I have rather got out of the habit of writing a post here about what's been happening on the railway. However, here goes once again...
Over the last couple of working days, we've been majoring on the vehicles at Robertsbridge while contractor Andrew Woods gets on with excavating the track bed north of the loading pad (ie north of the mainline station car park). In fact he has now reached the loading pad, the ballast regulator having been moved southwards to enable the track here to be lifted. The ground level is now about two or three feet below where it was, ready for the sub base of crushed concrete and a layer of permeable matting to go down. A series of drains have been installed.
As for the vehicles, we have completed the changeover of the doors on the northern western end of the mess van, which is effectively the main entrance, and now started on the opposite side doors. This changeover sounds like an easy job, but in fact it takes about 12 man-days to complete.
We start by loosening all the bolts holding the doors and the stanchion, leaving just enough to hold everything in place until we are ready to go, plus we cut the bolts on the planking adjecent to the doors. Then the hinges are removed and the very heavy old doors are dropped to the ground. Then the stanchion has to be removed, and as the bottom end is welded to the vehicle some sledgehammer work is needed. This iron post is also heavy, and it must be rebolted to the old holes, which fortunately remain in place since the vehicle doors were altered sometime in the late 30s/early 40s.
The four long door hinges then have to be cut back to their original length, and re-primed to keep the rust at bay. One of the new plywood doors is then offered up, propped, drilled and lighly bolted in place. Then the other door. Some planing is required because the new doors are fractionally oversized. Final adjustments are made and all the holes drilled and bolted through.
This of course leave a large hole in the side of the van, so existing planking must be cut back, having previously removed the bolts holding it in place. A new 1 inch thick marine ply panel is cut to size and tried out. Then this has to be removed and carefully routed to represent planking, which has to match the existing planking lines. Then after any bare metalwork is primed, this plywood panel has its edges primed and its then bolted in place, and sealant applied. Then it is primed on the outside.
Meanwhile, all the old door furniture has to be removed from the old doors, and carefully transferred to the new doors, having been cleaned up and primed as necessary. It's generally easier to cut away the old wood from these fittings, rather than trying to unbolt or unscrew them. The old doors are broken up, salvaging any few planks that are still useable. All this is time-consuming in the platform, but slower and slightly nerve-racking when undertaken using our work-tower. We have to take extra safety precautions over handling the heavy doors. Eventually the old door fittings are refixed to the new doors, after cleaning up and priming. then the whole lot is ready for undercoating and painting in RSR green on the outside. In the fact. all the east side of the van is awaiting a top coat of green.
Once this door set is done, the final big job is the centre doors, the on;y difference being that the doors being fitted are original droplight doors rather than the new solid plywood doors inherited with the vehice when we bought it a couple of years ago.
At the same time we are painting the LNER hopper wagon, which is due to be sold, and also Titan the green Drewry loco - while we have some sunshine.
Steve G
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