NVR Wagon Group

The Wagon Group gallery page has been updated with a selection of images from the “Steam Freight” driving and shunting experience course, held in March 2014.

To view the images please click here.

This update may have been a long time coming; hopefully you will find it worth the wait as quite a lot of work has been undertaken with some major jobs ticked off the list:

The two ‘kits of parts’ for the end doors, manufactured during our last working session, have been installed to both ends. Fortunately everything lined up exactly as we had planned and no fettling was required. Luck or judgement? You decide!

The view inside the van, now fully enclosed for the first time in about 18 months…

Philip has also now primed both ends, this is the west end. Note the scribed lines to indicate the dummy door edges. This will become clearer once we have cut in the required horizontal lines to form the personnel door and the top ‘framing’ of the ‘doors’.

The east end also primed, plus the partially planked side doors in view have also been primed (photos courtesy of Philip Halstead). The observant among you may also notice that the roof canvas on this side has now been battened down along its length and trimmed to suit, the batten being specially cut to shape to shed rainwater rather than encouraging it to sit against the canvas.

During yet another work session, Tim spent a considerable amount of time during ‘a late turn’ installing the roof batten to the other side. This view is taken just above the central side doors, the strap hinge of which is to the foreground.

After that, he proceeded to prime the roof canvas (completed area to top of photo, foreground yet to do)…

…the completed job, an approximate area of 30 square metres in total. This is a material that readily soaks up freshly applied paint until the paint layers start to build up, so this is the most time consuming coat of paint that has to be applied. Subsequent coats should get easier and quicker each time.

Viewed from the deck of the adjacent ‘Weltrol’ wagon it can be seen that the freshly primed roof and edging strip is looking the part, and the wagon is really starting to come together with the end of the project approaching, albeit not yet fully in sight! (Photos courtesy of Tim Hobman).

A final ‘To Do’ list has now been drawn up, although there are a lot of jobs listed as outstanding, some are relatively minor items so we should be able to cross those off quite quickly and easily. Others tasks, less so! But we are definitely getting there…

Further to the previous update, all the woodwork that has been installed has now received pink undercoat, with the exception of the dummy side doors which still require completion (Photo courtesy of Philip Halstead).

The canvas has now been pinned back at the ends, revealing the roof profile again for the first time in several months. This is to enable the end door cladding to be installed over the studwork, with the canvas tucked inside. Like the side doors mentioned above, the end doors will be non-operational replicas to give the correct appearance, but be a lot more weathertight, simpler and quicker to construct.

Most of our work session was spent manufacturing a kit of parts for both ends of the wagon, so although nothing much has visibly changed this week, the next session should show a dramatic visual change relatively quickly and easily if all goes to plan. Here we see both left-hand ‘doors’ stacked on top of each other ready to be fitted, panel lines have since been scribed in to give the appearance of two doors. The offcuts should provide enough material to finish the side doors – just!

Few picture’s I’m afraid, but some good progress to report. The remaining timber required to complete the exterior of the van has now arrived, which enabled the framing for the end doors to be constructed at both ends of the vehicle. The framing is ready to receive its timber cladding, which will be indistinguishable in appearance from the end doors previously carried. This will be the last major carpentry work required to the exterior, before painting.

The end door hinges folded into position across the end. We still need to salvage the steelwork to the door leaf second from left, as this is still mounted on the previous doors that have been retained to act as patterns, and is different to the original metalwork in that it is shaped to accommodate a personnel door in the ends as per the James Bond “Octopussy” film.

Since the above photos were taken, Philip has followed on with the paintbrush and about 75% of the van exterior is now painted in pink undercoat, ready for red topcoat once the roof has been fully painted.

We are pleased to report that the “Steam Freight” driving and shunting experience course went well and generally ran to plan, and that all the participants seemed to enjoy themselves and felt the day was good value for money, incorporating 3 return trips from Wansford to Peterborough with the goods rake during the day. Beautiful warm and sunny weather certainly helped proceedings despite a cold and foggy start. A nice Youtube clip can be found at the link below, of the second service of the day leaving Wansford for Peterborough, taken from Wansford signal box.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1LjyXSrlCI

Elsewhere, Philip has finished topcoating the ceiling of CCT 37071 and has also primed the drop-down end flaps.

The ceiling looks much better and has really lightened the interior of the van. That is until we install the end doors! (CCT photos courtesy of Philip Halstead).

The “Steam Freight” driving and shunting experience course is being held this Friday, 14th March – if you are quick there is still time (just!) to book to join us for this full-day experience course, which costs £370 per person and includes regular rotation between driver, fireman, guard and shunter roles.

Due to necessary repair work to 45337 which we had planned to use, the rostered locomotive is now BR Standard 5MT 73050, which is imminently due withdrawal from service for overhaul. This may be one of the last opportunities to sample this fine machine for some time.

To book, please see the official webpage here and/or call Wansford ticket office on 01780 784444.

A couple of work sessions in recent weeks have seen the drop-down ends reinstated on LMS CCT 37071, along with some of the associated ironwork which has been cleaned up, straightened out and painted.

Most of the internal ceiling has now also received a coat of primer, with about two bays remaining to be primed as seen here.

The coachbolts holding the body planking have now been fully tightened up and some of the ironmongery has been installed and primed as part of this process – the photo above is of one of the restraining pins that stops the drop-down end section opening of its own accord!

A good start has been made on the dummy side doors, with a packing structure made from salvaged timber installed to the bodyside, and a start made on final cladding with only a little more work required to complete. Unfortunately we have now run out of these cladding planks so cannot progress the remaining doors until a few more arrive, although there are plenty of other jobs to be going on with for a little while yet.

In recent weeks Wagon Group volunteer Philip has been focusing his attention on the ceiling of the van. After scraping all the old paint off and derusting the steel roof hoops, he has applied primer to about a third of the ceiling as seen here.

An alternative view through the new side doors of the area primed so far. (Photos courtesy of Philip Halstead).

Further to our previous update, we finished planking and bracing the doors. It’s amazing how much weight three short planks add!

The doors were offered up and fitted well enough to be installed on to the hinges. A cumbersome and awkward job, but fortunately it went right first time. Here we see the first door fitted, with the second about to be lifted up into place.

An interior view showing the pair of doors in place, showing the new bracing.

A shot at the end of the day, doors in place and securely fitted ready for final fettling.

Additionally, all the old flaking paint to the underside of the roof has now been scraped off – another job off the list. A good start has also been made on derusting and priming the roof hoops (approximately 25% completed so far).

Happy New Year to all followers of this website! 2014 promises to be an interesting year for the Wagon Group, which should see completion of LMS CCT 37071 at some point in the first half of the year, followed by some much quicker and easier wagon overhauls/restoration for the running rake thereafter.

A working session over the Christmas period allowed us to begin work on the side doors for 37071.

Measuring up the aperture and the previous doors meant we could build the frames in the luxurious space, light, and relative warmth of the carriage shed. This pair of doors will be the only openable doors on the vehicle, which means they need to be robustly constructed. Rather than going for full mortice and tenon joints we decided to drill and use glued dowels for the joints, due to time and effort required. Once braced up and fitted, these doors should be strong enough to withstand the expected levels of wear and tear.

We were able to use many of the offcuts from planking the van sides to begin infilling the panel. As can be seen, a few more planks are required to the bottom half before adding diagonal bracing to the rear of the doors, screwing through, and hanging them on the strap hinges that are still attached to the van. However we anticipate this will be an easier job than building the door frames seen above, which involved quite a lot of chisel work to provide the various recesses required. The doors on the other side (and the ends) will be dummies, constructed much more simply and built up in-situ on the van.

In the age of steam, goods yards across the nation rang with the sound of clanging couplings and the squeal of steel wheel on rail, as all manner of goods were distributed around Britain in almost as many wagons.

This has gone forever – or has it?

The Nene Valley Railway is offering a rare opportunity to relive the sights and sounds of a lost era, with a steam freight driving and shunting experience.

You can join up to 7 other participants on a full day course, to be held on Friday, 14th March 2014. You will be tutored in, and then get the opportunity to get hands-on, with all aspects of running a steam-hauled freight train.

Over the course of the day there will be two main activities for the participants, with frequent rotation during the day so that everyone has an equal experience of each task:

Loco Crew

Two participants at a time will take turns at driving and firing a large locomotive under instruction of a qualified Driver and Fireman. The group will be given a tutorial during the short classroom part at the beginning of the day in how a locomotive works, the controls, and the duties of the driver and fireman.

Guard/Shunter

You will learn, and then put into practice, the role of Shunter and Guard for a freight train. During the classroom session you will learn about marshalling a train, equipment, hand signals, flags, colour lights, and the duties of a freight Guard.

After these introductory tutorials, the group will then have the opportunity to marshall the goods wagons and drive return journeys between Wansford and Peterborough with the assembled freight train, with various stops en-route. During the day, you will also get to visit the historic Wansford signal box to learn about the general principals of signalling, block working, staffs, tokens and how to operate a typical mechanical signal box.

The allocated locomotive is Stanier ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0, No.45337.

This is a full day event, with an approximate duration from 9.00am until 6.00pm. The price of the Steam Freight experience is £370 per participant. Unlike normal NVR services, advanced booking is essential – for further details please call 01780 784444. If you are purchasing the course as a gift, a gift certificate for this experience will be sent to you after booking for presentation to the lucky recipient. Perhaps the ideal last-minute Christmas present?

Guests are welcome to join participants to watch, take photographs and to join the participant for meals, but they will not be able to ride on a train.

Profits are to go to the NVR Wagon Group, to enable restoration of more of the goods wagons based on the railway.

The Official webpage can be found here:

http://www.nvr.org.uk/freight-driver-experience

A relatively short website update this week, in direct contrast to the number of hours worked and the difficulty of the job completed. Further to the previous update, the roof has now received its new canvas.

The canvas laid out on the roof, ready to be rolled back for the bonding solution to be applied directly to the roof boards. Being a very large area and heavy, inflexible fabric, this is quite a task even to get it to this stage.

The canvas was rolled back, one (longitudinal) half of the roof at a time, then bonding solution was applied before the canvas was laid back down on top of it. We did our best to stretch out any creases, but the sheer area of the roof and less than ideal working conditions made this difficult. Seen from ground level at the end of the day, the edges will be trimmed and folded round as necessary once the bonding solution has had a chance to dry out and adhere a little. Whilst not perfect, we’re reasonably happy with the result, but mostly pleased that this large and long-outstanding job is now completed.