Door Milestone

Doors

An important stage for the restoration of M59137's doors has been reached. The first door skin, which has been stripped from a class 101 and altered so it had a class 104 curvature, has been fitted to its frame. While group members have been busy at Oakamoor in the past few weeks, Kevin has continued to work on doors at Cheddleton, particually the frames which have required extensive, time consuming work. He has continued to work on the frames, with various metal plates and washers being incorporated into them, to stop them from wearing in all the old places. We are of the opinion the doors will be better than new, as BRCW certainly didn't put much effort into each of the 1800 or so doors they produced in 1957/8! An image of the door is on the left. Below are two images of Kevin protecting a second frame, which may well also be reunited with a skin soon. We hope to be able to report more door progress as there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel for this long job.

Toilet

In the rear saloon of M59137, all the bits of toilet wall we could find which had been scattered around Cheddleton were grouped in the corner where they will be refitted, like a huge jigsaw puzzle with bits missing. We will try to find most of the bits before

attempting to reconstruct the toilet when things have calmed down after our gala.

Lights

Some of M59137s internal lights have been taken off site to be restored as a sort of "homework" project. There are sixteen in total, with four in the first class saloon, five in the rear saloon, and six in the middle saloon, plus a smaller

version in the toilet. After dismantling, the glass "shades" are being cleaned and polished using thinners on the tough bits before warm, soapy water. (see the top two images on the left). The reflectors are polished using brasso (bottom right) and the cast holders are rubbed down and painted silver.

This Year's Gala

This year's Scenic Railcar Weekend is planned to be a good one. There is much more on offer than last year and we are currently busy planning and confirming various parts. Expect to see extensive details on what will be happening posted on this site sometime in the next two weeks, and until then, keep a day free during the weekend 27th & 28th September.