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Wagons-Lits Sleeping Car No. 3916

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FusionRail

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As i have now started work on this carriage, I thought id post a few updates to its status in this thread!

Currently at the Nene Valley Railway, the sleeping car is a 1930's built Wagons-Lits (pronounced Wagons Lees) Sleeper coach, and is in a very poor condition, and has a small number of volunteers working on it from the International Railway Preservation Society, formally know as the Society of Historical International Transport (if you look at the initials, you'll know why it was changed :razz: ).

So far the roof is roughly 4/5 painted, with the remainder needing to be ground down to sound metal and then rust treated, primered and painted white. The body needs some quite major attention in places and the interior is almost complete, just requiring refurbishment.

There is a four-figure sum on the removal of the underfloor asbestos in this coach, which is minor compared to the five-figure on of the WL Restaurant car!!

When the sleeping and restaurant cars are completed, it is hoped to run a 5 coach dining type train with 3 unauthentically painted Belgian (SNCB) coaches in wagons-lits livery.


Work this week
included removal of the vestibule doors and carriage doors of the east-end, removing the vestibule flooring and companionway plate (the plating that falls out in between two coaches to provide a walkway) and grinding off a few bolts covered in some material we hope wasn't asbestos! Also alot of rust was removed from this area and we now know what needs to be done to this end of the coach. Weather was too wet to work on the roof today (Sunday) so thats for another time!

As always, if you feel like helping out on this project, please contact me for details.
 
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Nice to hear, although I must ask when your getting more british stock? Nothing worse than seeing a lovely constructon 31 roll round the corner, with foreign stock on. I don't mind the stock, it's nice, but it's not what I remember from when I was 6 or 7 years old :(

Dave
 

FusionRail

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Nice to hear, although I must ask when your getting more british stock? Nothing worse than seeing a lovely constructon 31 roll round the corner, with foreign stock on. I don't mind the stock, it's nice, but it's not what I remember from when I was 6 or 7 years old :(

Dave

Yep i know, its horrible. The 47 always runs with the DSB's (green continentals) and it looks bad. Theres 5 mk1's, another soon to be running, and there must be about 4-5 more completely knackered. Well, with a bit of help they could get running again, AFAIK its actually NVR policy to have two sets of mk1s.

Talk of the aging 117 getting replaced with a Wensleydale 107/108, any offers for the 117 (3-car, BR Blue, spare engine) starting at £6,000 (its scrap value) PM me please (would be nice to see it go to a new home and be looked after, than scrapped.
 

Galvanize

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Talk of the aging 117 getting replaced with a Wensleydale 107/108, any offers for the 117 (3-car, BR Blue, spare engine) starting at £6,000 (its scrap value) PM me please (would be nice to see it go to a new home and be looked after, than scrapped.

Why are they getting rid of the 117? I think it's alright!
 

FusionRail

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Nobody looks after it as far as i can see, the doors are knackered and the roof of the gaurds compartment is falling in, needs a paint job and cabs need re-doing. Basically not worth doing with the other workload they have.

Its a real shame as she is a nice unit, but rarely gets any use
 

Galvanize

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Nobody looks after it as far as i can see, the doors are knackered and the roof of the gaurds compartment is falling in, needs a paint job and cabs need re-doing. Basically not worth doing with the other workload they have.

Its a real shame as she is a nice unit, but rarely gets any use

I think it only gets used during the diesel galas, and restricted for most of the time, to Orton shuttles?

Quite different to see it in use for the whole line in March, but it was very uncomfortable because the set was wedged all the time :( Though did get the front seat behind 33053!
 

87015

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So buy it cheap, run it into the ground then just it rather spend any money on it? Nice bit of 'preservation' that...
 

FusionRail

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I think it only gets used during the diesel galas, and restricted for most of the time, to Orton shuttles?

Quite different to see it in use for the whole line in March, but it was very uncomfortable because the set was wedged all the time :( Though did get the front seat behind 33053!

It does do services the whole length of the line on certain days of the year, probably only about 6 days a year though! Its a real shame, its better than the shacked old continentals, cheaper to run and is BR, and also probably more attractive.

So buy it cheap, run it into the ground then just it rather spend any money on it? Nice bit of 'preservation' that...

Originally when it was bought, i think it was in NSE livery, and was looked after really well. It had its own pres. group but they all seem to have disappeared. I wanted to look after it to an extent and restart a group but as far as i know it has to go. Another thought i had would be to turn it into an interactive DMU, with a load of simulators and other activities in its carriages, as this would be an extra reason to keep it.

I really want someone to buy it so it can continue its life, and not be turned into a heap of scrap.
 

FusionRail

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Due to the asbestos content that myself and reece bolton have angle grinded through (i didnt realize what it was, when told it was totally safe) im now refusing to work on these coaches!

Also the Restaurant car is packed full of blue asbestos and nobody is allowed in even to remove the handbrake, and we were told by one person to go in and move furniture about, and take photos (again we were told it was perfectly safe!! [but we refused this time])
 
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