Covering the period up to and including Saturday 28th February 2015 

With a number of other posts in preparation when the rather hectic diary allows, here is the regular news post covering some restoration, some maintenance and some development work within Transport & Industry at work.  We start with one of my own projects (and there will be more on painting Samson in due course), before looking at the regular spectrum of activities.

Rolling Restoration – A Series Seat and Toolbox

Below: In my spare time (!) I have been making very slow progress on the restoration of EE067, my Barford & Perkins A Series motor roller (see ‘Rolling Restorations’ thread on this blog).  The original seat box (which doubles as a tool box) was life expired and Tony identified the timber as appearing to be Beech – very hard and with a ‘fleck’ in the grain.  A plank of this was duly ordered and it has taken me an embarrassingly long time to turn this into the box you see here!  It has been carefully based on the box removed from EE067 – and the study of this subject (A Series seat boxes – look out for the film at your local multiplex!) has engrossed me over one or two evenings in recent weeks – the short story is that they are not to a consistent design.  The rather longer story unfolds below.  However, lets start with a look at the box during construction – nothing special as it is just screwed together.  More on this later.

Below: For comparison, here is what it looks like in pink primer…

Below: … and here are the painting ingredients.  Pink Primer, Best Red high-build undercoat and ‘Currant Red’ coach enamel.  In this case all are from the Craftmaster range.  The choice of final colour, which is BS381C 539 ‘Currant Red’ is the closest I have been able to match from the BS/RAL ranges, when compared to well preserved fragments of red from my three rollers (all of which had some area of protected paint such as underneath the seat lids or beneath plates).  It has therefore become my de facto Barford & Perkins ‘standard’ red shade.

Below: With the lid fitted (and primed) and the box in undercoat, progress over the weekend was very satisfying.

Below: A close up of the state of play at the end of Sunday, with the recovered original hinges cleaned and painted and the lid fitted and now undercoated.  The interiors of the boxes generally seemed to be left unpainted.  EE067’s plate and the A 2 1/2 plate (from CC002 – a source of spares for both my own and the Museum’s R025 project) are also seen here.

Below: I promised something fairly boring, so here is a short summary of A Series seat and tool boxes! This is the seating unit for CC002, which I obtained for its Coventry Simplex engine, but which has provided numerous other components for various restoration projects.  The seat back has been fitted directly to the back-plate, whereas it should be fitted atop two straps. Note the two cranked hinges, the weight plate (seen above) and the style of box with a pronounced projection of the base to the front, chamfered to throw off the rain.

Below: This QQ072’s seat box. The corner plates are screwed into place, though examples have been seen here these are perforated with ‘talons’ which are nailed into the wood and therefore don’t require screws or nails. This box has a base which does not project in the way CC002’s does. The blue colour was a local variation when the roller was working on the Burhill Estate.

Below: More on EE067’s seat box can be found here: http://46.32.240.35/beamishtransportonline.co.uk/2014/02/rolling-restorations-part-3-a-series-ee067/ including a number of photos of the original, whilst here is a reminder for those who are less frequent visitors to that particularly interesting page! As can be seen, the horse-hair stuffed seat cushion was in particularly poor condition and having retained vast amounts of moisture, had had a detrimental effect on the box lid beneath.  As with the other two examples, screw-fixed corner plates feature. Note also the vestigial remains of red paint on the seat stand upright further down.

Below: A view of the underside of QQ072’s seat lid – this has survived very well indeed and gives a good colour match as well as revealing the pasted instruction sheet – something I intend to replicate in due course.  R025’s (a larger D4 motor roller) seat box drawing refers to the position of such instructions so it can be fairly well taken that such things were fitted to all of Barford & Perkins rollers when new. I intend to conserve QQ072, sans some later additions, and so preserve a ‘specimen’ example of the A series – though have seen photos of a stunningly original A3 with brass radiator on flickr.

Outside Works

Below: The new Colliery turnout is now complete and fully fastened down.  It will be packed and the tie bars sorted out later this week.  Well in time for the running season!

Below: The week began with the pit being shuttered ready for concrete pouring.

Below: Here it is with concrete curing.  The little football posts were Ian’s invention (one our Handymen, who was tasked with shuttering the pit) in order prevent the sides spreading under the weight of wet concrete.

Below: Here is the pit, with shuttering removed and a start made on back filling around the walls, leaving the section where the water column will be fitted clear for now.

Below: Two views inside the Council Depot, with floor scraped and then replaced with crushed tarmac which is in turn rolled into a compact surface.

RHEC

Below: Matt and I have spent quite a few hours assembling the Joicey Waggon, which now awaits its ironwork trimmings.  These will follow painting of the body both inside and out.

Below: Tony and the other Matt have lived and breathed red and yellow stripes as 24 step panels are readied for final assembly onto the Gallopers later this month.  The colour is more red than the orange it appears here!

Below: Dave Young, while waiting on boiler components for Samson for him to drill, has machined the new wheel that we had cast for the Steam Mule, as the original had a break that would have soon caused a total failure of the wheel.  The new casting is seen here during set-up and drilling/boring of the axle hole.

And finally…

Below: The painters having done a superb job of the railings around the park in the Town last year are now painting the bandstand to match – it having been pointed out that it was municipally a clash – having acquired a green colour scheme a few years ago when it was extensively stripped and repainted.  It is now reverting to ‘park’ colours with extensive detailing to be picked out. David is seen making a start on the columns, Gordon is virtually hidden by the band chairs.  This should be quite a dramatic metamorphosis…