Autumn 2021
With the onset of Autumn no further
exterior varnishing was possible, but lining continued. The whole of the north side and both ends were completed in
yellow with red borders, with the south side now progressing well. The yellow lining is less than 1/2" wide and the red
lines are only about 1/8" wide so you can see what a finnicky job this is.
The corridor sliding doors are now all fitted in place. Two were missing handles and locks
but these have been sourced from a gentleman in Norfolk who happened to be offloading a couple of doors with locks
and handles. Big thanks to Brian Williams for collecting these. Fitting the sliding doors was not trivial because
the bottom runners were raised 1/4" by the new flooring. Consequently 1/4" had to be removed from the bottom of each door
and the runner clearance channel deepened by the same amount. The sprung brass runner slides were serviced at the
same time.
Varnishing of the interior has continued with the corridor, vestibules and toilets receiving attention. The
matchboarding on the lower half of the east toilet walls was completed. Mouldings to trim the top and bottom edges were in
manufacture at this time.
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The gangway arch plates have been completed, fettled and painted, and are now fitted at both ends of the carriage. This allowed a start to be made to replacing the ceilings of both toilets as access to the inside nuts which hold the plates on to the gangway spring housing castings is no longer required. |
The passcom operating shaft in the east toilet has been mounted and the red painted operating chain threaded through all the compartments ready for attachment at the ends. The roof mounted flag shaft which goes across the gangway top was found and fettled ready to be put in place once the very odd shaped wooden spacers it sits on were made up. A further block was required to mount the passcom vacuum valve on the roof to line up with the roof flag shaft.
