NVR Wagon Group

The roof has now been entirely stripped of old felt and canvas, with particular care taken to remove all old nails. A little rot was discovered in two places, this was cut out and replaced using boards recovered from the roof of a partially burned-out grounded van body elsewhere. The canvas adhesive will form quite a thick coat (approximately 1/4 inch or so) and will even out any areas that are currently a little rough, such as the joint of the replacement timber shown above. In the photo it can also be seen that some exterior wood filler has been used to fill a small hole in an otherwise sound board.

While work was progressing on the roof, work was also being undertaken on the underframe. After being brushed down, the north side has now been painted with gloss underframe black to make it more presentable.

The headstocks (buffer beams) and buffer shanks were also needle-gunned back to bare metal, as a fair bit of the old paint was flaking off and there were some small areas of rust-pitting that needed cleaning up.

The needle-gunned areas were then primed, ready for black topcoat next time. The ‘To Do’ list is now considerably shorter, the main outstanding tasks now being application of the new canvas, painting same, applying the lettering (stencils ready to go), and undertaking a sort and tidy of the contents inside. We are aiming to outshop this van in time for the September steam gala so it may run in the demonstration goods train during that event.

Whilst at the railway, a shunt was undertaken involving vehicles from the tunnel and cutting. Ply van B786075 emerged and we were stunned by its condition – with bodywork apparently much better than that of the other vans on the railway – despite several years of storage in the damp tunnel. This discovery has meant that B786075 is a prime contender for an early restoration into traffic, even allowing for the fact that on cursory initial inspection, new doors will be required (no different to any of the other vans there!)

Also in the tunnel was planked van B761651. This again is in remarkably good condition, even retaining its vacuum brake cylinder (most of the vans on the railway lost these during their industrial service at British Sugar, although we do have some spares in stock for potential fitting in future) and at least one set of what appear to be decent doors as seen here. Therefore this van is also an early contender for restoration. It is incredible that these two vans appear to need little more than a service and a coat of paint, although we can’t quite believe that yet so we will make the disclaimer that you never know what you’ve got until you look closely..!

BR ‘Vanfit’ B759852 has now received the final ‘BR Freight Brown’ topcoat to the north side, after the last few repairs to the bodywork. The underframe and headstocks have also been scrubbed in preparation for some underframe gloss black. (Photo courtesy of Philip Halstead).

Stencils for the lettering are also in hand as ‘homework’. As we are restoring the vans to original 1950’s/early 1960’s appearance, the “VANFIT” branding that was removed during this restoration will not be reinstated – this decision also has the added bonus of fewer letters to cut out and paint! (Photo courtesy of Philip Halstead).

Viewed from the German tank engine in the shed, ‘852 looks strangely like a model! However this vantage point allows us to see that a very good start has also been made on stripping the old roofing felt, ready for a new canvas. Some stubborn patches remain, we hope to scrape these off over the coming weekend, as well as removing the end roof hoops for restoration. Once these preparation jobs are complete the new canvas can be applied, which is a job scheduled for next weekend if the canvas arrives in time. Note the corrugated ends on this van, made with three sections rivetted together rather than two, the latter is a much more common arrangement on these vans. Three end sections was an early design feature, borne out by the 1952 build-date of this van. (Photo courtesy of Tim Hobman).

A closer view of the exposed roof boards, fortunately they appear to be in good condition with only a few short lengths of board requiring replacement. We have managed to salvage original material from the roof of an identical grounded van body elsewhere, which should (in theory) be a perfect fit… (Photo courtesy of Tim Hobman).

Our stores van, grounded ‘Shocvan’ body B851850, now sports a very smart set of brand-new doors. (Photo courtesy of Tim Hobman).

All the door furniture has now been installed on under-overhaul ‘Vanfit’ B759852. BR freight brown topcoat will soon follow, as will photographs and a proper update on here. Arrangements are now in hand for the recanvassing of the roof, which should happen in the next few weeks if all goes to plan.

Thanks to Tim, new doors have also been made and fitted to the grounded ‘Shocvan’ body which serves as our store for useful bits and pieces. Another set is required for the ‘public’ side facing the running line, then the whole lot can be given a coat of paint to smarten it up.

As promised in our article in the last issue (No.104) of “Nene Steam”, we have finally got round to constructing our themed collection box to grace the platform at Wansford. We very much hope it will be actively contributing towards material costs for restoring the goods wagons at NVR. If you are at the railway and have some spare change, please consider making a donation as every little helps!

New member Philip spent a working session stripping the remaining old paint off the bodyside with a hot air gun, and a good start was also made on wirebrushing the metalwork. The considerable effort being expended on the preparation of this side should leave a good paint finish, although we are formulating new working methods to speed progress on future vans!

Some time was spent improving the end shunter’s chalk boards with exterior wood filler. Study of photographs from the BR steam era show that in practice these were rarely used, and destinations were often chalked on the doors or bodyside instead. 

Wood filler was also applied to any knots, gouges or splits in the timber whilst the remaining metalwork was wirebrushed. Here we see the primer starting to go on to the panel to the left-hand side of the doors.

The previously primed bodywork to the right-hand side of the doors also saw attention with the filler where necessary…

…and patch painted with primer once dry.

The north side is now finally ready for brown topcoat, once the doors have had their latches and protective plates added. The chalkboards were also given a coat of blackboard paint, and now look the part.

Using a hot air gun, more of the old paint has been stripped off the bodyside to the left of the doors.

A rotten plank that previously escaped detection has now been removed and replaced. The steel framework to the right-hand side of the doors has been thoroughly wire-brushed, and primer/undercoat applied. We are now ready for brown topcoat up to the right-hand door jamb, the doors themselves requiring more fettling to make them shut properly, and the installation of protective metal plates where the door fastening wedge sits (just visible centre-bottom of the doors in the photo).

Thank you to all who have supported us since our article appeared in the latest “Nene Steam” magazine. There have been some kind monetary donations which will go towards a new roof canvas for this van and a new working member, Philip, has stepped forward and made very good progress on the slow job of stripping back the old paint on B759852.

It can be seen in the view above that another good working session will hopefully see the last of the old paint removed, and much (if not all) of the metalwork derusted, ready for primer.

To the right of the doors, the paint on the woodwork has now been completely stripped. Unfortunately we have spotted rot on another plank (third from top) so this will need to be removed and replaced with new. The bolts have already been cut in anticipation of this task, which we have down to a fine art! We are now very close to painting this section, once the small remaining area of unpainted metalwork has been rotary wire-brushed.

Due to a house move and work commitments, wagon restoration has had to be put on the back burner for the last few weeks – hence the lack of updates recently. We hope to resume normal service as soon as possible!

Meanwhile it is pleasing to see that our introductory article has appeared in the latest “Nene Steam” magazine, on page 29. If you’ve found this site from the link contained within the article we hope you like what you see, and will consider supporting us in our aim of restoring wagons at the NVR.

Over the last week or two a shunt took place to remove the BR Mk1 SK from the carriage shed, and replace it with the last SNCB (Belgian) coach that requires body overhaul. This gave us a golden opportunity to rearrange some of the wagon stock at Wansford to enable restoration work to take place when we are ready.

The two BR ‘A-type’ containers on the LNER hopper chassis have taken the place of B759852 on the ‘public side’ of the C&W siding. We are aware that these look pretty terrible at present, but it is hoped work can start on them before too long. The BR insulated banana van is also on the C&W siding, which could do with a little attention to its bodywork once B759852 is complete. It is also hoped that a BR ‘Palvan’, a long-term out-of-use wagon resident at Wansford near the signal box, will find its way on to the C&W siding for restoration to running order over a longer time period.

In direct contrast to the containers, B759852 is starting to look pretty good as it is shunted around, offering a taste of the near future when we will be able to add this van to the demonstration goods rake. Also seen here is Fowler ‘4F’ which has now returned to the NVR from winter maintenance work at Llangollen Railway.

Work continues on the north side of this van. We are pleased to report that all the timber repairs are now complete, bar bolting on the final three planks which should only take half an hour or so.

Paint stripping with a hot-air gun continues (top right corner). We are making more of an effort to get a better finish on this side of the van (the other side was only scraped back and repainted over, as it was not originally intended to make this van a running vehicle – although the finish is acceptable.) B759852 is seen here coupled to B953944, hopefully the next time they are seen together B759852 will look just as smart!

The stripped area was painted with primer, in failing light. It is hoped to move this van into the shed imminently, in order to replace the roof canvas which has come away in several places exposing the roof boards to the elements. Internally we can see no signs of rot, so we hope we will have got it under cover in the nick of time.

A substantial section of the north side of ‘Vanfit’ B759852 has now been stripped with a hot-air gun and wire brushed, and primer applied. The door furniture has also been reinstated. There are now only a couple more planks left to be replaced on this van, to the left-hand side of the doors. The roof then requires a new canvas, it is hoped a space can be found in the shed shortly for this to take place.

The final thin (lowest) plank on the right-hand side has been cut and planed to shape, and the new planks drilled and bolted in place.

A closer view of the completed panel, with all boards fixed in place.

This week we undertook a particularly important task: weatherproofing BR ‘Vanfit’ B778019 as much as possible. This van, located at Ferry Meadows station, is in something of a precarious state as can be seen in the photo above. It has been without a roof for several years and has been deteriorating, so it was an early priority for at least some kind of temporary weather protection. The recent re-roofing of a stores van at Wansford meant a suitable heavy-duty tarpaulin was now available for the purpose, at no cost to the railway/group.

A ridge beam, using salvaged timber, was lashed into place to help prevent the tarpaulin from sagging, which allows rain water to pool and pour into the van.

The ‘new’ tarpaulin in place, which it is hoped will keep the worst of the winter weather out, and allow the currently saturated interior to dry out a bit.

With emergency works completed, work resumed at Wansford on ‘Vanfit’ B759852. The rotten planks on the right-hand end were removed in preparation for new timber…

…which was cut to length and pushed into place. The boards have been left in such a way to close the gap at the bottom; a thinner width board will need to be cut to fill this, but as can be seen in the photo the last of the light had gone and it was time to call it a day.