Friday January 1st dawned wet and windy so off to railway I went with an armful of repainted door panels. I only intended to finish off the panelling in the Guard's van and that is precisely what I achieved.
I removed the Guard's vacuum gauge to get the top right hand corner angle bracket in place and then drilled and screwed the left hand upright. The panels and window fitted very well and I soon had them all screwed in place.
This left the panelling above the Guard's door to finish off. All the pieces were salvaged from the remaining pile of pieces and with a bit of trimming here and there it was soon in place. The last thing to screw down was the Guard's buzzer box. This is held in place by two screws, one flat onto a cross piece and the second through a backing piece into the ceiling panel. I still have to make this backing piece.
The Guard's van panelling is now more or less complete and ready for trimming, tidying up and repainting in 'fawn'.
Rob Smith called by and mentioned the doors in the 'Siphon'. We agreed to move them ASAP.
I finished at about 1500 hrs. and wended my way back home.
Saturday January 2nd, I had originally planned to sort out the Guard's van trim but that is not what happened. We decided to move the doors etc. on the Sunday so I had to clear out the Guard's van area in W55001 to provide room.
This involved removing all the piled heaps of seats and seat frames from the van. They were them dismantled and the seat frames put back. I still didn't have any more room than when I started! But it looked a lot tidier and I now know the seat score for W55001, 6 x 3 seater doubles, 6 x two seater doubles, 3 three seater singles & 5 two seater singles. W55001 itself has 2 three seater singles and 2 two seater singles in situ that can be utilised as spares plus other assorted 'lightweight' seats that can be sold on.
Dick and I then checked W55001 for final drive requirements. We need more or less two full final drives to complete the unit.
On Sunday the weather was horrible, very wet and windy. I began by cleaning out the guttering on W55003 so that no leaves were clogging up the flow. We then had a meeting in which Bob outlined the plans for the railway for the next year. By this time it was noon and we fired up the Class 27 and off we went up the line to the Siphon.
We extricated 12 doors plus 5 interior sliding doors and one hinged door. The interior doors are from Class 120 TBSL No. 59292. I also removed enough aluminium trim to refurbish W55001. We also found various other 'goodies' for the spares box.
Andrew was working on the South end of the line towards Boughton Crossing and we all went down to remove the bufferstops for the arrival of a ballast wagon the following Friday.
Dick and I then returned to the Siphon to dismantle an old ex LMS Guard's door for the handle and fittings. We then spent the next two hours fitting it to W55001!! You would expect one Guard's door to be much the same as another Guard's door but they're not, as we found out. Eventually we fixed both No. 2 side Guard's doors on W55001 so that you do not fall off backwards when you open it. All that is still required is a wooden block fixing onto the base of the blank door to take the eye that guides the bolt that fixes into the footplate.
We also checked the door locks on W55003 and ascertained the requirements for fitting. All of them close but in order to pass the RESCO test we will need to work on four out of the six passenger doors.
Next weekend I will continue with the Guard's van ceiling.
During the week I made a start on the saloon edge trimmings. I had already cut them to size all they needed was treating and varnishing. I took delivery of my new battery powered drill. Much better than my old 7.2V one. Chris Ling telephoned from Butterley and I shall go up and fetch the EP valves on Friday.
There are also rumours that some units are to be moved out of Bletchley Depot for Jim's in Glasgow. I think I shall have to make sure I get my hands on one, especially one with a full set of final drives!
Bright and early on Friday January 8th I left Cranfield for Butterley and arrived in surprisingly good time at 0915 ready for tea. Chris found the bucket of EP valves and we extracted 10 of the required colours green, blue and yellow. W55001 has now got a complete set.
Chris then took me on a tour of the site and we looked at all the DMUs etc. on site. The lads have done an excellent job on all the units.
We then took a look in the 46203 Princess Margaret Rose shed. Oh for a shed like that where Mick and his mate were working on 46233 Duchess of Montrose. Of course Mick and I go back a long way to steam crewing days and a lot of reminiscing took place. The phone rang whilst we were there and it was Brel Ewert so after a 10 minute chat with Brel it was back to reality. I really miss the camaraderie of the support crew(s) but do not regret my decision to move on. Perhaps a few more visits to my old pals could be fitted in during the year. Anyway, I transgress, we all then carried a long piece of brake actuating gear off the Duchess down to one of the other shops on site for machining and continued our tour. I was away home around 1200 hrs and arrived back at Northampton in the early afternoon.
I put the EP valves in W55001 and had lunch. After lunch I continued to remove more trim from the siphon. All in all a good day with a tremendous amount of suitable trim now in store.
The various units that the trim came off bear noting. Class 116 No. 50133, Class 119 Nos. 51054, 51060, 51073 & 51104, Class 118 Nos. 51306 & 51321, Class 117 No. 51410, Class 115 No. 51680, Class 123 No. 52104, Class 116 No. 53878 & 59032, Class 119 Nos. 59419, 59424 & 59435 and finally 4-CEP unit 1597 No. 70510. I took them home and stacked them in the garage ready for sorting later in the weekend.
On Saturday Dick arrived shortly after me and we decided to start up W55003 if possible. The No. 2 engine started on the third turn. That one dead battery cell caused all the starting problems. We left the unit to warm up as Dick filled the air inlet tanks with meths to lubricate the air system. Evidently this was a fitter's mate's job and was the first time Dick had ever done the job. Dick had found one of the right angled drives to be noisy so after starting the No. 1 engine we stopped the No. 2 engine to investigate. The drive was cool at the back with sufficient oil but the nut was slightly loose at the front. Dick undid the nut and found the pulley wheel to be firm so we just replaced the nut and split pin and left it. I think the problem is that the drive has turned ever so slightly and the pulley bearing is most probably under too much tension. But that's only my opinion. The No. 1 gearbox is also low on oil. I can replenish that next weekend.
We helped the railway take delivery of a ballast wagon about noon and then Dick and I liberated another load of trim. I did however manage to fit the remainder of the side panel trim in W55003. This includes a strip from Class 118 W51306. I think I shall mark it as such for posterity's sake. Dick was working on the Guard's van of W55001 and we now have a proper block to guide the bottom bolt home. The door itself will require and bit of reseating to close fully but at least it closes again. My new cordless drill works very well with considerable power.
That evening I had been invited to Steve Roger's for an evening of railway films with David Percival. After a few industrial strength films of Mardi Collier, Mountain Ash etc. Dave gave a slide show of 'Steam in the 60's'. Very very good indeed. He also showed shots of 51206 at Agecroft, a Black 5 and Jubilee, 45663 Jervis I think, at Patricroft and a Black 8 leaving Agecroft. I have requested a print copy of each. I got home about 1900 hrs. and disgorged the trim into the garage.
I arrived at the railway about 0900 hrs. on Sunday morning January 10th and set about the ceiling trim in the Guard's van of W55003. The unit is still in the floating rake and as a large shunt was being undertaken the unit was up and down the railway all day. In fact whilst I had my lunch I lost the unit completely! By the middle of the afternoon I had refitted all the ceiling trim in W55003's Guard's van. The final job of the day was to fit the edge trims on the Guard's doors. For this I decided to use four of the aluminium door edge trims out of the Siphon. With suitable cutting down to size they fitted perfectly. All in all a good days work.
I left the station at about 1500 hrs. and went home to sort out the trim.
It took until about 1715 hrs. to sort the trim into size and shape and using masking tape to tape them up into suitable bundles.
I now have just got the four corner pieces in the guard's van to complete plus the ceiling edge pieces. These I have already got in the van and shall complete next weekend. Apart from two ceiling pieces, a piece along the bottom of the small panel on the No. 2 side 33"x4"x3/8", refitting the Guard’s seat and a repaint the Guard’s van is complete.
During the week I finished varnishing the ceiling edge trims for the main saloons.