G.W.R. Autotrailer 169 News and Restoration Blog

We're getting towards the end of our  undercover period and whilst we may not have achieved absolutely everything we had hoped for we have made good progress having also encountered a few unforeseens, what railway project doesn't? Not least discovering the top of the Luggage end entrance vestibule partition had a broken joint which required some serious dismantling that we hadn't planned for. See pictures  below. However today we came within a 'stones throw' of refitting the Drivers side  entrance vestibule partition along with many of the roof supports that fit between the hoops fitted. We are hoping to sheet the carriage down making allowance to complete the unfinished work without too many problems. The latest pictures are shown below. Hope fully there will be some updated ones in the next few days so please look back again soon. Roof support fitting underway Partition trial fitted. Some small fettling required Half of the repaired roof beam.

Whilst we await our slightly overdue arrival in the shed we have been making the most of the sunny, if blustery weather to fit some of the flooring on to the newly assembled section base. A layer of 20mm tongue and groove is topped be 25mm plywood. The lower picture show the first section of ply being eased into place in lateral seating bay 3 and the under floorboards almost completed in the longitudinal seating bay adjacent to the entry vestibule. We're pleased with the progress after one or two minor hiccups to start. Watch out for more progress soon.  

 16/09/2021 Following on from yesterday's successful operation to remove the tempory cover from the carriage we followed up with a very productive day first fitting the framework of section 3 of the carriage. We were confident the section in isolation was 'good to go ' but until today we had not had the opportunity to see how well it fitted the existing bodywork. Well, by about midday just about all our fears were a distant memory and we were very happy with the outcome. The photographs show most of the woodwork in question with one or 2 small pieces omitted that still require final finishing. Because we can only mark the final fixing holes from underneath we will need to address that before final fixing can take place. We will then be able to erect the bodywork sides before tackling further roof hoop manufacture.                                                ...