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Canterbury Railway Society Inc News D 26 Restoration Progress Update 26/1/2002 This unique piece of Railway art is progressing back to its former builders design and construction. The removal of old crusty paint by burning off by electric heat gun and scraping the framing studs, mouldings, panels and partitions has exposed the materials used in building this vehicle and the timber used is predominantly teak. Teak is a very valuable timber of today, grown mainly in South East Asian swamps. A very hardwearing timber, slightly oily, it is resistant to decay and borer bugs etc which is obvious to the age of this vehicle. Teak is available and obtainable today but is very expensive i.e. $3500 - 4000 per cubic metre. The removal of the rest of the old T&G roofing, the roof arches, the side roof cover retaining battens and the window pelmets completed the dismantling of this vehicle. A thorough cleaning inside and outside of this carriage has now much improved our working conditions as we begin the reassembly process. Thus so far we have accomplished the fitting of new platform battens both ends and these have been temporarily covered with old plywood to protect them from work related damage. The vehicle ends framing examined, repaired where necessary and all secured in place. 12 mm plywood panels fitted onto end framing and secured by using modern year 2000 technology. No nails or glue. 18 mm plywood panels fitted to the sides of this vehicle as per NZR drawing for composite carriages, and beech wooden half round moulding to cover all exposed joins. All exterior woodwork had paint, primer and undercoat applied. Exterior window stops removed, sorted, refurbished and screwed back in situ, some 25% were renewed with heart rimu timber (recycled). All window frames were sized to fit their individual openings, numbered, brass fittings attached and their frames were varnished. Same process for the window louvre shutters. Numbering done as per NZR practice, No.1 beginning Handbrake side and end. On removal of the outside window pelmets which cover the air vents, it was found that these vents were in disrepair from water damage and age. The vent packings were renewed with Malaysian hardwood and recycled heart rimu, priming and undercoat applied. The very ornately shaped mouldings above the window pelmets were carefully removed for refurbishing and repair. These will be replaced after the PVC roof cover is on. The side and end roof cover plinths were renewed with recycled Kauri timber and secured in place with screws. The roof arches were removed and repaired; it was found that the first class end were teak and the second class end were NZ kauri. Why? Any guesses? The arches have now been installed and a coat of varnish applied. They now await the beech t&g roofing timbers. The top side rails were found to be in sound and good condition and the outside end arch rails have been removed for refurbishing. We now have two new roof colza oil lamp ventilators of which the manufacture was made possible by Dene Woermann, we appreciate your help on this part of the project. About two months ago, a representative of Coopers DIY Restoration Systems called by as he had heard of our work on restoration of "old things". His visit and demo of his firms products for the ease in the removal of old paint / varnish had us very interested. On approval of the committee we were able to go ahead and purchase this time saving product. Also included in the cost was a 2 hour period of instruction on the correct safety procedure and economical use of this product. There is still a considerable amount of work to be done on D 26, but as each work day passes, this carriage becomes more like what it originally was, a people carrying vehicle. Kb 969 |
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