Railbus Wins Railcar of the Year Award

Swedish Y7 Railbus No. 1212 has successfully won The Railcar Association’s first annual Railcar of the Year Award.

Secured by a public vote during December, no. 1212 saw off stiff competition from other British Railcars and DMUs. With a short list of five vehicles in the public vote, it was a two horse race between 1212 and another vehicle for most of the voting period. The award was secured by a late flurry of 85 votes from Sweden on New Year’s Eve, the closing date!

Our thanks go to everyone who voted for us.

1212 is currently having the final areas of restoration completed so it can be ready for the first fare paying passenger runs later this winter. Details including dates, times and fares will be posted both on the NVR and IRPS websites when they are known.

We look forward to seeing you for a ride on the award winning railbus in 2013!

For more information on the award and voting please see http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/RailcarAward2012.html

Relaunch back into traffic

After many long and tiring days, especially in the week before the launch, and having experienced a rollercoaster of emotions, Sunday October 14th and the day of the launch came around!

The launch saw three owners of the railbus, past and present, in attendance. Craig Owen, the current owner of the vehicle, Evan Green-Hughes and his wife, the owners of Tweddle Animal Farm, and Mrs Olive Gladden, whose family owned and imported the railbus to the NVR in the 1980's.

In attendance were volunteers who put many hours into the railbus, members of the NVR's management, and members of IRPS as the event coincided with our annual conference, this year at the NVR.

The morning started with an informal reception in the Cafe Extension built by IRPS Enterprise last year, followed by a presentation on the restoration.

The railbus was formally relaunched by Mrs Olive Gladden.

Following this, all guests were taken for a trip down the line in the railbus, with stops at Ferry Meadows, home of The International Night Mail Museum, and Peterborough Nene Valley, complete with a tour of Project 996.

They say a picture says a thousand words, so here is a gallery of photos from the event. 

All images in this update, unless otherwise stated are Copyright © 2012 Peter Murray (PM Images)

                                                              

June - October 2012

An incredible amount of work has gone on the railbus in the late summer and autumn. A full update with pictures will follow in due course, but as a brief summary, work has included:

• Completing the external bodywork overhaul including filling, priming, and painting
• All windows have been replaced by safety glass
• Seats have been stripped:
  • The upholstery has been given a heavy clean.
  • All the metal framework has been sanded back to bare metal and repainted.
  • All the wooden trim and each arm rest (Each pair of seats has 3, so in total there are over 70 armrests alone) have been sanded by hand and revarnished.
• Water had been getting into the heating duct on the side of the vehicle, rotting a large area of the floor, so a large area of the floor has been replaced, taking a number of weeks.
• All air tanks have been ultrasonically tested.
• All the air operated doors have been removed and overhauled.
• The whole interior has been given a very deep clean.
• A test and gauging run took place the week before the event to make sure the vehicle fitted down the line.

The final week saw a lot of midnight oil being burnt. We estimate that around 4-500 man hours were spent on the vehicle. Some 21 hour days were put in, with some midnight, and pre-dawn oil being burnt by a lot of people on a number of days before the launch.

Huge thanks and congratulations must go to everyone involved in the restoration of the vehicle. Naming names would inevitably lead to someone being missed out, so a big thank you to everyone. You know who you are!

Work does not stop here however. While we got the vehicle up to a standard for one run, there were a number of problems that we simply ran out of time to fix. Over the winter these will be sorted so that crew training and some passenger services can occur for fare paying passengers during 2013.

If you'd like to hire the railbus out for an event or a trip down the line, don't hesitate to get in touch via the normal channels!

April - May 2012

The main focus for April/May was to finish the exterior cab metalwork at both ends. Once the new plate had been ordered and cut to size, we drilled holes where the original rivets used to be and screwed the new panels in place for the time being until they could be welded.

With the two new panels now fitted, welded and the new window frames cut out, work moved to the rear end of the bus. The same procedures applied, removed the interior wall panels, strip the exterior metal, remove any rust and then paint before fitting new sheets of metal. Here is a brief display of the progress made;

From the photos above you can see that all four end panels are now in place. The white lines show where body filler was used to smooth the surface of the new plate after the weld was ground down.

To finish off, the new plate was painted in a cream undercoat for protection until the final coats of paint are applied.

Progress notes for April also include the fabrication of a new step at each end of the railbus (as seen in the photo above) and the beginnings of further work to the roof e.g. paint and rust removal.

We have also continued to remove external parts for restoration, such as the windows and vents. This will allow us to assess the damage (if any) to the window frames and allow bodywork restoration to continue without the fear of breaking a window.

With the windows removed, the sides of the railbus could now be needle gunned to remove the old paintwork. Fortunately the original metalwork is still sound and will require little interference.

And finally, many parts of the bus received a protective coat of paint or two over the last couple of weeks, these include; the side air vents, the engine housing, the exterior framework and the two removed snow ploughs.