Progress on this third open has been slow, with the main focus of volunteer effort being directed at the HLF project. Work on 56856 has been confined to sanding the saloon ceiling, cutting holes for water pipes in the toilet ceiling and curing some leaks in the roof. While this may sound worrying, the main leak was around the roof tank filler, which had missed having Firecheck applied last year. Also some hairline cracks had developed in the firecheck coating along the line of the last narrow and first of the wide roofboards. This is due to movement in the boards, the fact that the RESCO fitted canvas is a bit thin and has been stuck down with cold application felt adhesive, which becomes soft in hot weather. These cracks are treated with a coat of firecheck and a strip of flexitape along the joint - the joints between all the wide boards were treated this way about ten years ago and have given no further trouble.
Progress has been made in financing this coach to completion and a funding package from the NYMR has now been agreed, with completion due in July next year. Progress is now being made towards assembly and upholstering the bucket seats and the remaining wall and the floor coverings.
Len Clarke continues to catch up with the varnish on this coach.
There has been a site meeting with a loss adjuster at Carnforth, following last year's disastrous fire which virtually destroyed the coach. He has requested estimates for the increased cost of restoration. these have now been prepared and we are waiting for a response.
The overhaul of this first lottery funded coach is progressing well.
The roof has been re-canvassed and the gutters and other fittings reinstated.
The body has had the frame repairs completed, including all new framing in the four ends of the coach. The knee irons and tie bolt have been replaced where necessary and refitted.
The coach has been lifted off its bogies and placed on stools, then the body unbolted from the underframe and raised ten inches (200 mm) clear of the chassis, to allow for repairs to the steelwork.
The underframe has had new rack plates fitted above the headstocks, four new bolster plates fitted above the radial blocks plus four other new small gusset plates at the van end. It had originally been planned to bolt these plates onto the frame using bolts in the existing rivet holes, but removing the rivets proved to be extremely time consuming. Instead of bolts it was decided to have the plates welded on. This work was undertaken by Mike Smith the NYMR's coded welder from Grosmont shed. The underframe has also been stripped of fittings, some of which have already been overhauled. While on stools and with the body lifted clear of the underframe, all the internal surfaces of the steelwork were cleaned and painted.
The body was then lowered back down onto the frame and fastened down with new bolts.
The blockboard partitions between the van and saloon, the saloon and the toilets and vestibule have all been renewed. At the same time sag in the roof and spread in the body was eliminated in these places.
The coach was then lowered onto a pair of accommodation bogies, to ensure it was sitting correctly before the fitting of the main teak body panels, eight of which are 18'-6" long. The teak panels were then glue blocked and beaded before being gold sized and varnished.
Inside the saloon the ceiling trimmers have been re-fixed, a fair number of which have had to be replaced.
All the body side doors have been taken off site for repair.
The bogies have been dismantled and transported to New Bridge permanent way yard for grit blasting.
The saloon top light frames have been re-chromed, painted and re-fixed. The toilet water tanks have been tested and are watertight and a start has been made on overhauling the Pullman gangways.
Len Clarke and Murray Brown are concentrating on the south end of the coach which has already had major frame repairs. Len has refurbished the sliding top lights and refitted them and will shortly glaze the main lights. Len has also given the external bodywork some attention with part of one side now in simulated teak finish.
All the large panels from the log salvaged from the wreck of the S.S. Pegu (which sank in the Irish sea in 1916 after hitting a mine) have been re-sawn, planed and thicknessed, yielding in the region of one hundred large teak panels. This work took the whole of two weekends (including the first weekend of the May coach week) and a fair amount of the May coach week to catalogue and store them.
Some more of the ceiling has been panelled.
This coach purchased principally for spare bogies and vacuum brake equipment, has been transported to the Scottish R.P.S. at Bo'ness. Where it has been visited by a working party, who have dismantled a large proportion of the body. It is understood by the author that the S.R.P.S. is not going to be short of lighting up wood for a while!
We would like to express our gratitude to the S.R.P.S. for their help in transporting the coach and help in the dismantling, but most of all for their tolerance!
Andrew Daniel 30th September 2001
Read last newsletter (May 2001)
© 2001 L.N.E.R. Coach Association.