Early days - boyhood memories and meeting the Shark

Before submitting the formal Meet The Teams article for the Wagon Wheel Team, Richard S. sent a very interesting piece about his boyhood railway experiences and his early days with Carriage and Wagon when he was involved with the major repairs to the Shark ballast plough.

So, over to Richard.

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Like most boys of the 50s, the principle past times were riding my bicycle and train spotting.  My earliest memories of the latter were catching a train from London Bridge to Gravesend and then changing to the two green carriages and engine to cross the Kent marshes to All Hallows on Sea. Next to the station, almost within touching distance,  my Uncle had a tiny holiday caravan in a field.  Not only could I watch the trains come in and out, but on a spur line was a small turntable.  Watching the engines being spun around was a favourite treat.  My older brother being big enough to help turn the handle to help the crew!  Later, living in Bushey, Hertfordshire, I joined my friends spotting from a bridge, on a good long straight run between Bushey & Oxhey and Carpenders Park where we also could watch the Euston bound trains picking up water at speed from the troughs. Whilst the passenger trains were always noted, I did like to see the very long trains of open wagons usually filled with coal, with the brake van at the end often with smoke coming from the small chimney.  The parcels and goods wagons, some brightly painted were always of interest. The bright yellow and blue of Ffyfes bananas being a feature rake.

Fast forward some 50 years to 2013 and on retiring from worklife, I joined the GWSR as a carriage cleaner. The friendly Monday team, working in all weathers, was a chance to enjoy reliving childhood memories of steam and diesel beginnings.  Not green carriages, but opens and corridors of wood veneers and small lights with bulbs. A winter close down and finding myself with some spare time I asked if I could help at the Carriage and Wagon  Works at Winchcombe and spent my first few weeks digging out the old goods platform in the workshop.  Other small jobs followed on and when cleaning resumed I decided to do both activities. I realised very quickly that working on carriages needed lots of skills I didn't have, but found that if you asked the right people then they would take the time to explain not only how to do things, but why they were necessary. Being shown the right way to use tools from people who had spent their working lives in engineering, woodworking and other practical  applications gave me the confidence to take on small repairs. 

My first opportunity to work on wagons came in 2015 when the P'way Shark van was brought to Winchcombe.  It looked in a very sorry state with veranda planking broken and doorways falling apart.  

 

 

July 2015

 

 

July 2015

 

 

July 2015

 

July 2015

 

I asked if I could have a go at the repairs as just about everyone else was working to restore carriages.  To my amazement I was allowed to take on the project.  I was introduced to Eddie, the head of the woodwork shop, and admitted right away I had passed an O-level in woodwork but that was a very long time ago and so was very unskilled.  I was told: "Measure carefully and check; write down the measurements of the timber and give it to me!"  I probably measured every timber 4/5 times and a few days later I found the timber pieces stacked in the barn cut exactly as written.  Now all I had to do was fit them.

 

August 2015

 

 

August 2015

 

August 2015

 

August 2015

 

August 2015

 

August 2015

 

  

August 2015

 

August 2015

 

 September 2015

September 2015

I realised that painting was also a skill I really did not have so spoke to one of the best painters I had seen.  Watching carefully I picked up on the principle of vertical painting and that the more preparation, the better the result.  I started with primer, a light sand, another primer, a light sand, undercoat, sand, top coat, sand, top coat.  I seemed to be using a lot of paint but the deep shine on the planking gave me a great sense of satisfaction.  Team room banter suggested I was over painting too many coats but I reasoned that the more paint, the longer the timbers would be protected.  

 

September 2015

 

September 2015

 

Whilst inside the Barn, with help from the Upholstery team, the seats were repaired; the interior repainted and a good clean up all round.  A few  months work and the repairs were complete and the Shark was shunted out into the open. 

 

September 2015

 

 

September 2015

 

 

November 2015

November 2015 - the completed Shark coupled to the repainted 1914-built Barry Van 1388

 

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Thank you Richard for a very interesting article.

 

As a quick postscript, I should add that Richard's wish to add extra paint coatings, both with undercoat and top coat, to all sides of the wood used during restoration has proved to be very worthwhile and we have now adopted this for all our wagon restorations.