Two sleepers "Gift Wrapped"

This last week has been spent "Gift Wrapping" coaches in preparation to their move south.  The two LMS sleepers have been completely wrapped in bale wrap, a heavy duty form of cling film used by farmers for wrapping their hay bales in.
A big shunt around and tidy up had to take place to get the mark 2 BFK out of the shed and  place it temporarily in the storage shed whilst this work is carried out.

This is the first coach to receive the treatment, the LMS first sleeper.  To achieve this we lifted the coach on the jacks, rolled the bogies out of the way and then rolled the plastic over the roof, down the sides and underneath the body many times over.  The body was then lowered onto the bogies, trapping the wrap between them and the underside.

The front view, quite a difficult task wrapping the ends around the buffers and coupling.  Quite a few rolls of duck tape had to be used in the process, fingers crossed that it all stays on during the move.

The next candidate for wrapping, the LMS third sleeper has arrived at Aviemore.  This vehicle is in better condition than the first class one having been under a tarpaulin for a number of years.

LMS 3rd class sleeper seen  from the other side

 

News 14.08.2014

More progress on mark 2 number 17101

This is the luggage van end, where Richard can be seen welding the right hand end panel into place.

  At the toilet end the door hinge rails, door steering track and the doors themselves have been fitted.

Looking up to the door steering track, this hides the amount of work that has gone into this track, it consists of 10 separate pieces.

Back to the luggage end and the floor steel work repairs have been completed.

A wider view of the floor steelwork.

Two of the compartments are coming back together, floor woodwork in place, side panelling in place as well as the hot air ducting and seat frames.

Another picture of the progress in one of the compartments.

One feature of the repair on this coach is that we take two steps forward and then one backwards.  This is the toilet floor after the woodwork has been removed, the steel work below the window is rotten, as is the hardwood support that the toilet walls sit on.

This is our first class LMS design sleeper, built under BR in 1951.  It was recorded at Boat of Garten in 1973, click on this link to view http://www.railbrit.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete.php?id=24534 in this picture it is immaculate, today it is a wreck.  This journey from Boat to Aviemore may well be the first run along the line that it has made since then.

Realistically we have neither the time or resources to restore this coach, even if we did it is of no use to us as a non revenue earning vehicle, therefore we have made a decision to move vehicles in this category on.
It has come to the shed to be wrapped in a black plastic cling film, this is to prepare it for its journey to its new home. 
If any member reading this has any property in any of the three sleepers, please remove before the 27th August as all three will be leaving the railway.

The sleeper now inside the shed and lifted on the jacks.  The plan is to wrap the cling film like plastic completely around the coach.  Richard is cutting the bolts to remove the wooden step, this will allow the plastic to pierce the steel legs and move close up to the underside of the coach.

The six wheel bogie from underneath the sleeper, this has been removed to make it easier to wrap the plastic around the body.

On both bogies, after the weight of the coach had been removed, the centre wheels have lifted off the rails.  This is not by design, its just that the axle cannot lower whilst the brake rigging is still in place.