Taff Vale Coach No. 73

Seen in this month's Heritage Railway back at the Swindon and Cricklade looking very complete after rebuild at Appleby Skills Centre....anyone got any pictures?

 

Hi Matt
Was this just the body? Last I heard it was sat on a GWR Fruit D u/f no 3462. Not sure if the intention was to join these two or use something else?
Steve

 

Can't make out what the underframe is from the photo, but the body is secured on an underframe, which according to the article has been altered at Appleby

 

Cheers Matt
Probably is the Fruit D 3462 then as this did go to Appleby. They do have another as yet unasigned Fruit D u/f 3448. Hopefully they may use this for the NLR body recently saved from a bungalow.
Steve

 

I have to applaud the unsung heroes restoring old coaches....been there myself and its a labour of love with virtually no support..well done lads.

 

Yes, in most cases the transformation from run down body is nothing short of incredible!
I still haven't seen the TVR yet. Was hoping the S&CR website might have something but I can't find any reference to it at all!
Steve

 

This is my first post so here goes ! Yes the underframe for this TVR coach is from a GWR fruit D. The top of the fruit D was in very poor condition with missing roof boards and a floor that you could fall through ! The body was cut off at the Swindon and Cricklade with an Oxy Acetylene torch and the the chassis sent up to Appleby. They then shortened it by cutting the sole bar in two seperate places and chopping two sections out. They have made a very good job of this. Although we will probably modify or even replace the new footboards which they made.

The body of Taff Vale Railway 73 has sat at the Swindon and Cricklade for over 20 years, it was in good condition and was used as a small meeting/training area. It was restored at Appleby after Nick Bailey secured a grant for it to be restored and a further seperate grant for the chassis. Some of the preparatory work was done at the SCR beforehand such as stripping paint, getting parts made etc.
The working which remains to be done is mainly the seats. New seat bases will need to be made and then upolstered. We also plan to do some "rectification" work on the body. We are not to happy with some of the new body mouldings and the doors will also need some adjustment.
The TVR coach is owned by the SCR themselves, but the members working on it are also currently restoring GWR Toplight 7545 (we are doing this job entirely ourselves), but we didn't have enough time to restore the TVR coach ourselves as well. Both coaches can be viewed by visitors to the railway in the Hayes Knoll shed, so if you are interested then come and take a look.

We are also always after new volunteers to help us so come and introduce yourself if you fancy getting involved. Literally just a few extra skilled people can make a job come along so much faster.

 

Hi Imported Toplight, and thanks for the information. As owners of 2 TVR coach bodies we (Gwili VCG) are interested in the conversion of the Fruit D underframe , we may well do something similar.

re Upholstery we came up with the idea of using foam in a zipped cover for the seat bottoms. Although not like the full upholstery it is a lot cheaper and does the job just as well. We plan to do the seat backs in a similar style, with shaped foam against a ply back. Obviously you have first class to do as well!

Did you manage to get any original TVR fittings, such as grab handles made and produced. Again we had to shortcut on our operational TVR coach with MK1 grab handles, not ideal but until somebody produces a pattern we have little choice.

Doors are a tricky job too. Inevitably they warp and become distorted and much adjustment is required to get some to fit, I presume most are original?

Anyway best of luck with the TVR coach, look forward to seeing it in action.

 

I changed my id to toplight. The doors are all original to the coach apart from one. When it was a house one door was replaced with a normal house door, so during the restoration an original TVR door obtained as a spare was re-fitted in place of the house door. At the moment this needs modification as it doesn’t fit very well.

To fit the doors properly (on a wooden bodied coach) you need to plug all the holes in the body and door for the hinges and the re drill them. Initially we just put one screw in each part of the hinge and then adjust them until we are happy the door closes. You can move the hinge in or out to adjust how the door closes or even bend the hinge itself very slightly to move the door left or right (looking directly at the front face). When we refitted all the doors on the toplight, non of them initially had a skin at this point. The skin is fitted after you have hung the door.

When the hanging is finished. You need to go all over the front face of the door with an angle grinder and fibre sanding disc to get the front profile exactly the same as the body of the coach. We repanelled the whole body (of the toplight) in 9mm marine ply so you use a small piece of this same ply and hold it against the front face of the door in each place so you know when you put the panel on it will be flush all round with the panels on the body itself. If the door frame is under profile it can be built up with thin strips of hardwood say a few millimetres thick which are attached on using contact adhesive (on both the strip and door) and can then be sanded down to the correct profile (again using the angles grinder with fibre disc).

It’s important also to keep putting a steel rule against the front face of the door frame to ensure there are no bulges and it’s all parallel. When this is complete we painted the frame with screw fix red oxide primer.
When you then put the door skin on you then know then that it will be flush all round with the rest of the body. You can knock the pins out of the hinges and then skin the door on the door trestles (but only after you have done all of the above)


For handles on the TVR coach. The locks themselves are the originals which were still within the door frame, but the original handle part had been sawn off (when it was a house), so one of our volunteers made a new pattern and we had some cast in brass (which are now on the coach). We got some square section steel bar and then this was inserted into the handle at the time of casting so the molten brass moulded round the steel bar and this then became the handle shank. One of our volunteers polished the handles at home.

We have done the same and used Mark 1 handles for the grab handles, (these should be called commode handles). Although these will be polished eventually. The hole spacing seems the same.

For the upholstery, we haven’t done it yet and I have no experience so no ideas. The Swindon and Cricklade has a member who was a coach upholsterer at Swindon works so he has offered to help/advise. Basically the options are to use traditional methods with springs etc or use foam rubber.