Sunday 18th April saw the gang focusing their efforts at North Weald, with Simon, Steve E and Will working on the London Transport Museum Brake Van, and the Pway team continuing work on the eastern end of the station approaches.
Given the excellent weather, Steve and later Will worked on getting the running boards of the Brake Van both scraped down, and applied new bitchumen-based paint. This will help prolong the life of these, and was exactly as BR would have originally used.
Will paints the Brake Van Running Boards
While Steve was working on the boards, Will cut, and Simon prepared the “tongue and groove” cladding that will go on the north side. This was treated with a wood preservative, before then being painted in wood primer. The goal being to do the job well, for the long term preservation of the vehicle.
Simon applies preservative to the Brake Van wood
Meanwhile down the track, the gang, led by Gary, attended to one or two sleepers, before then assisting with clipping and fishplating the track that was laid during the week.
Pway Steve & Gary fitting clips at North Weald
Picture courtesy of Steve Cooper (pictured left)
Tuesday 20th April: There was another friendly team down at Ongar, the focus of their efforts being the restoration of the Porter’s Room (being returned to its original layout and use, as a staff rest room), and the Lamp Room (to be used as a cleaning store). The team are making excellent progress with the room, which after much hard work by the team, is nearly ready to be decorated.
Steve E continues the prep work in the Porter's Room
We have recently overhauled the “How You Can Help” page, showing how the railway operates and further details about the wide range of rewarding and interesting volunteering opportunities there are at Epping-Ongar.
Report by Simon Hanney, General Manager, EOR