LAST UPDATED 31/12/16
The Aim - To return this 120 year old GWR Clerstory Coach shown above back to running condition for use on the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway in Wales.
But how much work to we have to do to restore it back to such a high standard?
Well the answer to that question is.... a lot!
The coach arrived at the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway in 1993, and since then has been sat hidden in the bottom of the yard open to all the harsh Welsh elements 334 m above sea level. So it's fair to say the coach has had a battering, and this can be shown by the current condition of the coach. Due to this, most of the wood has rotten.
The coach was purchased for restoration back in April 2014, and during the spring and summer of 2014 the team spent several weekends clearing out what had been left inside open to the elements for the past 31 years. The worst task was removing the Deep-Button Red Plush seating which was made up of chipboard, and chipboard doesn't survive too well when it's pretty much outside. A couple of mini dumper truck loads later the coach began to look a bit more open.
The next task was covering what was left of the coach with a protective tarpaulin. We chose a warm summers day and made plans on how we would perform the task. We covered the coach with the tarpaulin and ensured that it was tied down the best it possibly could be with plenty of rope. The plan was to leave it in this state covered with the tarpoulin until we could get the coach undercover inside a shed.
Our attentions then turned from the rotten coach body to building the brand new one inside the shed. We managed to build a whole end in about a years time. This picture shown below is the newSouthern end of the coach.
However while we were undercover in the shed building the new coach frame, the coach itself was still out in the open. And where as the coach wasn't taking a battering, the tarpoulin was, despite the fact the tarp was a pretty thick well made one. Before long the tarp was showing signs of damage, holes started to show eventually. And then a big storm came in Winter 2014/2015, which hit Blaenavon pretty hard, which did a lot of damage to not just the tarpolin but the railway itself.
The tarp was pretty much torn from the coach and blown off in the wind, which yet again left the coach standing out in the open. To fund for a new tarpolin would seem pointless with the possibility of a shed space becoming more likly in the near future. So we have supported what is left, and we have turned our attentions to progressing with the new body as quick as we can.
So thats pretty much where we stand as of mid February 2016, the wood is now on site to build the coach frame for the second end (northern end), and we are progressing with that!
PROGRESS UPDATE 16/11/16
Having taken a backseat from the project while I have been busy throughout the summer I have left Adam to get on with the constuction of the new body sections. With the Southern End completed earlier this year he is now progressing with the Northern End. Pictured below are the bottom stringers for the top end and west side completed a couple of weeks back.
In terms of the actual location of the coach we are in the same position, it is still tucked away in the bottom of Furnace Sidings yard. Shed space is difficult to get at the moment due to the lack of it, but hopefully this will change in the future with the constuction of the new shed.
I went down to the coach a couple of weeks back and it looks as if mother nature has been busy again. With things a lot more 'open' from when we first started the project i have now dedicated my saturdays to painting parts of the coach and fitting new thickersheets of tarpoulin. The two photos below show last saturdays efforts of painting the western side of the coach.
BEFORE & AFTER PHOTOS:
With me working on the coach itself on Saturdays and Adam busy working on the body on Sundays progress should start to increase. Hopefully we should see some red oxide on the chassis once the body is protected.
PROGRESS UPDATE 31/12/16
Been cracking on with the boarding recently and painting bits up in the aim of protecting the wooden bodyand what we have left. Parts have been removed and safely stored away and everything is heading in the direction of being more watertight. Work is progressing in the shed on the new body too. Photo below shows the coach as of New Years Eve 2016.