Carriage & Wagon News - June 2010
C&W Restoration Project in Final of National Lottery Good Causes Awards!
The Isle of Wight Steam Railway's Heritage Lottery Fund supported rolling stock restoration project, under the title ‘Isle of Wight Railway Restoration’, has been voted into the final of this year's National Lottery Good Causes awards. The semi finals of the awards consisted of a public voting session which ended on Friday 18th June. Shortly after voting ended the IWSR was informed that, in the Heritage category, our project was one of the three that had received sufficient votes to get through to the final. Thank you to everyone who voted for the IWSR and persuaded their family, friends and work contacts to support us.
What will this mean? There will be a further round of public voting from 26th July to 13th August. The voting scores will be reset to zero and the IWSR will be asking you to vote for it's restoration project again - competition will be fierce and every vote will increase our chances of coming out on top! The Railway, along with all the other finalists, will feature in a national TV show on BBC1 in September, when the results will be announced; this will be excellent publicity for the IWSR and the Heritage Railway movement as a whole.
What happens if we win? If your votes help us win, the £2000 prize money will be allocated to finishing the restoration of LBSCR bogie third 2403. The restoration of 2403's body is continuing apace in the C&W workshop and the replacement underframe has been sand-blasted and repainted; a progress update is below. As part of the body restoration an extra bay is being added to the compartment at the Ryde End, providing a compartment suitable for up to 6 wheelchair users; the adjoining compartment will be linked to it to provide seating for family, friends and carers.
This really is excellent news. We will be gaining high profile nationwide publicity, highlighting the excellent work that the C&W team are already achieving with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, along with the opportunity to secure additional funding which may bring the restoration LBSCR 2403 closer to it’s completion. More details of the National Lottery Good Causes awards can be found in the Latest News section so don’t forget – Vote for Isle of Wight Railway Restoration!
Voting for the finals starts on Monday 26th July and ends on Friday 13th August. To cast a vote for the Isle of Wight Railway Restoration project log on to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards.
LBSCR 8-Compartment Third 2403
Since our last update sure and steady progress has been maintained on both the coach body and the underframe. The second section on the new main member has now been fitted and joints are being cut in the final new section of the main member. The main member at the Wootton end of the coach has been repaired, but that at the Smallbrook end was too far gone and hence a replacement has been cut and appropriate joints are being made in it. Once the third section of the main member and the new end section are ready to be fitted the Smallbrook end of the coach will be detached from the rest of the coach body and moved out (about 2 feet) to accommodate a disabled compartment, it is hoped this will happen during July. As reported last time windows are now being refitted, starting at the Wootton end of the coach. Given there are 32 windows to be fitted and 2 or 3 are refitted in a day, it'll be a long job to refit them all! More of the already removed doors are having their paint burnt off, this has revealed that many will need their rotted bottom panels replaced.
The underframe was blasted and primed in early May. As there were some problems with the initial protective paint coat it was decided to apply another coat to the underframe and bogies to give them better protection from the elements. Once this extra coat had been completed everything was then undercoated and it will have underframe gloss applied. It is hoped that in July the bogies will be assembled and then they'll be reunited with the underframe. When assembly is complete the underframe will brought round to the yard outside C&W so that the braking system and all other pipe work can be installed. When all the work on this underframe is completed the coach body will jacked up thus allowing its temporary underframe to be removed and the newly refurbished underframe wheeled into placed. The body will then be lowered down and firmly bolted down to its “new” underframe. It is hoped 2403 will be installed on its underframe some time during August.
LBSCR 10-Ton Open 27834
Work is progressing well on cleaning and painting old items of metal work or making new replacements where old ones are not available or not suitable for further use. Rebuilding of the underframe has now proceeded to the point where some of the restored or replaced iron work can be fitted to the underframe. When space becomes available on one of the C&W roads it is planned that the underframe will be swung round over the tracks and thus enabling fitting of the wheels to begin.
LBSCR Bogie 5-Compartment Brake Third 4168
We reported in our March update that an underframe containing wheel sets suitable for fitting to 4168’s underframe had been identified in Scotland. We can now report that this Scottish underframe has been delivered to Havenstreet, it is hoped work will restart on 4168 as soon as 2403’s underframe work has been completed.
LCDR 4-compartment Composite 6378
This coach had a fairly short, compared to other projects, stay in C&W where it had a thorough clean followed by all the varnish being rubbed down, the complete coach body was then re-varnished. As is usual the final work done before leaving C&W care was a full 'A' exam which was carried by Dave Smart.
SECR Bogie Saloon Composite 6375
This coach entered the C&W workshop in early May. Work is progressing well on the exterior where large sections of the outside panels will in due course be fully repainted. Prior to this repaint some sections of the body mouldings were replaced. Stuart Butt removed and resealed several of the window mouldings which it was felt were allowing water ingress. The remaining body mouldings were closely examined and any where their sealing against the body panels was doubtful were removed and refitted.
A fault in the canvas covering at the Smallbrook end of the coach was identified as the cause of the rot in a section of the coach frame. John James waved his usual magic wand to make the frame like new again. To make sure the rot doesn't return the roofing canvas in this corner will be repaired.
Over time the ceiling in the saloon has become badly distorted and given we've had nice new replacement lamp shades made (courtesy of Dave Hill, see March 2010 update) it was felt that state of the ceiling would devalue the benefit of the new shades. Therefore John James is totally replacing all the ceiling panels and repairing some of the supporting structure.
When all rebuilding and repainting has been completed inside of the coach the third class seating will be reupholstered with appropriate new moquette. We didn't have any suitable moquette in stock but we did have some first class. As the Swanage railway had some third class and wanted some first class we did a swap to the benefit of both railways. Thus with new ceiling, new shades and reupholstered seats the saloon should be a picture to behold.
Before the coach can re-enter traffic it must under go a full 'A' exam. Some of this work has been done by Dave Smart whilst the other maintenance work is on going. Once the restoration is complete Dave will then be able to complete the exam with the coach located over the examination pit outside C&W.
PMV S1803
During May a major reshuffle happened in Havenstreet, where various vehicles were craned out of the Griffin sidings and onto some unconnected track laid in Griffins by the PW team (a BIG thank you to them for this). As part of the move PMV S1803 was moved from the barn field to its new home at the back of C&W. As we are getting more volunteers these days and hence an increase in our capacity to restore our stock of old vehicles it has become apparent that we are sadly lacking in workshop space. Therefore S1803 is having some remedial work done on its structure so that it can function as an extension to our available workshop space. As we now have a team charged with maintaining and restoring our stock of wagons, it is intended the PMV S1803 will function as the wagons team workshop.
To date John James & Peter Clowes have built and fitted 4 new doors. Whilst Colin Brock, Graham Redfern and Andrew Tavener have cleared out the interior and are setting to fit it out ready for its new role as the C&W wagon workshop. Still to do is to replace some weathered (!!!) boards, repair the roof and give it a nice coat of paint.
Coming up next
As reported above, the next tasks for the C&W team are expected to be:
- Reassemble the components for the 2403 underframe.
- Move the 2403 underframe to the C&W sidings where it will have air braking & steam heat components fitted. The buffers in the “Scottish” underframe will be transferred to the 2403 underframe.
- Transfer the 2403 coach body onto its underframe.
- Continue work to return 4168 to passenger service.
New volunteers
New volunteers are always welcome, the more we have the more restoration and maintenance can be completed on the IWSR’s unique rolling stock. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer then please contact Clive Miller on 01983 882204 or please e-mail Clive on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Further pictures of IWSR C&W Dept. progress can be seen on C&W team member Derek Atkins’ website.