Unfortunately, the plan to carry out some work at our main Llangollen base during the weekend was thwarted by the national lockdown in Wales and the closure of the Railway. However, several members of the group went to the Midland Railway, Butterley instead where, in keeping with the phrase "Every cloud has a silver lining", our Gloucester trailer vehicle received simultaneous attention from what was thought to be a record number of (nine) people! They were, nevertheless, able to work in the required socially-distanced manner. Highlights of the work carried out are as follows.
More insulation was fitted to the roof of the first class section including the areas above and behind the luggage racks...
Reconnaissance work to determine the route for the next run of electrical wiring involved the removal of some wooden floor panels...
the grinding of a hole in the metal floor above the original wiring loom...
and the subsequent peering at, and prodding of, things underneath the unit.
Some of the original metal trunking tubes for the electrical wiring were cleaned up...
as were the front panels of the cab desk...
Three screws in one of the roof vent blanking plates were resealed because they had developed a leak...
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and some more of the formica panels for the vestibule were rejuvenated by having the paint stripped from them.
The opportunity was also taken to provide a tour of the site especially for those members of the group who were visiting the Midland Railway, Butterley for the first time.
Since the previous report, work has been carried out at both of our bases (Llangollen Railway and Midland Railway Butterley) to progress the bodywork repairs to the Class 127 Derby power car and the restoration of the Class 100 Gloucester trailer and Class 105 Cravens trailer. A summary of the work follows.
All of the units were prepared for winter by draining the toilet tanks and carrying out the anti-freeze checks/top-ups on the engines.
Insulation was fitted to some of the roof of the first class section...
and parts of the cab...
An experiment with various potions resulted in a successful method of cleaning formica panels as can be seen from the following picture which shows the panel that fits between the secondman's door and the bulkhead in the cab...
The cab desk top, which has been produced as a "homework" project, can be seen in the following picture with all of the cut-outs apart from the one for the handbrake. If you look closely you can see the outline of the original handbrake hole which was much larger than required. Unfortunately the handbrake spindle did not fit into the centre of that hole and the beading that was used to butt up to the spindle did not look right. The correct position of the hole will, therefore, be determined when the desk is in situ.
Members of the "105 team" were relieved to discover that the inside of the unit had stayed dry around the windows that were re-sealed at the previous meeting even though there had been plenty of rain in the meantime. Flushed (or not as the case may be!) with the success of that they will use the same technique on the one remaining window that still needs to be dealt with.
Following the clearing of the gutters, a hole over the secondman's window, which is intended for the wiper motor spindle, was temporarily sealed to prevent rainwater entering and soaking the cab desk.
A test fitting of a ceiling panel was carried out in order to work out how things fit together...
The heater control boxes now look resplendent...
and the panels of the cab desk which were stripped down to bare metal at a previous meeting have now been given a coat of red oxide primer...
A new panel has been made and wired up for the Control Isolaton Switch (CIS) and the override button for the Driver's Safety Device (DSD)...
The fundamental bodywork repairs continued with the replacement of more corroded steel...
Fortunately it seems that the worst is now over because the corrosion virus is less prevalent towards the front of the vehicle.
The follow-up work included the re-installation of two window frames (one small and one large), the cutting of some plywood to fit into the wall of the guard's compartment, and the preparation of another window frame in readiness for fitting at a future meeting.
