It’s been lovely reading everyone’s anecdotes and recollections and I’ve chosen just a few to share with you here. I thought I’d pick stories about Spring breaks and daytrips. Lots of people have shared with us their memories about going on holiday by rail and taking trips to the beach, including trying to be the first to spot the sea from the train!

I used to come to Scarborough as a child, just for the day at Easter. It was always Easter that we went, when you’d got your new clothes, your new sandals and your new dress. You got on at York, and everybody got on the Scarborough specials. Then, around 5 or 6 o’clock, everybody was going back. There was a long seat at the station and everybody would crowd onto that seat to wait for the train. It was packed on the train, everybody wanted to look out of the window and you got soot in your eyes from the smoke.

A few people have shared their memories of waiting on the platform seat at Scarborough, which is said to be the longest at a train station.

We frequently caught the train from Camborne to Hayle and walked a good mile and a half to the ‘three miles of golden sand’, which we would share with a few other intrepid families. The trains we caught in each direction for this very short journey of about 15 minutes were mostly long distance trains. I am afraid some of the travellers who joined the train later in its journey must have found considerable quantities of sand and occasional shells dropped from plastic buckets on the floor of their compartments!

I’ve enjoyed reading tales about the community and social life on the railways, including stories about workers’ outings. In this story, the son of a railwayman recollects a trip to the East Coast. 

Engine men tended to be members of St Clements working men’s club. Each year the club organised a children’s trip to Scarborough, always by train. I distinctly remember one year when the club treasurer, himself a driver, organised the kids to queue up alongside the cab of the Class B16 on Scarborough station while he distributed the 2/- piece spending money to each of us from the footplate. Happy days!

The outside of Scarborough station in 1958.

As well as travelling on holiday by train, some of you also remember staying in old station buildings or railway carriages.

When I was 11 we took a holiday to Akeld Station in Northumberland, which had been turned into a holiday cottage. One goods train a day still passed through. The Station Master was very friendly and allowed us to operate the signals. Oh the thrill! I can still remember it.

A signalman operating the levers in a British Railways signal box.

My loveliest memory of a railway station is of Ravenscar in 1964. We stayed in a railway carriage at the end of the platform. We went on the train every day to Scarborough, Whitby, or Bridlington. The children thought it was wonderful. The downside was that the same week we were there the papers had the news that Dr Beeching was putting an end to this beautiful line that ran all the way down the East Coast but we all have wonderful memories of a lovely holiday.

LNER poster showing the East Coast near Whitby.

All these stories and the many others that we have collected are soon going to be available for the public to read at Search Engine.

The work on Lewis Cubitt’s 1852 Grade 1 listed station built for the Great Northern Railway has transformed the way passengers see and use the station. The project, begun in 2007, has seen the construction of a new passenger concourse including an impressive new roof and improvements to passenger facilities. The final phase, due for completion in August 2013, will involve the removal of the front canopy in order to reveal Cubitt’s original station façade for the first time in 150 years. (see images of the development on the Network Rail website).

Here are a few images of the station façade from the National Railway Museum collection.

Watercolour, Arrival of Queen Victoria at King’s Cross Station, by an unknown artist, possibly Lewis Cubitt, the station’s architect, about 1852

King’s Cross Station, about 1927

Rebuilding the forecourt of London’s King’s Cross station, 26 January 1973

Kings Cross station frontage, 2007.

The awards jury described the transformation of the formerly ‘depressing’ building as ‘both welcome and essential’ calling the project ‘inspiring’. They were impressed by the reuse of areas such as the former Parcels Office (as a pub/restaurant) and reinstatement of the Booking Hall but in particular “were uplifted by the exhilarating curves of the western concourse.” (http://www.europanostra.org/awards/108/).

The European Heritage Awards are overseen by the European Union and Europa Nostra and an awards ceremony for the winners will take place in Athens on 16 June. 15 prizes have been awarded in the conservation category, also including work on Railway bridges in the Langstraat Region, from ‘s-Hertogenbosch to Lage Zwaluwe, THE NETHERLANDS. Overall 200 projects were nominated in four categories, with six to be nominated as grand prix winners at the awards ceremony, with a further public choice award. For further information about the prize and other winners see http://www.europanostra.org/laureates-2013/.

During the work we’ve been doing to cosmetically restore LNER Class A4 60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower since it was repatriated from the US, we’ve uncovered a surprise: a list of names.

In the US, Dwight’s motion was painted with several coats of aluminium paint. Our workshop team have been stripping that back down to the bare metal – and underneath the paint layers, we’ve found the names inscribed into the metal of the slide bar.

A close-up of the names discovered under the paint on A4 Dwight D Eisenhower

Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator of our rail vehicle collection, thinks that these are the names of the American team who painted Dwight in 1984, or the crew who put the motion back together after the locomotive originally landed in America in the late 1960s.

Do you know different? Let us know if you recognise any of these names – or if one of them is you.

That’s not the only surprise we’ve had while working on the A4s for our upcoming Mallard 75 events. The team at Shildon have been stripping paint on Dominion of Canada, and found this strange drawing of a dog…

… and a rabbit.

This sign is believed to be original, and in place since the late 1940s. But after so long exposed to the elements, it deteriorated to a condition where work was needed to conserve it for the future. The woodwork was becoming unstable and the paint badly faded or peeling.

Interestingly, the sign was still an orange colour (known as “Tangerine”) that was used by the North Eastern Region of British Railways after nationalisation in 1948. Although this colour scheme was eventually superseded, it seems to have survived in this state until the present day.

The sign was removed from the wall and taken to the Conservation paint studio. Here it was carefully cleaned down and fully assessed, and a plan was drawn up for the work to be done.

It was realised that we’d need to replace the entire outer frame because the original was beyond repair, and repaint the sign back to original condition. We also decided that we should trace off the original lettering so that it could be replaced exactly as it was, making it as faithful to the original as possible.

The next stage was for Barbara and Chris to gently sand down the sign in preparation for painting. This process is important as it allows the new paint to adhere properly to the surface, giving it a long lasting finish.

However – as the sign was sanded, we found that it had already been repainted once before, and that the lettering was slightly different underneath. The font was the same throughout the sign except for the number 5, which on the earlier version was more angular. But the spacing between letters was different on nearly all the words. All the new findings were photographed for future reference.

A new outer frame was constructed by Peter and Chris and attached to the sign, along with a new rear support to ensure the sign would not flex in the future. During this phase of the work the new paint was hand mixed by Stathis to ensure it was as close a match as possible to the original sign.

Once all the physical work was complete, the sign was given several coats of wood primer and undercoat before two top coats were finally applied.

The next stage was to carefully mark out the new lettering using the original tracing, before signwriting the wording back onto the sign. No masking tape was used, just a steady hand and a mahl stick (a painter’s stick with a soft end used as a support). As an experiment, the team set up a camera and filmed Andy applying the lettering: you can see the speeded-up result below. The three minute video shows 2.5 hours of work.

The sign was then allowed to fully dry before two coats of varnish were added to protect it. After a couple more days curing, the sign was finally taken outside and re-hung on the wall outside the museum, much to the satisfaction of the team.

We have recently completed the conservation of two of our ship models. It may sound unusual that the National Railway Museum collection includes maritime artefacts – but bear in mind that over the past 100 years, ferry services played a significant role in maintaining links with Continental Europe and were usually owned by railway companies.

Both objects (paddle steamers Paris – built in 1888 – and Whippingham) are on long term loan to the Bluebell Railway Museum in Sussex. Bluebell Railway comprises three preserved railway stations: Sheffield Park, Horsted Keynes and Kingscote. The museum has been recently given a full revamp and is definitely worth a visit.

In October 2009, Tony Drake, the curator of Bluebell Railway Museum, contacted us about the need for conservation treatment of the models, and improvement of the display.

We responded with a conservation plan that included the transportation of the models to Blythe House in London (one of the largest storage facilities in the country), showcase refurbishment in Bluebell’s famous wood workshop, and conservation treatments.

Without getting into the specifics, the treatments included:

• careful vacuuming of fragile rigging and deck components
• removal of stains caused from a water leak
• the painstaking reassembly of tiny planks, paddles and hooks on Whippingham’s lifeboats.
• identification of several detached parts and fitting them back in place
• removal of nickel and copper corrosion from railing, portholes etc

At the same time, Bluebell joiners carried out a sympathetic refurbishment of the showcases in compliance with our conservation specification.

The last task of the whole operation was the return of the models back to Horsted Keynes, where they were reunited with their showcases. We also applied a UV/safety film on Whippingham’s showcase to protect the model from the effects of direct sunlight until it’s moved to its new light-controlled home in Sheffield Park station.

Our original plans for a Period III livery scheme (1940-49) were changed when Adrian Ashby, painter and leader of the Duchess support crew, had the idea of recreating the Coronation Scot livery to match the Streamlined 6229. This is what we did – and the carriage will now be coupled behind Duchess of Hamilton for the LMS Shuttle Weekend this weekend. The carriage will then be on display in Great Hall.

The 5987LMS 3rd Brake in 2001 in Standard LMS livery.

The repainting of the 5987 gave us the opportunity for an application of varnish fix transfers: it was and still is common practice to apply the Company Crest, and frequently numbers and letters, using special transfers. If you’re familiar with railway or airfix models, the method has similarities with the application of water-based transfers, only in full scale rather than on a 00-gauge model.

"Publicity That Sticks". Application instructions on the back of a historical tansfer dated 1957

The transfers are produced using screen-printing methods from companies specialised in railway transfer insignia. Although transfers come with instructions, the LMS Carriage Association has produced a technical sheet with a detailed description of the method.

Taking no risks. We tried several different varnish/solvent mixes and drying times before the actual application.

The application of the transfers took place in two stages. We used a test panel to try different mixes of varnish and drying times. Once we found the ideal formula, we applied two LMS crests to the centre of the vehicle’s sides.

The LMS Crest transfer on the side of the carriage. The final coat of gloss is yet to be applied.

Instead of boring you with how we did it, we shot a quick video that we hope will be self-explanatory.

A future post will be dedicated to the conservation work carried out on the LMS 3rd Brake.

Gillian Walker and her team are working on three paintings for us so that we can include them in the forthcoming exhibition. The works required a range of measures from cleaning (general dirt and well as old yellowing varnish, originally used to protect the paint surface) to relining (to give extra support to a degraded and fragile canvas) to infilling of paint losses. It was a fascinating morning watching the conservators at work and quizzing them about how it all happens. My colleague Lynn took plenty of photographs of the conservation, and here are a few of them.

Gillian Walker and assistant Lucy work on two paintings from the NRM collection

Peveril Castle by Leonard Campbell Taylor

Peveril Castle by Leonard Campbell Taylor

This painting was dirty and the varnish had yellowed with age. The wooden stretcher to which the canvas was attached was distorted and the canvas had become slack.

Treatment: the stretcher around which the canvas is wrapped has been cleaned and polished. The old keys (small triangular pieces of wood which fit into the inner corners of the stretcher to keep it correctly aligned) have been removed. The reverse of the canvas is cleaned with a conservation vac and a smoke sponge as shown below. Once this has been done new keys are fitted and tied into place.

Removal of old keys from the stretcher of Peveril Castle by Leonard Campbell Taylor

The reverse of Peveril Castle by Leonard Campbell Taylor during cleaning

This painting had extremely discoloured varnish as well as many years of dirt and dust which obscured the original paint colours and gave a grubby yellow appearance. Gillian and her team have done the cleaning in three stages for us (see below). On the left the area is as it was, with both dirt and varnish present. The central section has had the dirt removed but the varnish remains. The right hand side has been surface cleaned and the varnish removed, with striking results revealing the bright blue original colour. Once the dirt and varnish have been completely removed, the painting will be given a new coat of clear varnish to protect the paint surface.

Peveril Castle by Leonard Campbell Taylor during cleaning

Edinburgh by George Henry

Edinburgh by George Henry

There were two tears in the canvas that had been historically repaired with two bulky patches which needed replacing. The stretcher was unstable and distorted and the canvas had become slack over time. There were beginning to be some areas of paint loss. The edges of the canvas had become brittle.

Treatment: The edges of the canvas were in a poor state and needed reinforcing. Gillian has removed the painting from its stretcher and strip lined it. This is the process of adding strips of a light-weight polyester fabric to the edges of the canvas in order to reinforce it and allow it to be safely reattached to the stretcher. The strips are attached with a heat activated synthetic resin and the process is reversible.

Edinburgh by George Henry is strip-lined

The stretcher has been refurbished in preparation for the canvas to be reattached. The stretcher had shrunk with age and the canvas had slackened. The stretcher has therefore been extended on two sides to provide a better fit for the canvas and provide better support. This will stop the canvas sagging. A loose linen lining will also be added to the stretcher to give further support to the canvas.

The stretcher for Edinburgh by George Henry is refurbished and loose lined with linen.

The reverse of the canvas has had two old bulky patches removed where the canvas had been torn and these have been replaced with new fine polyester non-woven fabric which is much lighter. Over time the old bulky patches can become visible on the front of the painting.

Bulky patch removed from the reverse of Edinburgh by George Henry.

Northern Ireland, Dunluce Castle by Julius Olsson

Northern Ireland, Dunluce Castle by Julius Olsson

The canvas was very slack and distorted causing creasing and paint loss to the top of the painting. The painting needed removing from its canvas so that the stretcher could be refurbished and the canvas reinforced. The areas of paint loss will be infilled and retouched.

Treatment: Gillian has lined the inside edges of the canvas – strip-lining – to give it extra support. The stretcher has been cleaned and polished and lined with a piece of linen ready for the painting to be reattached. The extra linen lining which will sit underneath the painting gives the fragile canvas support. The painting is replaced onto its stretcher using copper tacks (the use of copper ensures that they wont rust). Gillian replaces the keys with new ones and they are attached to the stretcher to stop them from falling out.

Northern Ireland, Dunluce Castle by Julius Olsson is reattached to its stretcher.

Once all of the structural work is complete, the paint losses, which are numerous in this painting, are infilled using a chalk based filler and a pallet knife. The fillings will later be retouched with powder pigments ground in a synthetic resin. The painting will be sprayed with a varnish of synthetic resin to protect the paint layer and enhance the colours.

Infilling paint loss to the surface of Northern Ireland, Dunluce Castle by Julius Olsson

Thanks to Gillian and Lucy for allowing us to photograph their work, and for providing details of the conservation processes described here.

Our Deltic, Number 55 002 “King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry” (KOYLI for short), has been undergoing a thorough rehabilitation at the hands of Pete Stojanovic and friends, and is nearing the significant date of a start up.

All major components are now back together and the power units now just require connecting up to the fuel, oil and coolant systems. Number 1 main generator will be finished in the next few days and so should testing of the electrical circuits and cubicles.

This afternoon I was shown progress by Pete, Stuart Page and Steve Plowman, who hope that a start up for the loco will be possible in the next few weeks. They have been slowly charging batteries up in readiness, and Pete and Stuart were checking individual cells.

Back in 1998, I stood in the South Yard and watched D9000 take 55 002 away for the ill-fated restoration that was not completed. Now, 13 years on, 55 002 is about to make a comeback, and it’s all credit to the small team who have raised money and worked long hours to make it possible. Look out for KOYLI, it will be worth it!

55 002 is now in the triangle area of the Great Hall for all to see.

Pete checks the battery levels - some are fighting his attempts to resurrect them!

A quick look inside the body towards number 2 engine – all this area has been repainted and I felt I should have put slippers on before entering.

Some of Pete's work on No.1 generator. Almost a shame to use it...

I’ll try to let you know about everything as it happens. We’ve have had the Class 306 electric unit go to Eastleigh for asbestos stripping, the Class 108 DMU depart York for the East Lancashire Railway, and a Turkish 8F loco arrive for display about Shildon (which will be the subject of another post).

In addition, Stirling Single No.1 has arrived for display for the first time at Shildon after a very successful near-six-month run of “The Railway Children” play at Waterloo in London. On 21 January, we took the opportunity to pose the loco with its new tender, which is at Shildon for restoration. These days, the loco is usually paired with a small capacity Sturrock tender, which it was given on first restoration in 1910! This is technically incorrect for the engine, a fact which has been known since the 1960s at least, when an original large capacity Great Northern tender was identified and saved for the nation to be paired with the loco.

Now, over forty years on, the “new” tender’s time for repair has come, and we hope that this image will give an idea of what is to be. Naturally, donations to help us achieve this are always most welcome!

At 9am on Friday morning, No.1 was pulled out of the Collections building at Shildon as part of a shunting move, coupled to its smaller tender with "Cornwall" behind.

The weeks have passed so quickly here at the Conservation Department that it came as a surprise that the end of my placement is imminent.

Work on the “Shark” model has quickened, with cleaning of old adhesives from the main and detached parts a priority. Thankfully most of the adhesive used was animal or “scotch” glue, easily removed using simply water and a little gentle heat usually from a close light source, or even from (gloved) fingers.

Replacement glue was obtained and trialled (important that it is conservation grade – i.e. easily reversible) with differing types and strengths. It was decided to use animal glue again – it’s very strong if used correctly, but it’s applied hot and cools rapidly, so correct positioning of parts is crucial.

Removal of old adhesive

Replacement parts for the missing items were made from suitable wood with discrete labels applied to allow for later identification of new parts.

The parts were assembled without glue in a dry run, to ensure that the positions were correct. They were then colour matched to be slightly different to the original, assisting identification. Other areas where there was damage due to paint loss or very friable decoration were consolidated and then colour matched. Damage caused by wood splitting was rectified. Finally, the new and old parts were assembled and fitted using animal glue until, for the first time for many years, “Shark” appeared as a whole model.

New and original parts checked for pre-assembly tender

Pre assembly: locomotive

Assembly: concentration and a steady hand

The problem with what to do with one or two loose items which it wasn’t possible to locate with any confidence was solved by packaging them and placing under a new removable section of “coal”. A plinth was made, the track sections assembled and “Shark” positioned.

Coal replacement, storage of detached parts

One of the major issues with any conservation task is the ethical question of how much to restore or clean an object. With “Shark”, full consideration of this was documented in a conservation plan and agreed with Stathis prior to commencing any work.

It was agreed that there would be minimal intervention, that loose parts would be re-installed, and missing parts made. Friable surfaces would be consolidated, and paint loss replaced with acrylic paint. Cleaning would be dry only to avoid removing the patina of possibly 100 – 150 years age. All work would be reversible.

One of the most interesting parts of the work on restoring and conserving “Shark” has been thinking about the original maker. Due to time constraints very little research was carried out apart from what was in front of me. There is probably a lot more research to be done. The original workmanship, while appearing somewhat crude, was done with great care and accuracy, probably by a railway worker in the mid 19th century. They probably worked with no electric light and certainly no power tools, but with a good understanding of the original locomotive and its working parts. Why was it modelled? Who modelled it? Where did they live? How old were they? Were they a driver or fireman of “Shark”?

Probably the only thing I can be certain of is that “Shark” was not used as a maker’s sales model, as these were made from metal, usually in the factory and to engineering drawings and standards. The same would be true if it was made by apprentices as a test piece, or a trophy for the boardroom. It wasn’t a toy, and is fairly delicate and rested on only a short piece of display track. “Shark” must have been made by a person wanting to keep the memory of the locomotive alive, for themselves or their family. Someone experiencing the industrial revolution in its heyday, but probably living in conditions that today many would think of as poverty, working extraordinarily long hours with little or no chance for leisure pursuits.

I have not yet found another model of this type, and I am sure the museum would welcome any comments or additional information to add to our knowledge of a charming object, full of social history.

“Shark” conserved and restored

By necessity, work on “Shark” has had to take priority, but I have had the opportunity to carry out other interesting work during my short time at York, gaining an understanding of conservation of large and small objects in a national collection. The work has ranged from assisting with the return of advertising posters from an exhibition, to joining the team cleaning the frames and wheels of  “Green Arrow” after its return from Locomotion, prior to display in the Great Hall.

Conservation team cleaning Green Arrow in the steaming bay – very cold!

Green Arrow: job done

Finally I like to thank Stathis and his hard working team and the many others too numerous to mention who have been very willing to assist and help, encouraging me and showing great patience. It has been an experience I will not forget.

The NRM conservation team