Friday 14th - Maintenance

Report by Graham

Carriage maintenance has an element of repetitive process, this centres around the monthly Type C examinations of the rolling stock. That’s partly explains the absence from the blog, there are limited ways of saying ‘stuff was examined’. However, while not examining, the rest of the time is spent repairing the items found during the exams or fixing the bits that have fallen off or vibrated loose during traffic. Today was a bit of each with the Type C on the maroon rake and doing a few fixes where feasible. 

First job is always to secure the rake with the NTBM board and scotches. 

Not to be moved board in place 

The external examination involves a lot of crawling around underneath the carriages, hence the need to put safety at the top of the agenda. 

Ian checking the dynamo belt 

Ian also found two Elephant trunks trapped between brake gear and axle. The elephant trunks lost the fight. 

Some jobs get done, like refixing the panelling on the back of a door… 

Wooden panel removed to check for screw holes before refixing the panel 

Some jobs don’t get done because fate conspires against us; this door had to stay out of use because the back panel couldn’t be removed as the screws were varnished in. The drop light glass has become detached from the carrier on the lazy tongs, it has been propped shut to (hopefully) stop anyone opening it and dropping the glass down which would probably shatter it. 

Mark 1 window closing device deployed 

Other things the observant internal examiner spotted was that First Class passengers in the BR Mark 1 carriages need an extra luggage rack, probably for their newspapers 😊 (hats maybe? -Ed.)

Second Class luggage rack - Mk1 CK

First Class luggage rack - Mk 1 CK, note the more elegant reading lamps 

The maintenance team spend a significant part of the day wandering back and forth to the store room on Platform 2 to search for sundry items of kit needed for the repairs. On one such foray the presence of the apocryphal station cat was observed. It has never been seen in daylight, does it really exist? 

Ghostly footprints along the rail head 

We also investigated a potential roof leak above one of the toilets.

Martin checking out state of the roof.

Martin reported that one of the clam-shell vents had lost a bit one side and looked like it might be acting more like a funnel. There is not a lot we can do roof wise during our regular maintenance. Weather, access issues, and length of time the work requires mean it really needs the carriage taking into the main workshop, we just look and report.

There may be more excitement to report next week.