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

 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.                                                ...

15/09/2021 Have you passed our carriage at Williton and wondered what lies beneath the blue and white tarpaulins? Today we have exposed the truth..............nothing! Well, not exactly nothing. When we needed to vacate the Swindon shed we needed to ensure we protected the work we had already completed on the bodywork so we hastily constructed a tent from wooden poles supplied by one of our workers and obtained a large tarpaulin to cover it and protect it from the ravages of the West Somerset weather. today it was time to dismantle it and start preparing for section 3 to be added to the existing 2 parts already there. The driving end partition wall was also extracted and moved back beside the luggage end partition temporarily to allow us more working space. These will both be removed over the next few months to allow all of section 3 to be added. Watch out for further updates coming soon, but in the meantime here's a pic of the space created today and a picture of a piece of the ...

05/09/2021  Door construction update. Last Saturday saw the completion of the first of 4 doors for the Luggage compartment of Auto 169. Built virtually from scratch (you'll spot the original piece) this door has been constructed by copying the best of the remaining original and although it will require fettling and detail added the major construction is complete. There is a photo of it next to the original for comparison but remember that is the best of the 4. Next, we will construct the second of this pair which will include a 'closing' stile. This will be the one that closes first and the first door closes against it. Next time I will include some pictures of the door handles that our resident engineer has expertly created from a range of spare parts. Hopefully, we will be able to show our recent progress to all those visiting the WSR gala on 1st-3rd October. Come and find us at Williton yard.   The original door used as a pattern With droplight frame inserted for info Ma...

  Luggage Door Construction update. 25/08/2021 Progress on the manufacture of the first door stiles continues. Below you can see the first pair of stiles looking amazingly similar and the original for comparison. The bottom cross-member has also been made and fitted. Work will now continue with the remaining components Work has also continued on the seatback cushions along with the preparation of the main carriage frames to receive section 3 woodwork. The joining scarf joints on the soleplates has been completed and section 4 (the last quarter) has been partially marked out for mortises to be cut. We have also reached an agreement with the WSR Plc to store 169 at Williton for a further 2 years. Hopefully, we will be able to show our progress at the upcoming WSR Gala Weekend at the beginning of October.

 A few weeks back we reported that we had recovered the pair of 9"x3" oak sole plates for the final section of the carriage. These had been gently seasoning for 4-5 years in our workshop and whilst not expecting them to be perfectly straight (oak rarely is) one of the two was quite badly warped and twisted. One of the lessons learned from earlier sections was to ensure the scarfing joints between sections is manufactured prior to erecting the previous section. So we needed to attempt to straighten the timber to allow the joints to be made. Our previous experience steaming these big timbers has proven quite successful provided the process is given plenty of time. So out came our 12' steaming box originally designed for making roof hoops and the necessary steam supplies by way of 2 paint strippers plugged in and set in action. The offending piece of oak added and left for 5 hours to gently warm. The above picture shows the extent of the twist After 5 hours the twist had sub...

 Luggage End Door Construction 11/06/2021    Having completed yesterday's sort out it was time to return to the tasks which is the construction of 2 pairs of luggage end doors. The left-hand side originals were in a very poor state so definitely needed replacing, whilst the right side ones were not quite so bad but after consideration, it was decided that making 4 doors was not too much harder than making 2 although we may live to regret that decision! Anyway, the process was started before lockdown but as the picture below shows we have now progressed to a point that 8 stiles (the side pieces of the doors) have been produced and the tumblehome shape added. So now we will be moving on to the next stage of the process, cutting the 5 mortises on each side that take the cross-members that make up the full frame of the door. Watch out for further updates. The stiles that are shown represent about £4-500 worth of seasoned oak and probably 40/50 hours of work. So far we have ha...

Workshop sort out 10/06/2021 Our need to extricate the next and final soleplates for the carriage necessitated a major operation to allow forklift access. The picture below shows the space we would have if we hadn't had to retrieve all the timber and equipment from the car park. The timbers on the immediate right are the components of section 3 which awaits assembly. Many thanks to our neighbours at Williton Pet Care for their assistance.