Hello – Digital Minion here. Once again we’ve distracted Potter and told him that there are Eurovision Audience Tickets hidden in the locker room. He was so excited, he ran as fast as his tiny little legs to carry him – without checking that the door does indeed lock from the outside.
So far he hasn’t twigged, and we can hear him rummaging through Buckie’s dirty socks, all the while singing his heart out. ABBA’s 1974 winning hit ‘Waterloo’ is a firm favourite. I really must find those ear defenders…
I’ve wrestled control of the blogging keyboard, as it turns out Potter (while doing a passable impression of the blonde one from ABBA – I’ll leave it to the reader to work out which one) is rather busy with ‘the big railway’, and was concerned that you might have not had an update. Buckie can’t bear to look at the keyboard after generating all the paperwork and Lynn, well, bless her, she still hasn’t recovered from a recent experience with some OO gauge flexible track. The rest of the team muttered something about moving house or just letting the ‘Management Grade #£$£%^$er’ do it… So guess it’s my turn again…
Restoration. On the Railway. Funny old game, innit? So many parts, some small, some large, some with smegging barcodes and serial numbers. So lets start with the large bits…
Richard has been in the Shed, turning the pile of rather lovely timber into wonderfully milled stepboards – each one is cut, routed, test fitted, adjusted and test fitted. Then test fitted again just to make sure. While it’s wonderful to watch the pile of timber being turned into important functional parts of 3417, I’m a little dismayed that there’s going to be no offcuts. Digital Minion needs a new Kitchen…
Internally, we’re making progress on all fronts. The interior of Cab 76263 is being rebuilt – repairs being made to the many years of patching and ‘making good’ after water made its way inside. BR was, in most cases, pragmatic about where its money could be spent – if a cab was serviceable, then the money was spent on leaky passenger compartments – don’t worry about the loose/rotten trim in the Driver’s Cab, no-one but the driver sees that bit! Sadly any time a vehicle is exposed to the elements it’s going to suffer, and when the damage is compounded by years of ‘make do’… We’ve got a lot of work ahead – the cab of 76263 seems to have suffered worse than that of 76262.
While on the subject of 76263, the water damaged quarter panels have been stripped out of most of the First Class compartments and one of the panels in the Standard Compartment – to put this in context – to remove the panels, you have to dismantle the seat adjacent. And by dismantle – you first take off the trim panel above the headrest. Then you remove the headrest (with a mallet). Once you’ve manhandled the headrest (it and the trim span all three generous seats), you can remove the seat base (again, with mallet) and finally the seat back (brute-force, mallet optional). You then have access to the quarter panel – that may or may not come willingly…
So then you have the joy of the goldmine of seat archaeology. Old tickets, crisp wrappers, bits of broken lightbulb. Endless amounts of old chewing gum… And curtain rings! Very rare, very old curtain rings that once held the delights of the orange curtains the VEPs were famous for. We save the curtain rings, and bin the rest… Pretty sure the chewing gum is 20 years past it’s best before date… and pre-chewed so there’s no flavour left.
At the other end of the unit, we have Coach 76262, which in April was unveiled with a few added, poignant details. Buckie and myself hatched a plan to commemorate our friend Maggie, who sadly and unexpectedly passed away last year. Henceforth, one of the First Class Compartments is now known as ‘Maggie’s Compartment’, and you better have a valid ticket! A small dedication plaque is now secured above the internal sliding door, the internal windows have a small window sticker inside and out with Maggie’s photo and the crowning glory is the laser etched mirror. If you’re lucky enough to sit and enjoy the compartment – take a moment to appreciate the work Maggie and Lynn put in to getting our damp-damaged and moth-eaten seating to the standard it’s at because a train with no seats can’t carry people. Therefore it has no purpose and no soul, and Maggie put the soul back into 3417.
Sniff… Anyhew, back to the logistics – inventory. Tons of it. Literally. And Paperwork. Probably in equal amounts. The cold hard fact is that the railway runs on paperwork and accountability. So we’ve started to label and catalogue the stores. It’s a long, boring and important process. That involves spreadsheets and databases, maybe even some of the aforementioned barcodes – maybe even an app or two. I now know the BR Catalogue Codes for TPWS equipment. Didn’t know them before. Do now. But once we’re done we’ll know what we’ve got, where it is and where it came from.
In further news, the Team made a first, tentative steps into the limelight at one of the regular Thursday night meetings at the Model Railway Club in Kings Cross. Broadcast live over the internet, we were all entertained by the double-act that is Buckie and Potter. We’ve lined up a further event in May at the Southern Electric Group’s AGM and are delighted to be able to get out and spread the word of the ‘Church of the Third Rail’ and convert more to VEPism.
We’ve also appeared in this month’s issue of ‘Railway Illustrated’ – don’t forget to grab your copy!
Potter’s now scratching at the locker room door, as he probably needs to be let out for a wee or something. I’d better go, there’s a lovely box full of brand new SETG High Vis Vests, and he’ll only go and have an accident – railway people aren’t fully house trained…
