Toplight Coach Group at the Swindon and Cricklade Steam Railway

GWR 7545 Toplight Coach Group News

News 14th October 2003

The first piece of news is that the website has now been set up. Many thanks to Mark Armstrong for his help doing this.

We have recently had two new volunteers join the group. They are Ken Habgood and John Stark.
Ken worked on carriage building at Swindon works from the 1950s until the works closed in 1986. He was also one of the group that restored autocoach no 178 at the Swindon and Cricklade and his workmanship, experience and craftman skills are first class.
John is trained as a Carpenter and is coming back to work at the Swindon and Cricklade Steam Railway after being a volunteer restoring Cheltenham Racecourse station on the Glouc Warwicks steam line.

Just moved In We have been stripping off what remains of the outer body panelling. This is a mixture of materials. It includes some sections made up of the original mahogany panels.(approx 10mm thick). Later when being overhauled in Swindon some sections were replaced with steel panels screwed to the body framework. Thin wooden spacer strips were pinned between the frames and the steel panels so that the steel panelling was the same thickness as the original wooden panelling. Finally some sections have been "bodged" presumably when the coach was in departmental use and covered with hardboard, plywood or even roofing felt which has been crudely nailed on. Many of the screws have rusted and it takes a lot of effort to remove them

State of the end The body framework is made using teak and oak. These types of wood were cheap and readily available in 1907 (when the coach was built) but today are very expensive. Some sections are in excellent condition, some in very poor rotten condition which will need to be replaced. The main sections that have rotted are in places were water would have collected, e.g. under the windows etc. Some sections will be easy to replace because they are straight pieces of wood whereas other sections will be more difficult. For example the corner posts are curved in two directions and will be difficult to cut out (see photo)

Some of the outer doors are in very poor condition and the droplights (these are the windows in each door that drop down) need to be replaced. Luckily we have at least 2 spare doors that were obtained from another toplight coach before it was scrapped in approx 1980

rusted gussets At the bottom of each vertical post there are steel corner gussets. These have rotted away completely and will need to be cut out and replaced. (See photo)

At the moment James is looking at the possibility of setting up a trust so that grant funding and gift aid (claiming the tax back on donations) can be applied for.

Nick is getting material together for a possible lottery application to assist funding the project

Finally we are making enquires regarding the possibility of obtaining another historic Great Western coach as the Toplight coach group expands.

Fancy getting involved? Much of the work is easy such as sanding and varnishing. Then contact us


	GWR 7545 Toplight Coach Group News News 14th October 2003 The first piece of news is that the website has now been set up. Many thanks to Mark Armstrong for his help doing this. We have recently had two new volunteers join the group. They are Ken Habgood and John Stark. Ken worked on carriage building at Swindon works from the 1950s until the works closed in 1986. He was also one of the group that restored autocoach no 178 at the Swindon and Cricklade and his workmanship, experience and craftman skills are first class. John is trained as a Carpenter and is coming back to work at the Swindon and Cricklade Steam Railway after being a volunteer restoring Cheltenham Racecourse station on the Glouc Warwicks steam line. We have been stripping off what remains of the outer body panelling. This is a mixture of materials. It includes some sections made up of the original mahogany panels.(approx 10mm thick). Later when being overhauled in Swindon some sections were replaced with steel panels screwed to the body framework. Thin wooden spacer strips were pinned between the frames and the steel panels so that the steel panelling was the same thickness as the original wooden panelling. Finally some sections have been "bodged" presumably when the coach was in departmental use and covered with hardboard, plywood or even roofing felt which has been crudely nailed on. Many of the screws have rusted and it takes a lot of effort to remove them The body framework is made using teak and oak. These types of wood were cheap and readily available in 1907 (when the coach was built) but today are very expensive. Some sections are in excellent condition, some in very poor rotten condition which will need to be replaced. The main sections that have rotted are in places were water would have collected, e.g. under the windows etc. Some sections will be easy to replace because they are straight pieces of wood whereas other sections will be more difficult. For example the corner posts are curved in two directions and will be difficult to cut out (see photo) Some of the outer doors are in very poor condition and the droplights (these are the windows in each door that drop down) need to be replaced. Luckily we have at least 2 spare doors that were obtained from another toplight coach before it was scrapped in approx 1980 At the bottom of each vertical post there are steel corner gussets. These have rotted away completely and will need to be cut out and replaced. (See photo) At the moment James is looking at the possibility of setting up a trust so that grant funding and gift aid (claiming the tax back on donations) can be applied for. Nick is getting material together for a possible lottery application to assist funding the project Finally we are making enquires regarding the possibility of obtaining another historic Great Western coach as the Toplight coach group expands. Fancy getting involved? Much of the work is easy such as sanding and varnishing. Then contact us