Carriage & Wagon Report, May/June 2005
by Richard Johnson, 22nd May 2005

Work has been continuing relentlessly on the refurbishment of the Corridor First (FK) 13329. When a ‘new’ coach such as this is completely and thoroughly refurbished, it seems for a long period that not much progress is being made. Only when everything starts to go back together, does it all begin to come together quite quickly.

Externally, much progress has been made with three quarters of the bodyside now resplendent in Carmine & Cream. The roof has also been cleaned off and painted.

Internally, all the compartments have now been stripped out, sanded down and virtually all the varnishing has been done. That will mean that all the newly refurbished trim and fittings can begin to be reinstated.  On the corridor side, we found a couple of the large windows had broken away from the body, and had allowed vast amounts of water in. Not surprisingly this has caused all the internal woodwork in the vicinity to rot. The windows were taken out, resealed, and the woodwork is being made good.

The corridor connection on one end has had to be removed because a rough shunt some years ago had caused the end rubbing plate to become locked with another coach. When they were pulled apart, it distorted. This plate is about ½” thick, and rather than attempt the hopeless task of trying to straighten it, we are going to fit a spare we salvaged from a scrap coach some years ago.

Early in June, although it won’t be finished, we plan to shunt 13329 outside into our ‘Barn’ and bring in the Grotto for a repaint. This is looking a bit careworn, after about 10 years standing doing duty every Christmas at Winchcombe. After that, the plan is to give some TLC to the Elegant Excursions Kitchen Car, in a “window of opportunity” of several weeks whilst the train is not being used. 13329 will continue to be worked on whilst outside, and it will be an opportunity to get it lifted on our carriage jacks to sort the mechanicals out underneath.

The LMS Brakevan which is being refurbished and painted into grey is nearly finished. It only needs the new roof canvas to be secured. It will be turned out in the early B R livery for unfitted vehicles. Attention is now turning to the GWR Fruit C 2806 (pictured right), which has had all the rotten planking removed, and has been shot blasted ready for the painting gang to get to work. New planking has arrived for our carpenters.

At the recent Steam Gala, in addition to the trains running between Toddington and Cheltenham, a local branch line train was recreated using two Carmine & Cream Coaches, the Carmine & Cream BG 81039, and the two Maroon CCT’s (Covered Carriage Trucks) which we restored a couple of years ago. They are normally in use as stores vehicles for us, but it was great to see them given an outing like this. Also, some of the recently restored GWR wagons, which are in the P/Way train, were in use in the demonstration goods train.

Everyone who saw these additional trains seemed to think that they added a good deal to the weekend. Whilst most people were there to photograph the locos, I managed to get a couple of shots of the CCT’s in action.

Finally, the good news about the RBr 1675, is that a great step forward was taken at the end of April when the gas boiler was successfully lit, and hot water circulated throughout the kitchen, for the first time for many years.  If all goes according to plan, we hope to give the coach a ‘road test’ on 4th / 5th June, to check that all the systems are working properly.