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
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
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.
