NVR Wagon Group

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.

B759852 now has a full set of doors – currently bolted in place temporarily, before final fixing and fettling. The diagonal brace that required repair has also been re-welded.

The first wagon project to be tackled by the new Wagon Group is the restoration of BR Vanfit B759852. One side and the ends have already been cosmetically restored as seen above, as documented on the unofficial NVR blog, “A Personal View of the NVR”.

Now it has been decided to make this van a running vehicle, attention has turned to the other side. The bottom planks require replacement with new timber, and new doors are required as the existing doors are falling apart. All the coach bolts holding the planks and doors in place were cut off using a disc cutter and hammer and chisel.

The door metalwork was cleaned up with a wire brush…

…and painted with primer. Flexible boarding was temporarily installed to keep the van weathertight until the next working session. A broken weld, fixing the diagonal brace to the door hinge on the right-hand door, requires attention.

The launching of this website marks the official beginning of the new Wagon Group at the Nene Valley Railway. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes, but we now have a website, a ringfenced wagon fund to receive donations/income, an on-site storage building, and a working area. The latter two require a little clearing and tidying to make them practical for our purposes, this will be an early priority.

It is intended that regular news updates will appear on this page as and when progress is made – so please check back every now and then to see how we’re doing, and perhaps consider donating to our cause.