Preservation Report May 2011

Before delving into the detail of our progress in restoration over the past six months, I am afraid I have to tell you that this will be my last preservation report, hence the title. I have decided after 15 years of working in preservation, and probably almost 30 preservation reports, that I will stand down as preservation manager, and drop out of all preservation activities. The reasons are many, but probably the cumulative effect of 15 years is enough to blunt almost anyone's enthusiasm.

To continue with more routine matters, the last six months have been taken up with a profusion of minor jobs rather than any one large task, rather like the period covered by my last report. The first job to be completed during this time has been the driver's seat. The seat is constructed from a steel frame with a wooden back and seat base, each of which have a foam rubber cover (not particularly thick I must say) and this is covered in a moquette similar to that used for passenger seats. I comment on the comfort or lack of with this seat because I have been known to moan before about the seats fitted in the Desiros which have been my normal mode of transport from Havant to Acton ; I can safely say I would prefer a Desiro any day to the thin foam of an SR motorman's seat. To return to the job in hand our task was to recover this seat as the wood and foam were perfectly satisfactory. The material we chose was, as I indicated last time, a grey pattern; this was mostly because we have plenty of it and did not wish to break up a perfectly good passenger seat to cannibalise the material. The seat base was fairly straight forward, all that was necessary was to stretch the material over the top and tack it underneath; the steel frame was then screwed into the seat base from the outside. The seat back however presented more of a challenge as this needs to be covered front and back. The method used originally by the railway was to tack the material across the back, then stretch it round over the top and presumably stitch the edges from the outside – damned clever! I am not much of a needlewoman at the best of times, but one attempt to do this convinced me I was onto a loser, and so I came up with the idea of stretching the material over the wood inside out. This then enabled me to to sew all the way round; after which the resulting envelope could be slipped off, turned right way round and slipped back over. It was then necessary only to sew along the bottom from the outside, and the finished result was really quite reasonable. In addition to recovering, the brackets which hold the seat have also been re bushed so that the seat can rotate into position without any slack.

Also inside the cab we have refitted the visor over the top of the window, this takes the form of a dark glass screen which the driver can pull down to give some shade from low angled sunlight. The framework of this visor has been repainted all in cab green to match the other fittings. When we came to fit it, we took several attempts before being sure it was in the right position, it is in a very difficult to get it in as it is surrounded by conduits etc. Finally in the drivers cab, the tread plate at the second man's door has been replaced, and the ceiling completely repainted in gardenia; the majority of the tools have also been refitted on the front gangway door.

Another task we have now completed is the removal, cleaning, and repainting of the luggage racks in the saloons. This is a time consuming job and so best tackled at home, this of course means carrying them on the train which is not easy, a rack will just about fit between the seats on a Desiro with 3+2 seating, but does not go in terribly easily. Once when carrying one someone asked if it was part of a Victorian fire place, another on being told it was made of brass offered my £30 for it, but I assured him it was much more valuable where it belonged. Once home the racks could be disassembled, the steel wire racking repainted black, and the grime cleaned off the brass frame which is then polished before taking it back again on the train. From memory I believe there is a total of 22 racks some stand on the seat backs between seating bays, and others are screwed to the end walls of the saloons, all are now refitted.

The major area of work during the last six months however has been inside the guard's compartment. The double doors on each side have now had the rubber draft excluder strip replaced, these consist of a wide rubber strip, held in place by a thinner metal strip which is screwed over the top. Only the strip over the top of one pair of doors now remains to be fitted.

The door between the vestibule and the guard's compartment has now been re hung, unfortunately the lock is missing, like so many other items it had been removed quite unnecessarily many years ago ready for restoration, but then forgotten about and lost. This like many other items will probably have to be cannibalised eventually from other coaches.

One rather curious item inside the guard's compartment is a shelving unit whose purpose no one really seems to understand. It is about 4 feet high and has 4 or 5 wire mesh shelves in it, all angled back presumably to prevent whatever was being carried falling out. This has also been re assembled and repainted although once again several of the brackets which hold the shelves were missing due to unnecessary removal in an earlier attempt at restoration, these have had to be re made.

The guard's van is being repainted in cream for the rear half, and bauxite at the front which was apparently the style in which it was painted during the 1950's. The cream is in fact more like yellow and this has now been completed apart from a section at the rear of the compartment where the desk is fitted. This desk is where the lower mirror of the periscope is fitted, and so the wall here has been painted in matt black to reduce reflection.

The very last job I have been involved with was on '87 on the morning of the AGM. In the front end of the guard's van are battery boxes, one on top of the other, and each with a lid that lowers down to form a tray that enables the batteries to be slid out to receive any attention topping up etc. As I have mentioned before, due to rust around the hinges these no longer closed properly and the top one required some attention from an angle grinder to make it fit. The lower one was in a worse state and had had to be removed and the hinges replaced, thanks to Bill Emmett for doing these for us. On this morning of the AGM we at last managed to replace this door, the construction of the door is vertical tongue and grooved planking on a steel frame, and it was a bit of a fiddle to slide the planks in but we managed it so that by the time the visitors came round we could honestly say that the coach was in a pretty good complete state. I hope that many of you did take advantage of this chance to view it.

To end on a positive note however I can honestly say that I have enjoyed my time in preservation, we have had a lot of fun, I have learnt a lot and the state of our coach 11187 does us all proud, and if anyone is willing enough, and strong enough to take it by the scruff of the neck, it can have a good future in service, being enjoyed by the public and reflecting great credit on the group.

Finally I would like to thank all of those with whom I have worked over the last 15 years, and all the others who have helped and supported in many different ways, too many to mention individually, but your efforts have been much appreciated. I wish the very best to those who continue with the project, and sincerely hope that success will attend their efforts.

comment from the webmaster: I am sure I am far from alone in both thanking Richard for his dedication over the years but also being in considerable awe of what he has achieved in this time.