Spring 2013
Work continued on the "demo" compartment. Robbie made and fitted blind boxes for the
outer wall of the compartment and made up the boarding required above the seat back which holds the three
"railway" pictures on each side of the compartment. Thanks to Hamish Stevenson for the supply of many
suitable pictures!
Above the blind boxes, the ceiling and wall coverings were smoothed off and painted in white to give us
a better idea of what the compartment would look like. The corridor side partition was rebuilt with all the
various mouldings required as blind guides, window glass retention etc.
The bulkhead surfaces behind where the seatback is fitted were treated with Firecheck. The carriage, when
originally built had no fire inhibition coatings applied, but for our own security (and because it is not seen),
intumescent paint is being applied to all the cavities we can get at, especially those places where a dropped
cigarette might lodge. Of course there is a "no smoking" directive in force, but you never know......
In the photograph above you can see the first batch of luggage rack brackets painted and fixed in place in
compartment "A". Now to solve the problem of the 1 1/4" and 5/8" diameter teak rods for the front and back
of the racks!
A request from the Youth Group leader resulted in two of the team joining the 10021 restoration team. The above
photo shows our two youthful members removing the lower panels on the south side of the coach. These two young worthies
seemed very enthusiastic and willing to learn and their first visit to the RCB was judged a huge success.
Don continued the slow process of stripping and repairing the north side exterior. As work progressed
towards the west end of the coach, it was found that more and more rot and damage was found. One assumes that was the end
pointed into the weather for many years! Refurbishment of the doors continued with door #7 processed in March 2013 then door #8
"in the works" in April 2013.
To give ourselves the impression we were actually making some progress, and also to aid the completion of the "demo" compartment,
some of the horizontal exterior panels were pinned in place, glue-blocked, primed and Firechecked.
Bob Mowat continued the considerable task of glue blocking first
the west end toilet end boarding, then the lower horizontal panelling as it was fixed to nearer the east end of the coach.
After glueblocking, Bob has been applying Aluminium primer to the teak, then Firecheck to the whole ensemble.
The vertical teak panels at the south west corner of the coach were fitted in early April (made by Don from the teak
we got from the Helensbugh school demolition). The panels were subsequently glue blocked by
Bob, then primed and Firechecked.
"Big Al" MacPhee continued work in the corridor. After scraping all the outside wall internal matchboarding, he cleaned up and repaired the outer wall cantrail moulding, then the vertical strips either side of the 4 corridor doors.
Al also took advantage of the new blade fitted to the bandsaw and cut the complicated decorative bracket which was fitted at the east end of the corridor.
Chris Smith started work on the doors for the battery boxes and measured up the steel framing required to mount the south battery box. The framing dimensions have been transferred to an Autocad drawing.
Don made up the three new base plates required for the RCH cable terminations and covers for both ends of the coach. These were made from "scrap" 3/8" thick teak boarding, two squares of which were glued together with the grain at right angles, then cut to a rough 7" diameter octagon. This was then turned on a lathe to a 7" diameter circular plate with a smoothed over outer edge. A slight dish was then cut out of the side which fixes to the coach end boarding so the plate would fit snuggly against the curved coach end. After drilling a large hole in the centre to allow the wires through, the plates were attached to the coach end, the back side of the plates being first sealed with brown flexible mastic. The electrical team installed the terminal rings on the backing plates, wired in the RCH jumper cables then finally screwed on the cover plates.
