GWR Railcar No 20 at the Kent and East Sussex Railway.

Does anyone have any news on how the restoration of Railcar 20 is progressing at the K&ESR, more importantly are there any current or recent pictures?

 

I grant you this is last April, but due to emergency works on a Maunsell coach, the works have slowed on the Railcar framework of late. She will be viewable at our May gala as well.

http://jonedwards.photobook.org.uk/p64429161.html and the following pic show both ends. I've got more somewhere, searching for them.

 

It seems that Railcar 20 has progressed a bit further than the last picture I saw of her. I would love to be able to run 20 & 22 in multiple, as they use to run in GWR & BR days.

The dedication of the people who are working on her is great, as the body panelling alone was in a terrible state, not to mention the structural woodwork

 

at the moment the deisel guys have more than enough looking after the dmu and working on the 08, and with space being at a premuim i would be very surprised to see much being done on the railcar in the near future, which is a shame because it needs to come undercover sooner rather than later ,as with any wood bodied vehicle the elements will effect it the longer she is outside even though it is covered up .
On the Maunsel coaches one is in for repairs to the roof and the other is in for what will turn into a major overhaul the floor has had to come out because of rust to the supporting metal and needs the whole floor replacing, we recently spent a whole week taking up the original rexine floor ,and the corrigated supports not the best of jobs but it has given us the chance to have a good look at the underframe and give it a though clean up and repaint before the new flooring goes in when you think that this part of the coach would have not been looked at for many years, its just as well to assess the condition of the structure whilst we can get at it and be able to carry out any repairs as necessary

 

Martin, forgive me for being pedantic, but.... two Maunsells in? There was only one in the shed yesterday. That was the one that was stopped with a badly leaking roof, that has since had it's floor stripped out. The other coach in being worked on is the refit on Petros, the Disabled coach. I know TREATS have got the 108 to maintain, the 08 to overhaul and now the 14 to fix, but the main guy doing work on the engines on the Railcar, as I understood it, was Roy, who isn't involved with them. In reality, it may be another year before the Railcar comes back in, or it may be a month. That all depends on commercial pressures, I suspect. It was great to see it in the shed, though, and see how much progress had been made.

 

So what's bust on the 14?

 

the Maunsel coach off the pulman set was in earlier in the week for roof repairs ,making 2 and yes the other coach in is the MK1 Pedros and like you say, with the 14 to do, the rail car will fall back even further now ,
once these two coaches are returned to traffic then i guess that a decision will be made to see what comes in next but given the commercial need for extra coaches i would imagine that it would be another mk1

 

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The Razor Edge cars which were numbers 19-33 & the Parcels car No 34 were designed to run in multiple and did quite often run as a twin set The last 4 Razor Edge cars numbers 35-38 were built as twin units with a coach in between if required. All the railcars up to & including Number 18 were not capable of operating in multiple

 

Martin, read Fireline's post again. He quite clearly states that TREATS have nothing to do with the railcar and he is correct. It matters not what problems they are having with the Class 03, 08, 14, 108, or TRAMM - the railcar project isn't affected.

 

it will be if there isnt any room in the shed yet , which was the point i was making, and in the 4 months or so that i have been working in C&W i have not actually seen anyone working on the rail car, its stuck outside covered with a tarp and when you think that its woodern framing is open to damp and unprotected from the elements ,it cant be doing it a lot of good its a pity because i believe that the bogies and running gear have been done and engines ran up

 

I visited No 20 to gain some information as I am building a 5" gauge of No 1 The chassis is now complete and running .See Model Engineer Feb 2011 vol 206. This model is as near to the real railcar in all details, including drum brakes with removable back plates for servicing. The body construction will commence shortly. Denis J.R.

 

The chasis & mechanics on Number 20 are totaly different from Number 1. You would need to take a close look at Number 4 as that is the nearest match to Number 1