stock needs. As part of that, we identified eight Mk 1 coaches on site which were not realistically ever going to be required for use on the railway, but which were also deteriorating alarmingly. So, as part of the plan it was decided to try and get rid of them.

Well, rather amazingly about three weeks ago deals were struck to dispose of no less than seven of them, to various new owners. Two ( a BSK and a CK) were sold at short notice to a film production company, which needed to transport them to Yorkshire to stage a train crash for a forthcoming episode of ‘The Royal’. Not only were they to be repainted maroon, but large steel structures were to be welded to the bodyside to enable them to be craned around, and laid on their sides in a field with a Class 31 loco on top (apparently). The pictures show the weird looking steel girders which were attached whilst they were at Winchcombe. The only problem, as we pointed out late one Saturday when they had finished, was how the coaches were going to get up to Toddington, under Hailes Bridge and onto the loading line. ‘Not my problem mate’, was the welders reply. It was his problem in a way, as the next day, he had to cut most of it off again before they could be moved, as they were wildly out of gauge.

So, if you watch ‘The Royal’ one Sunday evening and see people being rescued from a train crash, you will know where the coaches really came from. At least from our point of view, it was two down and five to go.

I should say, that the outcome of this rationalisation plan is that we shall still have three refurbished rakes of Mk 1 coaches for ordinary services, and seven other Mk 1’s which we want to retain and refurbish and put to use in various ways; irrespective of whether or not we acquire any Mk 2’s.

One final issue of interest to mention relates to the gas equipment on our four catering vehicle. They all operate from propane gas cylinders carried in cabinets under the solebar. Flexible rubber hoses attach to the bottles and are fitted to the steel pipe work which carries the gas to the various appliances. When we had our annual insurance examination in the winter, the examiner pointed out that some of the hoses looked perished, and in any event they should apparently be changed every five years.

It seemed like a simple job to obtain and fit a supply of gas hose. Not so. The external diameter of the original fittings we still use, was such that it did not fit properly in new metric hose where the internal diameter of the hose was very slightly too large to get a good gas tight seal. It has taken our contractor no less than 14 weeks to locate a specialist company to supply such hose. At one stage, it was seriously suggested that we would have to specially import it from the USA.

Anyway, the hose is now available; all the fittings are being made up and will very shortly be fitted to all our operational catering vehicles. This is another example of the fact that our coaches require constant attention, and that there is often something which is going on, which is not immediately apparent to the casual observer.