Navigation

The Electric Railway Museum's class 308 BDT at the Lea Valley Experience, Walthamstow now has a fully protected roof, with all potential rust spots patch painted.

There have been several week evening work parties on the 308, plus a full day on Saturday. One of the main tasks has been to attend to the roof, which has been peeling paint badly in areas. We made the decision to treat just the patches at this stage, though eventually the whole roof will need to be stripped properly and repainted. This has required careful scraping & brushing of the affected areas, and treatment with priming paint. The whole length has now been thus treated, and should last a couple of years until we can get down to an intensive removal of all old paint and applying all over coats of primer, undercoat and topcoats.

The cab roof has also been attended to, with two thirds of it now given a coat of black fibreglass paint, and it's looking good! The next major painting job will be the body sides.

Lower down, work has continued on the electrics and inspections of the wheel bearings, and we have also started looking at the front end where large rust holes have developed over time, and will need careful treatment. At present, the preferred option is to use gauze and filler to speed up the cosmetic restoration.