Midland Railway Brake Van

A restoration job that has generally seemed to have occurred "under the radar" (unless you look at the Mountsorrel Heritage Centre website regularly or are a FoGCML Member) is the Midland Railway brake van that used to be at Snibston and was moved to Mountsorrel last October.

The piece below is lifted from the MARCH Newsletter from September 2017 and shows its original state, as acquired (click on the IMG tag to see the picture if it doesn't display)..........

"Not every exhibit arrives in a pristine condition!


Midland Railway Brake Van awaiting restoration.


I’m pleased to say that Snibston have kindly agreed to loan us the brake van pictured above. The running gear requires attention as the vehicle hasn’t been used for 20 years and it will ultimately need new springs. The body work isn’t too bad though! The intention is to restore and repaint the timber work as the first phase of restoration. The livery will be 1920’s Midland Railway. As a second stage it would be nice to restore the interior to original condition and replace the stove which is missing. Finally we would tackle the running gear. The duration for all three restoration phases is 2 years and the hope will be to obtain a grant to find the new parts and paint required.

Once fully restored LCC would transfer ownership of the vehicle to MARCH."

Their latest newsletter, with photos of the restored van, hasn't been put online yet, but the latest Quorn Wagon Group blog update shows it being signwritten this past weekend.....
https://quornwagonandwagon.wordpress.com/news-and-updates/

Quite a transformation in just a period of about 9 months, rather than the anticipated 2 years!

 

It's been given a fictitious number as its original number is unknown. At this point it would be worth asking, does anyone know anything at all of its past history, even how it came to be at Snibston in the first place?

NB: For absolute clarity, this restoration project is nothing to do with me, I can take no credit whatsoever!

 

You can guarantee that if any information of its identify survives, it will be discovered shortly after the paint on the fictitious number dries!

Sent from my HTC U Play using Tapatalk

 

The Brake Van does indeed now look rather splendid!

Andy

 

..... at which point, you can relax, safe in the knowledge that everything which truly matters across the entirety of every conceivable universe is precisely as it should be .... for now!