Work has continued on the two open wagons which have now been painted and just require the floors to be replaced before they can rejoin the demonstration freight rake. One of them may even gain a dummy load in the process.

Tim has put together a DVD of wagon related material to be displayed in the Banana Van when it is fully kitted out as the Wagon Group display and sales stand.

After all our efforts to change the wheel sets, vanfit B778019 finally made it back to Wansford having initially failed an FTR due to a defective buffer which had to be rectified before it was hauled back.

The long running body restoration of the civil engineering brake van also saw significant progress with the bulk of the re-panelling now complete. This vehicle now needs the roof boarding and the canvas fitted before it can be finished off with a new paint job.

Tim arranged the recovery of a grounded van body (W65567 – a GWR van) which will be restored for use as storage.

In early June the group had a day trip to the East Lancs Railway to collect some wagon equipment we have purchased from them, and took the opportunity to have a tour of the Baron Street workshops and stock yard – all most impressive. We also managed a pleasant lunch at The Trackside pub on the Bury Bolton Street platform, some photography, and some second-hand model railway purchases!

We returned with plenty of goodies including a pair of wagon vacuum cylinders and a pair of wagon jacks.

A big thank you to Simon at Teversham Motors for the kind loan of the garage van which allowed us to keep the transport overheads down to the cost of the fuel.

Phil & Colin continued sprucing up the open wagons in the running rake with a quick repaint of the MOD wagons up at Peterborough NVR.

And finally, towards the end of June, the planking arrived for the open wagon floors and Tim, Jonathan & Steve made good progress treating them with a 50/50 mix of creocote and waste oil in preparation for fitting.

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