GWR 290 Four Wheeler

Evening All,

As a few people from Didcot post on here, I was wondering if there has been any progress made on GWR 290 ? I understand from last years carriage convention that this was to be the next coach to be tackled by the C&W department. So any news on progress would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=64

All the best,

 

It still is, technically… but circumstances have caused it to slip back a tad. The recent acquisition of BG 333 from the GWSR has jumped in as it is desperately needed as a replacement for the Antiquary & Oxford Group shops (who are two of C&W's main contributors).

As I understand it, the hardwood for 290 has been ordered, purchased, but is awaiting delivery. Once that arrives it'll be transferred to our timber store to season for at least 6 months. This will allow the fund to regenerate a bit & permit (hopefully) the use of direct labour to spur things along.

So, it's hoped to make a start on the framework of 290 (& possibly 975 as well) this time next year, provided nothing surprising happens. How rapidly work then progresses is entirely dependent on how bad 290's frame turns out to be & the state of the Victorian Coaches Fund — as ever, we're fighting the age-old twin evils of Money & Manpower.

Pete S.
C&W Dept.,
GWS Didcot.

 

Hi Pete,
I have one other question for you. When you have a coach like 290 that needs all new beading where do you get your references from? looking at the photos on the VCT database it appears to be devoid of any beading.

 

It might look that way, but at some point in its life it's had steel panels screwed on over the mouldings, so a fair amount of beading/mouldings have survived that will 'just' need to be reproduced. We're also very fortunate in having a few other 'reference pieces' tucked away in the back of the shed (like the Newbury Diner, the Dreadnought, 1357, 1159 & 6824) that can help fill in most, if not all, of the blanks.

Odds are we'll repeat a technique we used when the SRM had its spot of bother. This was for a CAD drawing to be made of the moulding components, which was then used to produce a laser-cut Master Template out of 3mm acrylic sheet, & that in turn was used to create a set of working templates out of MDF. It looked like this:—



Then it was a relatively simple case of sticking pre-machined bits of wood to the template (using double-sided tape) & whipping round them with the router. This produced a kit of parts that were then pinned to the vehicle:—



There are 11 separate mouldings in that picture, but there are only two different radii. As a result the SRM was a relatively simple (if long & repetitive) job - IIRC there were only about a dozen or so different moulding shapes. The mouldings for 290 are rather more varied - at first count it was well over 30 separate patterns! That'll be a bit of a chore, but once they're done we'll have a master set of templates in perpetuity.

The first 'proper' phase of 290's restoration will be akin to an archaeological dig. Whilst it is heavily modified, stripped almost bare & largely gutted, enough survives under the departmental paint & behind cupboards to tell us things like:

What the interior finishes were;
How long the luggage rack brackets were (there are at least 3 types!);
Where the upholstery went (& possibly how deep the stuffing was);
& where the steam heat rads were positioned.

I hope to be able to do something on that later this year, otherwise it's likely to get lost. The interior of 975 has information to give up also, and Family Saloon 2511 has a plethora of original features that will help us to get 290 & 975 as close as we can.

Pete.