Wagon News

Wednesday 1st Feb dawned bright and sunny, that was the good news. Just a pity about the near zero temperature........... and when you have to go to the heights of Medstead, the wind chill also. In advance of the Freight train running this coming Sunday 5th, it time to oil the axle boxes on the wagons again.

Having assembled the gang at Alton to pick up our bits and pieces and put on the layers of clothing, we arrived at Medstead just in time to see the class 33 disappearing towards Ropley hauling the BR shoc van. Good news. That’s one less wagon to do then!  

Two hours later, with 5 of us we had been down one side of the rake and back up the other side. Many hands make light work. That’s 50 frozen oily fingers - assuming none lost to frostbite. Did not count exactly how many wagons it was, but certainly 20 plus.  The SW Tar Distilleries tank wagon axle boxes is always good for transforming oil into water. If only we could do the reverse process we could be rich!

There are however a couple of “bonus” wagons – those with roller bearings, which need no oil!

Back in the mess room and a warming coffee break, but...

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MEDSTEAD

Progress has been swift this week on all fronts:-

BRAKE VAN S 49000
Midweek Chris and Malcolm have completed the hanging of the "country" end cabin door, brackets and window s, an excellent job well done. On the Saturday Dillon James , John Casey and ranger Stephen Robbins had the unenvious task of removing the old bolts that had become almost welded to the floor. This was achieved at the end of the day with much toil and sweat coupled with gas axing, drilling and beating with a large hammer.

PMV S 1995
Brian Chipping and Tony Carver have made good progress with the continuity testing of the electrics for the forthcoming interactive model railway in this vehicle. There are still some jobs to do including checking out the AV circuit and the lighting.

ROPLEY

CCT S 1765

This has been a priority project because of pressure for space in the C&W shed at Ropley. Tom of the paid staff has been permitted to do some timber repairs for us - as he can do the job in half the time that we can, thank you Tom. David Sandford was able to swiftly clean the remaining metalwork with the ne...

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MEDSTEAD/ROPLEY

The beginning of this week saw a massive shunt at Ropley involving both the Boiler and C&W departments which meant that everything had to come out from undercover in the C&W shed for a few days including CCT S 1765, so the gang went to Medstead to catch up on work on Brake van S 49000.

Now that all the ironmongery for the latter is cleaned and painted, attention has turned to the "country" end door frame window and cill. Chris and Malcolm have done an excellent job once again putting in a new cill, repairing the bottom of the door frames, repairing the window and putting it all back together again inside the cabin before the Thursday gang stripped off the old paint and primed it ready for completion next week.

CCT S 1765 was back inside the shed at Ropley and by the end of the week Henry O’Dywer, Dillon James and Chris Willis were able to make excellent progress with stripping the paint of both the ends before sanding and priming - leaving just half of one side to complete the stripping of this paint. One side and one end has also been filled with 2-pack wood filler.

ALTON

A Happy New Year to our reader(s) out there in the internet world.

ALTON

Palvan WGB 4134 is progressing steadily and is currently in undercoat on the sides and ends – excepting a couple of small ply repairs to complete. The new ply roof is installed and half the roofing felt has been torched on. All being well, with a bit of reasonable weather this should be completed by the end of the month.

MEDSTEAD

Malcolm and Chris are continuing on with timber repairs and renewals to brake van S 49000.

ROPLEY

CCT S 1765 has after a couple of unforeseen setbacks in the autumn has made it into the C&W shed at Ropley for it’s repaint. In the interim period however it has got a bit more damp than anticipated previously before it’s arrival, so this has required a bit of time to dry out.

The mould has been cleaned off the roof and the few joints that were lifting sealed with mastic. One coat of silver reflective paint has been applied though we might wait to do the second one until most of the body sides has been stripped. A good 25% of this has now been done revealing timber that is mainly in good condition considering...

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MEDSTEAD

Work has concentrated solely on Brake Van S 49000 at Medstead this week, starting with Chris and Malcolm fitting the new hardwood cill and re-hanging the door frame at the "Town" end. This may appear to be a quick and easy job, though nothing could be further from the truth as this took them a whole day to do including fitting a "packer" under the cill as the floor was much lower than the original - due to removing so much rust in previous weeks.

Thursday saw the gang cleaning up many of the ironmongery items for this vehicle including the hand brake and the sanding lever and primed and continuing up to undercoat level by the Saturday and the inside of the cabin not forgotten with sanding and priming of the window and door frames.

Dillon James has loosened and removed most of the bolts to the "country" end cabin door frame, and Ian Johnson has completed the four new "L" shape brackets needed to secure both of these door frames. Roy and Dave Andrews have done an excellent job clearing the ground of rubbish, a job that has been needed to be done for quite a while now.

ALTON

The master plan this week was for...

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MEDSTEAD

Brake Van S 49000 has taken a major step forward this week with Malcolm and Chris dismantling the "town" end door frame and surround to repair the said door frame.  This end was in surprisingly good condition though the "country" end will probably require the replacement of the bottom 12 inches of the frame.

Thursday saw the midweek gang working on Bulleid Brake S4211 at Ropley once again, only this time John Wright asked us to clean up the window frames and remove the hardwood surround. This hardwood is life expired and will now require replacement.

Returning to Medstead on the Saturday saw John Casey and Chris Willis cleaning up the second lookout ducket and other ironmongery for the Brake van in preparation for repairs. It is all cleaning and preparation on all fronts here at the moment but this will soon change once the cabin door frames are re-instated. It is essential that a thorough job is done in preparing to give an excellent finish.

ALTON

The Wednesday gang of Dave Vella, David Taylor, Brian Chipping and Clive Youngs undercoated the London end of Palvan WGB 4134 and the remaining door on the ...

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