Bluebell Railway SR Coach Group

21/05/2026

The SRCG’s web pages have recently been updated to reflect what’s been going on over the last few months (https://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/sr-coach-group/ ). We’ve also released our Issue 5 of our Newsletter (linked via the website), which was sent to SRCG members in March, for general viewing. As well as our latest news and updates on the work of the group, the newsletter contains the first part of a historical survey of Southern Railway catering vehicles. If you enjoy reading the newsletter, please consider subscribing to support our work. For only £15 per year, you’ll receive the newsletters when they are first released and be invited to an annual event at Horsted Keynes.

14/05/2026

SRCG update: Work on the underframe for the Maunsell Restaurant Car 7864 is making progress. The east side truss rod has now been disconnected from the two queen posts as well as the solebar and is lying on the ground. The queen posts now need straightening at the bottom while the rod itself needs to be built up with weld on its upper surface where it connects to the queen posts. Up on the solebar, the exposed surface at the southeast corner is being painted up before the new stiffening plates are put back on. While the truss rod is disconnected, the slight hump in the underframe that it should be holding in place is being retained by jacks under the centre of the solebar. Meanwhile, the refurb of bogie parts is progressing: we are now well on the way with cleaning and painting the second bogie’s components. A new set of bushes and pins has just arrived so we can push on and re-bush all those components too.
Most of the person hours over the past two weeks have gone into 971. On the east side, the northern corner of the bottom side has been repaired and the south-east corner repair is in progress. We’ve now moved on to repairing the splits in the west bottom side; about 20% has been done so far. A start has been made on re-fitting the knees on the east side. A big step forward was completing the plugging of the east side body frame; effort has now moved on to doing the same on the ends while others have been removing broken screws from the west side ready for plugging. We also finished the scrape-back and clean-up of the west side window mouldings and the first two have been primed; we want to get a coat of paint on the exposed wood before it picks up dirt and grease. Inside the coach, the vertical surface paintwork in a second compartment (J) has been scraped back/sanded and primed and the preparation for painting in compartment G is also nearly done. Yesterday the ceilings in H & J were rubbed down ready for painting too. All 40 of the brackets that brace the partition cross members to the bottom sides have been brushed off and treated with ant-rust. The first set of new floor sections (2 layers for 2 compartments) have been laid in to some of the compartments so we can work off them; the second batch were cut to size yesterday and painting has started.

30/04/2026

SRCG update: the past two weeks have seen mostly incremental progress on our three current projects. However yesterday produced the ideal photo op to headline this post: Paul Giles glued and clamped up the two new sliding doors he’s been making for the Restaurant Car. These are made largely from reclaimed mahogany, hence the holes here and there that still need patching. The doors are for crew access to the kitchen and pantry from the central vestibule. The shaped timbers to form the new tank cover on the roof have been finished and painted up; they are now back in store. Outside in E road, Steven has got the second piece of replacement strengthening plate drilled and bolted up to the solebar of the underframe while the Tuesday/Thursday gang have made great inroads into cleaning up and painting the brake and suspension parts from the second bogie.
Most of our effort has gone into the ‘hundred seater’, 971. The last of the ten corrugated iron floors was removed last week, and the timber floor frames in five of the compartments have now been cleaned and plugged ready to receive a new floor. Repairs to splits in the bottom side have gone very well, daily progress being limited largely by the number of sash cramps we have. By the end of yesterday, Robert had done all of the east side except for the two corners. Meanwhile, on the west side, 16 of the 20 seat supports and internal steel panels are now out, ready for the same bottom side repairs to be done there. Martin was over on a flying (literally) visit from Australia and put in a shift with Nigel getting more of these out for us: the perfect cure for jet lag. Sixteen of the twenty side light external frames on the west side have been sanded back. As pictured last time, the first two to be done were taken back carefully to the wood to see if it might be possible to varnish them. However, there was enough paint left in the grain to mean that’s not possible, so they will be scumbled again. On the plus side, that means we haven’t needed to clean the rest back as rigorously as the first few were.
Once the bottom side repairs are done, the knees (steel brackets) that brace the joints between bottom side and body pillars, can be put back. Most of these will need to be new (on order) but some of the originals are in good enough condition to re-use and these are being cleaned and painted. After that, the steel sheeting will need to go back. In preparation for that, all of the screw holes need to be plugged. So far just under half of the east side has been done – that’s about 800 holes so far! Compartment H is being progressed ahead of the others, to serve as an encouragement to get the rest done! The painted wood in it has been scraped back and primed.
2526 remains in the paintshop. Work to replace bodyside screws and to fill over them is mostly done; a couple of repairs to the cantrail are needed before the painting can begin in earnest.

16/04/2026

Time for an update on what’s been happening on our three current projects:
Restaurant Car 7864: More progress has been made on repairing the underframe. The piece of the north east strengthening plate needing to be removed has now come off and areas of the east side solebar at both ends that have been exposed by removal of strengthening plate have been needle-gunned to remove any scale. The first piece of new steel has been cut and drilled, and is now bolted up in position. In due course, the joint with the original plate will be welded up and the bolts replaced with rivets. The Tuesday/Thursday gang have made great progress with the north end bogie parts, all of which except the swing links and associated bits are now in topcoat. The brake gear parts among these now need to be re-bushed. Back in the works, parts for a new timber tank cover frame are being machined up.
Brake Third 2526: Both cantrail strips are now off and lots of remedial work on the bodysides has been done. As part of this, hundreds of corroding plain steel screws have been replaced with stainless steel ones and many have already been filled over again. Many cracks in the roof paint have been treated and the roof fittings are being rebedded, all in preparation for the roof to be painted. We are contributing to this work along with the railway’s paintshop team.
‘100 seater’ 971: The corrugated iron floors from nine of the ten compartments have now been removed as scrap; seven of the ten have had all the varnished mouldings and luggage racks removed. The painted interior partitioning in the first two compartments to be tackled (H & J) is being scraped back ready for painting/scumbling. New plywood floor panels for two compartments are now in topcoat. Yesterday we started the process of scraping back the exterior side light frames – two done, only 38 to go!
One of the reasons the overhaul of 971 was deferred after it was started in 2007 was that it was found to need some repairs to the bottom side timbers; the damage is mostly longitudinal splits adjacent to the door pillars where corroding vertical steel bolts that fix the ‘knees’ (right-angle steel brackets bolted through both the bottom side and adjacent body pillar to brace the structure) have expanded in the timber. To be able to repair these, you need to be able to clamp across the bottom side timber, which means removing the internal steel panels that are screwed to the frame below each bench seat either side of the doorway. Removing these requires you first remove the seat supports that are fixed over the top edge of the panels, which are each held by four 3” steel screws. So far, 23 of the 40 supports and panels have been removed, and five repairs to the east bottom side have been made. Hopefully the accompanying pictures make this process a bit clearer.

02/04/2026

The SRCG team is moving ahead with three projects at the moment. Here’s an update on recent progress:
Restaurant Car 7864: The rivets holding all of the areas of strengthening plate needing to be replaced have now been drilled through, 90 in total, and yesterday Steven removed a second segment of that plate from the southeast solebar. There was a bit of scale behind this one, so good to get it cleaned out as part of the replacement process. The replacement plate has arrived from the supplier. Good progress continues to be made with the south bogie. The Tuesday volunteers have now completely stripped down the secondary suspension, meaning this bogie frame is ready to lift off the wheels for gritblasting when space/time is available. They’ve also made a lot of progress with cleaning up the parts and getting them painted. Work on manufacturing new timber roof hoop sections has been going on for a while now; yesterday the last pieces for the saloon were finished and many of those needed for the northern half have already been made too. Elsewhere Paul has been working on the two new interior sliding doors and every so often, we get a tantalising glimpse of what they will look like when he does a trial assembly.
Brake Third 2526: The interior work to the saloon and corridor is finished, and work on the compartments is progressing. The coach is now in the paintshop where, over the course of the past few days, all of the popped filler from over the bodyside screws has been removed. The process involves not just digging out the filler but also extracting the screws and treating any rust behind them. A major reason for bringing this coach in for work was to fix some leaks around fittings on the roof. So far, the west side cantrail strip has been taken off and will be replaced with new. Other roof fittings will be rebedded as necessary and more coats of paint applied.
‘100 seater’ 971: The corrugated iron floors from four compartments are now out of the vehicle and the new plywood sheets for one floor have been cut to size and painted up to second undercoat on all faces. Each floor will need two layers of ¾” ply, each layer comprising one full width (4’) board and a half board. The interior strip-out has continued, with most of the mouldings from two further compartments now removed (making six in total); scraping off of old varnish and revarnishing of all these parts is progressing steadily.

10/03/2026

Away from all the excitement of our previous project (3687) winning the HRA Rolling Stock award on Saturday, we’ve been pushing on with our current projects. Here’s a quick update on progress:
Restaurant Car 7864: Work started last week on the necessary steelwork repairs to the underframe. So far, a lot of rivets have been burned off, some have been driven out and the first section of suspect strengthening plate taken off. The face of the solebar that was revealed was in very good condition, which is encouraging. Nonetheless, it will take a little while to get through all the tasks and have the underframe back together again. Elsewhere, the strip-down of the primary suspension on the north bogie has been finished; the top bolster plank has also been taken out. Many of the brake and suspension parts removed from this bogie have already been cleaned, gritblasted and painting them up has begun.
971: The contractors have been and gone. One of the tasks they undertook was to remove the decolite flooring. This made obvious the poor state of the corrugated iron sheets that had supported it. We knew this already from peering underneath the coach, but seeing a gaping hole where people should be stepping makes it clear that replacing the floor was a wise decision! The iron sheet has been removed from one compartment so far. The mouldings from a fourth compartment have been removed, and stripping & revarnishing of these parts is continuing off the coach. Meanwhile Scooty has been making the empty compartments in 971 his new playground.
2526: Work on refurbishing the saloon is just about done and attention has moved on to the corridor and compartments.

09/03/2026

https://www.bluebell-railway.com/award-winner-maunsell-hastings-carriage-no-3687/

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07/03/2026

Our Hastings Brake Third restoration has just won the HRA award!!!

01/03/2026

About time we had another photo of Scooty assisting one of our projects... here he's testing one of the new bottom-end timber for the Maunsell Restaurant Car.

22/02/2026

The latest from the SRCG includes news of two significant moves in the carriage works. Firstly, the underframe from restaurant car No 7864 was moved back into the maintenance road on Friday (thanks to Stuart and his team), ready for work to start on necessary repairs to the steelwork. No pictures of it this time as it looks just the same as it did when it last featured here in late October, but that should change soon! Secondly, 100-seater No 971, long-time resident of B road in the old shed storage area, was brought into the A-road dock area in the works where it replaced the two tankers (check out the Bluebell Railway Goods Division page for news on these wagons). Once contractors have done some work on it next week, there will be a collective effort to progress its overhaul.
The past three weeks have seen us making further progress with both 7864 and 971, as well as Bulleid Brake Third No 2526. On 2526, Tim and the Bulleid team (Richard, Peter, Jonathan, Andy) plus David and new David (welcome to the team!) have now stripped, revarnished and refitted about 75% of the window mouldings; the remaining ones are out and moving through the process, as are the ones from the corridor. They’ve also been removing and repolishing the chrome kick plates. On 971, Paul and Julian have stripped the last of the varnished pieces from the two compartments we have access to and Tony has been varnishing them up.
On 7864, Steve has been repairing a few defects in the timber we’ve used to make the new bottom sides, to make sure they are as durable as possible once installed, while Alex has been finishing up the repair of some floor timbers and Roy has been continuing his labours on repairing the doors. Joinery Paul also reached the exciting point of first assembly of one of the two new sliding doors he has been making for the pantry and kitchen.
The most visible progress has been with the bogies. On the south bogie, following on from removing and cleaning up the brake rigging from it, Mark and Nigel managed to undo the nuts on the eye bolts that hold the ends of the leaf springs in tension on the bogie frame, separate them from the damper pots and lift off the springs. This was not straightforward as the rubber in some of the damper rings had degraded and welded itself to the eye bolt shafts. The north bogie then replaced the south one in E road so it could get the same treatment. On Tuesday, Derrick, Mo and Doug helped us out by taking half of the brake gear off. Yesterday, Keith and Nigel removed the rest of it and also got all the eye bolt nuts and some of the damper pots free, ready to take of the springs.
We are now 2 years, almost to the day, since we began the project to restore 7864 and an amazing amount has been done in that time. We now have 'an IKEA coach', a kit of parts ready to reassemble. Do get in touch if you want to help us in that effort.
Apologies that this update doesn’t have that many pictures. The various bits of progress have been happening all over the works and I’ve not always been in the right place at the right time!