Toplight Coach Group News

By Andrew Creaser 

It’s a change at the helm for this quarter’s report. James has headed off to Moscow for a few months after leaving Motorola. The first thing he did after sorting out his Internet access there was to ask me to write the news article – from Russia with love, thanks James!

In early July, some of the group travelled to the West Somerset Railway at the invitation of David Stockwell who is heading up their Heritage Carriages restoration group. The coach we looked at was Toplight corridor third (TK) 3639, similar to our 3898, but built to the earlier Diagram C31. A TK is a very practical restoration proposition. Operationally, it’s high density makes it ideal for a tourist railway and it will be good to see one of the everyday workhorses of the Toplight design once again doing the job it was designed for. From a restoration point of view it’s uniformity suits batch production of replacement parts, both for framing and internals. Seeing it in the shed at Wiliton brought back many memories of 7545 in the early stages of it’s rebuild, a reminder of how far we have come and how much we have learned along the way, especially from the many years coach building experience that Ken and Norman have brought to the project. It was good to feel that in a small way we were able to pass some of this on. Rebuilding 3639 will be demanding, but it is very restorable and we look forward to developing further links between our groups.

Meanwhile, nearer to home, progress continues with 7545. Before James left he undertook to strip back and paint the whole under frame. This statement however does not do justice to the size of the task and the unpleasant cramped working conditions, often disappearing in Beijing style smog! With help from Nick on the painting this represents a significant step forward but one that is rarely, if ever noticed by the casual observer. Above the frames, work has continued fiddling and fettling the doors to ensure smooth operation, and preparations are now in hand for the moulding up of the compartment side of the coach. Ken and Tony have been converting rough sawn Utile boards into planed ³/₈-inch thicknesses from which the decorative mouldings are then cut. Ken has also been carefully compiling a set of patterns and will use these to machine up a stock of mouldings prior to the actual fitting. When this is completed it should enable a rapid transformation of this side of the coach back to the characteristic Edwardian splendour of the Toplight design. The corridor side will need to wait until all the door locks are in position, Brian has been working towards this by machining up the new castings on his ‘adopted’ milling machine for the missing lock bodies. For my own part, I have completed a mock up of door 1, complete with glazed droplight and lower casing boards. Although this will need to be redone eventually, it has proved to be very valuable in helping to understand how a door is finished off. I have also machined up a batch of new door casing boards from reclaimed school science benches, as well as looking at what can be salvaged and reused from the original boards. First class doors had a more ornate walnut panel casing and I have started work on resurrecting the one for door 3. Amazingly under all the paint and ‘gunk’ there is some beautiful timber. Experiments have also taken place to find a method of producing the external beads for the toplights  (the small high level windows that give this design of coach it’s name). Like the mouldings, these will be made from utile and I have produced a simple jig that should allow the C shaped end beadings to be produced by hand router. It is this problem solving aspect that I find very absorbing, it would be so much easier if you could just collect the bits from the stores, Swindon works style, but nowhere near so much fun (I think that’s the right word!)

Over at Faringdon Community College we commandeered the new CAD /CAM machines to produce some bushes from phosphor bronze for the compartment steam heat control valve assemblies that Mike is currently overhauling. He has also fitted new operating arms to these, so when riding in the Toplight, you should be able to get the temperature just how you like it! Mike has also been busy on the corridor connections, overhauling the framework and producing new tread plates, pivots and pins.  The commode handles have been polished and two new grilles have been made for the luggage door windows. Mike has been assessing the growing collection of renovated brake gear and underframe components with a view to possible reassembly on the coach. Dave Titcombe has overhauled one of the vacuum cylinders and will do the other one. The dynamo has been dropped down but will have to be sent away for overhaul.

Well that’s about it for now. As always we welcome any extra willing hands or anyone with knowledge that would be willing to share their wisdom with us. Working parties take place on Wednesdays and some weekends, but it is best to contact Nick Bailey first on (01242) 604522