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26th January 2012 - GCR Winter Gala

Just a quick reminder that this coming weekend is the Great Central Railway's Winter Gala and our very own LNER buffer car, 24278, will be in use on one of the sets. The TPO set is also in operation with exchanges taking place at 10.33am, 12.18pm and 4.33pm, there is also an additional night time run on Saturday at 6.03pm

1st January 2012 - A REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2011 AT THE ROTHLEY C & W WORKS by New Goodman (RVP Director).

At the time of writing this review of the year we are just two weeks away from 2012. Where did 2011 go?

The year started off with Railway Vehicle Preservations Board endorsing an agreement reached with the Great Central Railway General Manager, Bill Ford, which would see a new approach to the restoration and maintenance of RVP and GCR carriages. The management of the shed and scheduling of work was put in the hands of long serving RVP Director Mike Lang. The GCR had reduced its paid C&W works employees to just one and the spirit of the GCR/RVP agreement called upon RVP members to volunteer to take on work on GCR carriages. In return for that cooperation RVP would be given full access to all the GCR shed facilities and could call upon the GCR paid and voluntary staff for advice and assistance on RVP vehicles when needed. There would also be a more flexible use of the roads in the shed and the yard that would take into account RVP priorities along with those of the GCR, without prejudice to the existing agreement that “road 1” would be for RVP use. Also as part of the deal was a promise that the GCR would, within reason, contribute to the funding of RVP projects.

So how has it all worked in practice? Well, in spite of some completely unforeseen priorities on the use of the shed, over all it has worked reasonably well.

RVP members completed the total makeover of the only surviving operational BZ, the six wheeled Guards Parcel van 76054E, which was returned to traffic by May. Internal paintwork and roofing was done by RVP members and John Robinson made an excellent job of the external panel painting.

Our other major restoration project RB 24278, also at this time, was occupying a road in the shed. This total rebuild project was at an advanced stage but the acquisition of roof fan fittings had been delayed and it was vital to ensure before moving the vehicle into the open yard that it would be fully weather proof. As soon as that was achieved 24278 moved out but work still continued on internal fittings. Credit for this project must go to all RVP volunteers who have worked on it over the past eleven years or so but in more recent years Robert Parker has pushed the project forward. At the time of writing work on some internal fittings was still to be completed but the end is in sight. Even so, in its incomplete condition, the vehicle has seen some operational service at GCR galas.

Moving 24278 into the yard area provided space in the shed for GCR vehicles to receive attention.

With the BZ gone this provided space in the shed for the pigeon van BGP 4050 to be brought into the shed so that we could remedy the cracked roof canvas (it had to be replaced) and to address the extremely poor condition of the teak panels which would need some cracks repairing and all the teak panels would then be taken back to bare wood, re varnished and lined out again. It was expected that this project would take up the rest 2011.

Then out of the blue, to RVP at least, the GCR entered into an arrangement with BBCTV to film an edition of Top Gear which would be featuring a train of caravans converted internally into small carriages that could be joined together and towed by a car along a railway line. All good fun but to do this the Top Gear engineering team took over complete control of all the shed space. All carriages were moved out into the yard area and it then took a month for the Top Gear project to be completed.

However, when the Top Gear crowd had left it provided an ideal opportunity to carry out a job that was long overdue - a complete clean up of the shed removing all unwanted equipment and junk that had accumulated over many years. Most of the dust was removed from the walls and finally the whole floor area was treated to a repaint. Most of this task was done by Nigel Croxon, Chris Lang and me. It was a real transformation but I wonder for how long it will remain like that.

We have been very fortunate to have had some new volunteers join RVP during the past 12/18 months bringing new expertise and skills. Sanding and rubbing down teak panels in readiness for re varnishing does require a great deal of patience, care and real effort if a good surface is to be achieved. Thankfully, we could call on Paul Johnson, Dave Wells, and new member Mick Follows to set the standard required by other volunteers who have assisted with this tedious task on 4050. Importantly, Paul, Dave and Mick have been prepared to attend on some days during the week in addition to the normal Monday and Saturday attendances. This has provided continuity and expedited the task. So much so, at the time of writing this review, no less than ten coats of varnish had been applied with each being rubbed down and dust cleaned, mainly by Mick Follows, and all the lining out has been completed by Paul. (He had plenty of practice on 24278)

As a consequence of RVP volunteers only having one RVP vehicle to work on (4050) and the necessary jobs on that were being done by our “specialists”, it meant that those of us with general DIY skills could take on all kinds of tasks. Mike Lang would identify suitable jobs that could be performed by RVP volunteers on GCR Mk1 carriages. Some RVP members have been doing work not related to RVP vehicles since the beginning of the year and I think that does reflect our contribution to the flexibility spirit required by the GCR/RVP agreement and it would be appropriate to note some of the wide ranging tasks RVP volunteers have been doing.

Our carpenters Phil Bradley, Mick Green, Dave Wells, have been repairing/rebuilding Mk1 doors, window frames, replacing floors and any other jobs needing woodworking skills. We have addressed problems in the store room of the “Ellis” cafe. The “Burton Boys” have also made a major contribution. They normally work on RVP’s Mk1 TPO set but in addition they have turned their engineering and metal working skills to cutting up scrap Mk1s, repairing damaged bogies, replacing seating in Mk1 carriages and replacing steam and vacuum systems to mention just a few of the jobs they have done. Brian Hallett and Darren and Les Martin have also worked with them on some of the tasks.

Then we have the Monday Team for which I take most of the responsibility or blame. We have cleaned Mk1 windows for refitting, rubbed down and varnished internal panels and wooden fixtures, cleaned compartments, scabbled carriage roofs (a noisy and tedious job of removing old paint from the metal roofs of Mk1s). Much of this rotten job has also been done by Chris and Mike Lang, both RVP members. Chris has also spent many hours on the long winded process of overhauling the very sick diesel shunting engine “Bardon”. Ray Prince and Derek Vaux, sometimes assisted by Jim Thomson, have every Monday all year been making dagger boards for Loughborough Station canopy. Initially this job was being done by Mick Green and Dave Wells who designed the templates for use on the saw and router and who continue to repair any damaged dagger boards. Maurice Spencer, Geoff Garner and Michael Fletcher have spent many hours painting undercarriages, bogies and just about anything else that stopped moving for a while. John Calton and John Knights have performed various jobs on Mk1s

There were also many jobs that needed to be done around the Rothley site. Most of these have fallen to Nigel Croxon, Geoff James, Dick Stroud, Michael Fletcher and me. We have cleared rubbish and generally tidied the site, clearing debris/leaves from the shed gutter. We cleared some of the carriages awaiting restoration of much of the accumulated, obsolete and not required spares being stored in them making valuable space available for materials we do need to keep. Lots of rotten old timber, useless off cuts, tree/ hedge cuttings have been safely burned. Scrap metal has been collected and made ready for weighing in. The current task is preparing the foundation for a pathway to be slabbed running from the end of the site concrete apron, alongside our containers and the up siding as far as materials will go. This will provide a much safer and easier access especially when using wheeled barrows to shift heavy materials.

A detailed record of the work done by RVP volunteers, not directly related to RVP vehicles, has not been kept during the year. The forgoing are just some of the jobs recalled. It is by no means all and I’m not too sure of the sequence of events or who did exactly what. It does boil down to every one of our hands-on volunteers cooperating with the spirit and intention of our joint RVP/GCR understanding.

I’ve tried to credit members to specific jobs but the reality is that all of RVP’s working volunteers have helped each other and on many occasions it has been all hands to the “pumps” regardless of the job or whether it was GCR or RVP work.

RVP is going to be under pressure right from the start of 2012 with our priority to return 1719E, the Beavertail Observation Car, back to the top quality carriage of showroom standard as it was when it was restored to operational traffic back in 2005. We need to complete that task by mid May so that it can attend the 9 day “Railfest” event at York in early June at the request of the National Railway Museum.

It would be nice to think we might find space and time to start work on the major task of restoring the Gresley TPO set at present mothballed under canvas in Swithland siding. Ah well! Dream on.

Here’s to 2012.

Nev Goodman
Director.
18th December 2011.