Southern Electric Group 4Cor unit 3142 Preservation Report 12

4 COR Preservation Report Winter 2002/2003

We have been working almost entirely on motor car 11187 for seven years or so now. This car as most members will know, is not one of the original 4 car set 3142 bought by the SEG when the type was finally withdrawn, but is privately owned and on long term loan to the group. By the mid 1990’s all 5 coaches were in need of substantial work, and the preservation team decided to start with 11187 almost as an experiment, rather than risk starting major surgery on one of the original four. This car was probably the one in most need, although it was also probably the most complete, never having had any large scale preservation attempts undertaken before.

Seven years is a long time the amount of work required to restore one coach is obviously rather greater than we expected. However the substantial repair work to the body is bearing fruit, there is one coat of green now covering the entire body this on top of two grey undercoats. These 3 coats having taken approximately a year, with typically one or two people working on it. In addition to the painting, the brass handrails have now been refitted on the blind side, these shiny brass fittings allied to the green body and varnished wooden window frames on the drivers and guards doors give a very pleasing overall impression.

Another feature which has also added to the overall impression is the repainting of the solebars on the blind side, these have been in red oxide for quite some time and rust had been reappearing through this, it is only topcoat which is genuinely waterproof. All the old paint has therefore been removed, the metal treated with jenolite and repainted in a green metal primer followed by black topcoat (it has occurred to us since that this green primer might have made painting the body sides easier). The headstock, front buffers, and outer faces of the front power bogie have also been freshened up with a new topcoat (it has been 5 years since the bogie was overhauled). The drivers door step board on the blind side has also been replaced. Most of the step boards still remain to be refitted however.

I touched on the subject of fuses in passing in my last preservation report in addition to the two equipment fuses slung under the coach are two “shoe fuses” directly above each collector shoe on the power bogie. These fuses are set in a wooden box, about a foot long with the outer side open. the box is angled downwards, presumably so that if the fuse blows, any bystanders are not showered in molten metal. Figure 1 shows the construction of a fuse, it is formed from a copper strap shaped so that in the event of a fault, the narrow portions at the edges of the hole will have the highest current density and therefore melt firSt These fuse boxes have been cleaned up and repainted in grey anti tracking paint. In addition to the shoe fuses, new flexible cables have been made up to run between the collector shoes and fuses. these cables (which look only slightly thicker than the starter motor leads on my old 6 volt Ford Popular) were cut to length and brass lugs soldered on each end before being bolted into position. For several reports now I have been saying that we would shortly be starting work on the roof, well at long last we have indeed started. We decided in the end to use the traditional canvas method rather than using plastic. We already had the canvas in store and have recently acquired the bonding compound which will be used to bind the canvas to the roof. Before this can be done however the old canvas has to be stripped, the roof planks cleaned off and repainted in primer. Also all the roof fittings i.e. torpedo vents, periscope, and conduits, must be removed, the rain strips and roof board brackets having already been taken off.

The original canvas was held down by a putty like compound. This has set rock hard over the years, however when the roof was repaired more recently, whether before or after withdrawal I am not sure, the new canvas was glued down with bitumen. The old hard compound has proved difficult to chip away and of course bitumen is very difficult to scrape off, so it looks like this will be a longish job. the best method so far seems to be to plane the bitumen off but removing every bit is probably almost impossible. The good news however is that the boards all seem to be in very good condition. some extra screws (stainless steel) have been inserted in places where the boards seem a bit loose, surprisingly there seem to be several places where the ends of boards have not been screwed down at all The roof is planked with 6.5 inch planks in the centre of roof (seven each side) and then the outer part with the sharpest curve has 2 inch planks, again seven of these, giving a total width of 9 feet 11 inches. It makes me wonder if perhaps the section of the roof is not formed of a true ellipse but arcs of two circles as shown in Figure 2. I believe that some coach roofs were built with this profile, and it would of course mean that only two different plank widths are required instead of gradually reducing width of planks towards the outer edge. So far we have stripped the roof over the drivers cab and most of the guards compartment (almost 1/4 of the total area).

While stripping the roof we have removed the air horns and do not plan to refit them, the traditional whistle will instead be refitted on the front corner by the drivers window. In the same front corner we have also refitted the windscreen wiper, this will now allow us to repaint the front corner panel in yellow.

The train end gangway has now been disassembled, and the inner and outer shroud de rusted and painted in red oxide. Some repairs may be necessary to these but they are certainly in better shape than the outer shroud on the front end, which required a new lower end to be fabricated and welded in. Figure 3 shows the layout of gangway. The “gallows” style supports have been replaced but most of the equipment on the inner train end of the coach cannot be replaced until the roof is complete. In parallel to stripping the roof, some work has been going on inside (there would not be enough room for everyone to work on top). New ceiling panels have been cut for both vestibules from thin ply, the originals having been removed some time ago having almost completely de laminated due to water leaking in. As part of this work new metal light fittings (EPB style) have been used replacing the original composition types, which have also deteriorated and are unfit for further use.

The roof is obviously our main priority now. At the present rate of progress it will take another year or so to finish stripping it off, once this is done and the roof planks painted there will be a short but intense period when the new canvas is glued down (it has to be done ideally in one day). We will not attempt to put another coat of paint on the body until this has been finished, as inevitably we will make some mess in covering the roof.