This blog aims to follow the restoration of SRJ No. 16, later SJ No.33, by the Roslagsbanans Veterantågsforeningen in Stockholm, as well as our ongoing maintenance of a vintage train on the Roslagsbanan. This is a personal view of our activities, the official site of our group (in Swedish) is linked above.
Please note: all pictures on this blog are taken by me unless otherwise stated, and are copyright. If you wish to use them elsewhere, please contact me.
I have finally admitted that it is time to stop fettling the paintwork in A-end saloon, clean up, let the flooring guys put down the lino and move on to finishing B-end saloon.
Up on the roof. With the guttering complete, Micke is adding the final coat of roof paint. He seems to be getting plenty of advice ... Actually he is also getting plenty of help from Bengt and Lasse!
These are the original style of headlight bulb with a distinctive long neck. They are no longer available and we currently only have 1 spare. This particular one is a little past it ...
Soren has therefore been modifying a spare headlamp to take shorter necked bulbs of which we have a few, and which are still available. The knob and butterfly nut at the top are for adjusting the focus of the lamp.
Job done with short necked bulb in place.
We had a local journalist plus photographer visiting this evening, so Micke took them for a quick run up and down our siding in No.37. This left an unusually clear view of No.35 in the railcar shed.
And here is No.37 creeping back in after her run up the siding.
Lasse and Bengt have been refitting the gutters to the roof of No.33
These are oak and are a mix of cleaned up originals and new profiles screwed and sealed in.
The water is taken clear of the sides and corners by these small copper drains that Micke cleaned up.
Meanwhile, inside, the other Lasse has continued to lay the new hardboard sheets on the floor. He has now reached the drivers position in B-end cab, the awkward bit around all the brake pipes and the control box.
We had 3 visitors this week and Micke gave them the tour. This included a trundle up and down our siding, with No. 37 doing the honors this time
Elsewhere, painting the interior and general fettling and cleaning of the running set is ongoing.
We found two almost identical holes beneath the end doors on 33 that led into the gap between the double floor. We are not sure of they were meant to be there, but we certainly didn't want them ...
... so we plugged them.
Inside, the floor of B-end cab shows why. The lighter groove behind the door strip is where Bengt has dug out the rotten oak. He then made a couple of inserts (one can be seen to the right of the door) that were then glued and screwed into place.
Then he laid new floorboards leaving this area ready for new hardboard and lino.
Over on the operating set, Soren was replacing a radiator on No.37. I presume one of the drivers compained it was not working during the pre-Christmas specials ... Still, 78 years from a heater is not bad going!
No. 35 is going out on a charter this Sunday and the request was for tables. So Micke set up the tables and gave the interior a good clean. Elsewhere I continued painting the ceiling of No.33 while Henrik was painting the luggage racks.
Yep, winter is finally here! With most people however back from Christmas and New Year celebrations / holidays, it was business as usual with us at Stockholms Östra.
It was however nice and warm in our shed. The flooring guys had got as far as B-end cab, but when they lifted the old flooring they found the boards underneath in pretty poor condition in the centre, so the decision was made to replace them. You can see how the floor is constructed here, with a double skin of boards filled with what looks like it was sawdust as insulation in between.
Soren was busy renovating these battery racks. I think these hold the cells for the emergency lighting
Micke was cleaning up and straightening out some brackets, there must have been about 50 years worth of paint, varnish and crud on this one!
Someone even managed to get ahold of my camera and catch me doing some work! Final coat of gloss going on the A-end saloon ceiling.
This evening we cleaned and decorated the operating set for our traditional pre-Christmas Luciatåg. Micke starting up No.37. The pantographs are pneumatic, so once the compressed air has leaked off, we need to hold them against the overhead line until the compressor recharges the system.
We then proceeded to decorate,
stars in the from windows of each railcar.
Tinsel and other decorations inside.
We have had a few electrical issues with No.35. Here the electric team are checking the schematics.
Work continues on No.33. More painting inside and down below. The recovering of the floor in new hardboard is almost complete.
Back from my travels and back in our workshop for the first time in 3 weeks. Business as usual and progress on all fronts.
Lasse and Bengt were busy on the last bit of stripping back the many layers of flooring in the main saloons and re-skinning with new hardboard. Micke is pointing out where they missed a bit ...
The handbrake mechanism at B-end is now all painted up and re-installed. The other Lasse continues to chip and repaint the underframe improving its appearance dramatically.
I have now spliced in the second part of the replacement trim between the wall and the ceiling in B-end saloon ...
... and begun to paint it up.
An odd problem has occurred on the east wall (only) of the passenger saloon. These odd paint "growths" have appeared along the joins in the tongue and groove. I suspect that what happened was as follows. Shortly after I painted this wall we replaced the teak paneling on the outside of this side (only) with new. As we attached each panel, we treated the inside with linseed oil and turpentine to help preserve it. I suspect, as the turps evaporated off, some of the fumes escaped through the joins into the passenger saloon and re-mobilised one of the still-soft paint into these odd carbuncles. No problem to deal with, just a couple of careful swipes with a razor blade and problem solved!
It was good to see the Roslagsbana running all the way into Östra again after the recent major works on the station track layout.
Sorry for the lack of updates, this does not reflect a lack of progress, just many things going on (mainly good!). Progress continues at Stockholm Östra every Tuesday evening. Our teak carriage, 880, lives outside and, particularly the west side, takes the brunt of the weather. Plans for covered accommodation are well advanced, but until they come to fruition, we do our best to preserve what is there.
As soon as it is undercover, it will be scraped back and re-varnished properly. Until then we feed the side with a mix of linseed oil and turpentine before every winter. Somewhat conversely, this has the effect of making the carriage look worse, as it forces all the black rotted wood out from between the grain of the good wood onto the surface, but beneath, it keeps the rest of the wood good until the day we can address it properly
Nights are drawing in, by the time we were finished, it was almost dark.
Over in our restoration shed, work continues with 33. New trim between the walls and the ceiling is being rebated to take the strips that cover ceiling joins, then attached.
I have finally got the last bit of ceiling trim in place, the long one between the partition and the ceiling, white in the above photo. This one fought be all the way ...
Finally, everything in place and all nail and screw holes filled with filler.
Bengt and Lasse have finished recovering the floor in A-saloon with new hardboard and have started stripping back B-saloon to bare floorboards before doing the same there. Elsewhere the other Lasse continues to chip and paint the underframe, Soren and Daniel were working on our passanger-rated goods/brakevan, and Micke was running around doing several things. There was othre activity going on, but I didn't get a chance to run around and check up on everyone so I'm not completely sure what was going on!
And those other distractions? One of them was Constantia, the 108 year old schooner I am involved with. The first weekend in October is the annual Saltkråken Race in which many of the Stockholm area traditional sailing ships take part.
This year we had 9 ships averaging 88 years in age. We also had virtually no wind, so it was a pretty slow race! Here you can see 3 ships that all started their lives as North Sea Fishing ships just before WW1, but from different countries. Shamrock (left) was built in Holland while Sunbeam (centre) is a Lowestoft Trawler from England and Ariel (left) was built in Norway. After the fishing industry went over entirely to steam in the 1930s, all three came to Sweden and continued to work as fishing or small cargo vessels long enough to be preserved. All three have had their sailing rig restored to near original condition although have all gained various deck-houses and have had the holds converted for accommodation.
If anyone is interested, there is an album of photographs from the weekend here:
